WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Hygiene - No.: 54 - December 2014
Tackling climate change, air pollution and chemicals: European environmental priorities to protect health
Climate change, air pollution and chemicals pose key environmental risks to people’s health that require political action in the European Region, according to members of the European Environment and Health Ministerial Board (EHMB). EHMB held its fifth meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania in July 2014.
EHMB members committed themselves to taking concrete action on environment in the near future to address these health-related priority issues. EHMB will:
- to eliminate the exposure that causes asbestos related diseases and the implementationof the new Minamata Convention on Mercury at the core of negotiations withEuropean countries, in line with European Member States’ commitment in 2010 toeliminate asbestos-related diseases by 2015;
- support the adoption of a global resolution on air quality,initiated by France, Norway and other countries, in 2015; and
- start action to avoid grave health consequences from climate
change, such as diseases and injury from extreme weather events; diarrhoeal diseases from water scarcity or flooding; compromised food security; air pollution; and changing distribution of vector-borne diseases (which is the current 2014 World Health Day motto).
New vector-borne diseases are emerging in the WHO European Region and diseases considered to have been eliminated are returning. Population movement, ecological, climatic and environmental changes, the deterioration of political and socioeconomic situations, and the interruption of action to prevent and control transmission are central to this renewed public health problem. The recent outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya and West Nile virus in countries where these diseases had not occurred before signal the potential threats associated with travel and trade, and with possible climatic changes.
Thus, the motto of the WHO Day 2014 is a key opportunity to engage governments and the people – with special emphasis on people on the move - in protecting health from this resurging threat.
In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fifth Assessment Report “Climate Change 2014”, which marked a new milestone in the assessment of the scientific evidence. Besides, the report indicates increased risks of climate change-related death and illness health consequences of lost work capacity and reduced labour productivity, as well as massive economic damage to infrastructure and livelihoods, including the health facilities, on the global and regional scale.
In line with this, two important events have been conducted for and attended by a considerable number of leading governmental officials, scientists and participants from NGOs: i) a first high level WHO Conference on Health and Climate took place at WHO headquarters in Geneva last August (http://www.who.int/globalchange/mediacentre/ events/climate-health-conference/en/), and ii) the World Health Summit held in Berlin in October (http://www.worldhealthsummit.org/the-summit.html), which focused the central issues climate change and health, and healthy cities.
Andreas Gies and Hans-Guido Mücke
WHO Collaborating Centre for
Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Control
