NEWS & MEDIA

Responding to the European Commission's delayed proposal for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation (SUR), HEAL and several health groups caution that the measures set by the new plan will not achieve a meaningful reduction of Europe's dependency on synthetic pesticides.

A HEAL report published today shows that scientific evidence that glyphosate is carcinogenic has so far been dismissed in the EU scientific assessment that will form the basis for the re-approval discussion of its EU market license.

Health and environmental organisations have expressed severe concerns after the European Chemicals Agency’s Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) concluded that the widely-used pesticide-active substance glyphosate does not meet the criteria to be labeled as a carcinogenic or genotoxic agent.

Health groups have welcomed Belgium’s first-ever draft national action plan on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as an important step towards better identification of and health protection against the risks associated to exposure to such harmful substances.

HEAL has sent a letter to EU energy ministers ahead of their meeting on 27 June 2022 calling on them to end the EU’s fossil fuel dependency for better health.

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.