Suming up
Jean HUSS
President AKUT asbl
In June 2003 the European Commission published a European strategy paper on “environment and health” which aimed to reduce any xx nuisance in the European Union and to identify and avoid any new risk on health and environment. This strategy intends to undermine the political volunteer. During june 2004 the European commission adopted a communication relative to a “European Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010 which was presented on the 4. ministerial conference WHO-Europe in Budapest
On December 2nd and 3th 2004, under the Dutch presidency of the council of the European Union, an international conference took place in Egmont-aan-Zee in order to analyse and identify the objectives and the action orientations of the action plan. The main objective was to sustain the implementation of the action plan by dressing a priority list on the actions and obligations that the different member states qualified to be elementary and important.
During the conference in Egmont-aan-Zee, the following conclusions were retained:
First, it is essential to install a solid European information system relative to “environment and health” questions
“bio-monitoring” systems refers to be essential to acquire data about environment and health and to set up an effective communication strategy in order that the politicians are able to react properly
the seventh framework programme on research mentions that scientific research on relationships between environment and health should be approved and sustained properly, financial means must be available
Formation and training of medical doctors and other professionals involved in health care must be sustained
It seems essential that a large discussion process should be engaged with the civil population especially the ONGs and that a serious and open risk communication should be established
Finally health risks in relation to transport should be minimized
From the beginning the Luxemburgish presidency of the council of the European union was aware that the Dutch presidency by drawing these conclusions had opened the door to allow the right implementation of the Action Plan 2004-2010 of the European Commission.
The Luxemburgish presidency also followed with great interest the discussions that took place during the vote of the report by the European Parliament.
The Luxemburgish presidency of the Council of the European Union emphasizes that a durable implementation of the European action plans “environment and health” is possible only if to conditions are fulfilled:
- The principle of precaution and the resulting preventive measures on behalf of “environment and health” must be primordial.
- a partnership between all the concerned European actors including the Commission, the European and the National Parliaments and the ONGs must be guaranteed.
The conference organised under the Luxemburg presidency following the conference of Egmont –aan-Zee focuses on two points:
- On behalf of “Indoor pollution” the workshop composed by international experts aimed to an improvement of the quality of the investigation through a harmonisation of the measuring and analysing methods for “indoor air quality investigation” and to the elaboration of guidelines that favour the principle of precaution.
Hopefully the results of workshop will fructify and will be useful for the discussion at the group of experts ad hoc of the European Commission for the future publication of a so called “green book”.
In the workshop “environment + health” focussing essentially on the taking care of the concerned patients the following problems have been discussed:The epidemiologic relationship between environmental influences and health problems based on patients and the analyses realised by environmental ambulances.
The lectors insisted on the evidence of the influence of the increasing pollution of the environment on the population health. New studies underline the correlation between increasing pollutions of the environment and the evolution of different illnesses such as cancer, allergies, cardio-vascular problems, trouble of reproduction and neurological illnesses. The lessons learned from the daily work of the “environmental ambulances” confirm this causal relationship. Thus for a global protection of the populations, the conference emphasized the need to promote at a political level but also at every coherent intervention level and particularly on behalf of all kind of impacts by chemicals or by physical nuisances.
For the risks dues to the pollution of the ambient air, a net of environmental ambulances should be organized through Europe, like it has been done in several member states or regions in order to induce a coherent work of control and prevention.
· The impact at these environmental factors on the functions of human organs and on the human functional system
The percentage at illnesses dues to environmental stresses is constantly increasing, rising to a significant socio-economic factor. An important and increasing number of persons especially old people, adolescents, children and babies suffer from an hostile environment (problem at the exposition to low doses on risk groups). The conference in Luxembourg aims to elaborate a scientific coherent and functional diagnostic system at an European level.
· Therapy and medical treatment for patients and basic or continuous formation at medical doctors.
The conference of Luxembourg emphasizes the need to take care of patients that suffer from environmental illnesses and to offer them specific medical cares.
The first step consists in reducing the exposition level which means to avoid every source of contamination. The first experience in treating successfully the environmental patients has already been assembled as well in ambulatory than in stationary environmental medicine.
All theses new knowledge have to be exploited systematically on a scientific level throughout Europe in order to achieve a unique European concept of environmental therapy.
Thus the Luxembourg conference emphasizes the need to define such a unique European concept at environmental medicine.
The university formation in environmental medicine should be offered to medical doctors and to professionals of health care in all the member states.
Interdisciplinary pilot-projects should be sustained. The Luxemburg model, presented at the conference could be source of inspiration and orientation for other member states.
The knowledge acquired during the conference shows clearly that:
- Environmental illnesses are still underestimated or wrongly attributed to psychic or psychosomatic illnesses by traditional medical diagnostics.
- T he individual susceptibility to environmental stress factors vary with the age, sex, genetic polymorphisms of the detoxification systems, the variability of the reactions of the immune and the neurological systems.
- Thus beside the environmental monitoring and the human bio-monitoring, new diagnostic methods to determine the perturbations of functional systems of the human body reveal to be important. Also the risks of perturbation and of multiple or combinatory effects have to be considered.
- Finally, syndromes related to environmental pollutants such as MCS, CFS, fibromyalgia, sensibility to mercury from dental amalgams, electrical sensibility should be considered and new knowledge must be taken into account.