NEWS & MEDIA

Ahead of the Global No Pesticides Day on 3 December, more than 325 civil society organisations from across the globe, institutions and trade unions are publishing today a Joint Statement demanding a ban on the export of hazardous chemicals that are forbidden in the EU.

The European Commission’s proposal on the revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive fails to address the urgency to act, to swiftly reduce the health burden. Reactions from the health community:

46 European civil society organisations urgently demand EU member states and the Commission to ban all PFAS in consumer products by 2025 and across all uses by 2030.

A study carried out in the Italian province of Bolzano-South Tyrol reveals that despite measures taken by local authorities to reduce pesticide pollution, synthetic pesticides that can harm health and the environment are still detected in nearby children's playgrounds and schoolyards.

The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) will appear in the European Court of Justice today to support the European Commission in its defense over the ban of chlorpyrifos-methyl and the scientific assessment that led to it.

More than 115 scientists have asked the World Health Organization for a complete overhaul or withdrawal of the organisation’s draft drinking water guidelines for two of the most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), namely PFOS and PFOA.

HEAL and 14 environmental health organisations call on European governments to keep pressing the European Commission to deliver the promised reforms of the REACH and CLP regulations, and to support the proposal for a new pesticide reduction law.

The Green 10 wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vice President Frans Timmermans, Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, Commissioners Thierry Breton and Virginijus Sinkevičius to express their concern that the Commission’s Letter of Intent listing priority initiatives for 2023 failed to mention a number of the priority legislative files expected for the European Commission to publish in 2023 based on earlier plans by the European Commission.

Health groups call on the leaders of the Western Balkan countries to harmonize national air quality standards with the World Health Organization Global air quality guidelines. Health experts should be actively involved in these decision-making processes to ensure the timely integration of public health measures into environmental policies. Compliance with WHO recommendations brings multiple benefits – reduced incidence of chronic diseases and premature deaths, reduced overall health costs and, most importantly, better health and higher productivity of people.

By using the example of the ongoing assessments of five substances that have long been suspected to disrupt our thyroid function, HEAL's Natacha Cingotti and Angeliki Lyssimachou illustrate the extremely slow pace of and the related weakness in the implementation of Europe’s promises to protect people, animals and wildlife from effects associated to exposure to endocrine disruptors.

Therefore, the Belchatow closure announcement is a milestone for better health protection for the people in Poland and beyond, and shows that there is a growing recognition that coal cannot have a place in a healthy energy future for Poland, or elsewhere. At the same time, there’s no reason for leaning back, as  we have not reached our goal of a coal phase out in the EU by 2030 yet - a date that is scientifically proven to be needed to slow down the climate crisis.

Taking on the plastics challenge in a way that puts health and the environment first to deliver on Europe’s Zero Pollution ambition requires upgrading European regulations on chemicals and articles in which they are used, encompassing the entire lifecycle of plastics.