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Peter Pärt - Mission report from Interservice meeting Environment and Health in Brussels on 5 November 2009

2009-11-18T00:00:00Z

Ad Hoc group on Health and the Environment of theInterservice Group on Health (Chairman:Michael Hübel, DG SANCO, C4)

Participants:

Canice Nolan (SANCO), Laurent Bontoux (SANCO), Birgit vanTongelen (ENV), Giulio Gallo (SANCO), Natasha Grenier (SANCO), Tomas Turecki(RTD), Tuomo Karjalainen (RTD), Anne Donohoe (RELEX), Jean Ferriere (SG), PaulSpeight (ENV, 2^nd meeting)

1. 5^thWHO Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, Parma, Italy. Report fromthe EEHC (WHO European Environment and Health Committee) meeting in Parma 14-15October 2009.

· The 5^th WHO Ministerial conferencedates are 10-12 March 2010

· The Ministerial Declaration. The text of theMinisterial Declaration is far from finished. A draft text agreed inAndorra has been abandoned and a new version based on a proposal from Norway isin preparation. The new text will be a short version of the Andorra text. Thecurrent text has no clear indications on the future of the WHO E&H process.However, this may change with Ms Zsuzsanna Jakab as the new Regional Directorof WHO-Europe from February 2010, and with Environment and Health is one of herpriorities. The E&H process will likely continue and a new MinisterialConference is already planned for 2015. The current text contains a paragraphon climate change and the WHO member states are pushing to include theestablishment of a climate changeclearinghouse as part of the Ministerial declaration. A clearinghouse isalready included in the Commission White Paper on CC adaptation and theCommission is not in favor of duplications of efforts, particularly since EUMember States represent more than 50% of WHO-Europe. SANCO is working on how tophrase the paragraph. There is still space for the Commission to includeadditional text in the declaration and proposals for this should be made to DGSANCO (Michael Hübel). The delay in the Declaration is a complication forCommission and in the planning of Commission participation in the Parma conference.Mr Hübel expects a high level meeting in early Jan and a 2^nd meetingbefore March to finalise the Declaration. The new draft texts will becirculated for comments.

· Commissioners. ThreeCommissioners, Environment, Health and Research, will represent the EuropeanCommission. The time slots for the Commissioners in the program are not fixedyet and are currently the subject of negotiations.

· Side events. The Commission isplanning to have a number of side events. One joint SANCO-WHO event on injury prevention,one SANCO event on tobacco, one JRC event on indoor air quality. DG RTD willhave 2 events, one on emerging issues and one on pan-European cohorts. TheItalian hosts want to organise a side event together with EFSA on climatechange and food safety. DG ENV may support an event on human biomonitoringplanned by the COPHES consortium. The formal dead line for proposing events wasend of October but has been extended to end of November.

· Posters. The Commission willhave a large stand in the exhibition area where different DGs can presentrelevant work. Every interested DG should nominate a contact person, preferableone in the PR sector who is used to organise stands at this kind of events. DGSANCO, RTD and ENV have already expressed interest to be present and for JRC itremains to be decided.

· Youth event. The Ministerialconferences include a specific youth program. The Italian government willprovide specific economic support for youth participation. Youth delegates willbe included in the national delegations. There will be an awards ceremonyincluding youth and DG SANCO is working to have the Commissioner of Health tohand out the youth award.

· On a direct question from MrNolan (SANCO) – there are no problems for non-Europeans to join the conference.Interested parties should contact the WHO-Europe secretariat.

· The EEA has been asked by EEHC(European Environment and Health Committee managed by WHO) to collaborate withWHO to produce a report on 20 year of Environment and Health for the MinisterialConference, listing achievements and problems. EEA is coming stronger and stronger in the EuropeanEnvironment and Health process, probably also because the chair of EEHC, MrGlinni, is also the deputy chairman of the EEA management board. This developmentis welcomed by DG SANCO.

2. Report from Commission activities in the Environment and Health area

DG ENV.

Birgit van Tongelen: The week 30November – 4 December will be theEuropean Human Biomonitoring week. On 30 November is the final workshop of the joint DG JRC-DG ENV projecton the technical preparation of a European Human Biomonitoring Project. On 1December is the kick-off meeting of the COPHES project financed by DG RTD.COPHES stands for COnsortium to Perform Humanbiomonitoring on a European Scale. On 2^nd December thereis an informal Member State meeting within the Commission Environment andHealth Action Plan and on 3^rd December there is a Environment andHealth Consultative forum. Member States have submitted a proposal under Life+program, DEMO-COPHES, which is dealing with the analytical part of the COPHESproject. Mr Gallo (SANCO) remarks that Human Biomonitoring will be stronglyendorsed by the WHO Ministerial Declaration and there will be a request on theneed for the development of guideline values for biomarkers.

Biocides andanti-microbiological resistance (AMR). Under thebiocides directive there is an evaluation of all active substances in biocidesfor their health and environmental risks. However, AMR is not included in theevaluation although recent scientific findings indicate that biocides caninduce AMR. DG ENV has requested aSCENHIR opinion on biocides and the specific aspect of AMR. Mr Bontoux(SANCO) points out that in general the issue of biocides and their risks isan example of a typical Environment and Health issue. We need information onmany levels to close the life cycle. Many thousand (or even million) tonnes ofbiocides are used in Europe every year, in households and in industry. Thereare question marks about substances and their use, about exposure, about risks,about public health consequences and about environmental impacts. SCHENHIR hasbeen asked to provide a clear opinion on this and also to propose a way forwardbased on current knowledge gaps. AMR is getting political importance and ECDCorganises on 18 November the European Antibiotics Awareness Day to highlightissues on use and abuse of antibiotics.

DG ENV is currently financing a literature study on Biodiversity and Human Health. Theobjectives are on 1) biodiversity and infectious diseases 2) biodiversity as asource of medicines.

A Frame Work Directive(FWD) on the sustainable use of pesticides is under way. The FWD closes a legislative gap bridging several pesticiderelated directives. The FWD was voted in the Environment Council in Septemberand will soon be published in the official journal.

DG JRC

I reported on indoor air an area in which JRC has a strong activityand that JRC colleagues are currently in Bonn at the final WHO meeting to establishguidelines for indoor air quality. I also reported on the joint JRC/EEAReference Report on Environment and Health which is under production and willafter review be available in the first quarter of 2010. The report will feed in“Environment and Health” related parts in the European Environment Agency Stateof Environment in Europe Report 2010 (SOER 2010).

DG RTD

DG RTD (Health Directorate) will in the 6^th call of FP7(2011) fund a health examination survey and this includes some biomonitoring aspects.They are also planning to fund large cohort studies in the end of FP7.

A number of E&H related projects have started or are innegotiation. The VIROCLIME project studies the impacts of climate change onfate and transport of viral pathogens in the aquatic environment. SEAWINDassesses exposure and risks of radiation from wireless network devices. COPHES– a European Biomonitoring network (mentioned earlier). TRANSPHORM healtheffects of transport related air pollution, including emissions from shipping.

Current there are a number of E&H related open calls:

· Indoor air quality in officebuildings.

· New models for assessingexposure to pesticides.

· Impact of pharmaceuticals inthe environment, which also may include biocides.

· Africa call – general denominatorfor Africa related projects covering many RTD directorates. In the E&H area- Impact of environmental changes and climate on the distribution on vectorborne diseases in Africa.

· Health effects of Green housegas mitigation policies.

DG SANCO

EMF is still an issue.The scientific assessments are reassuring and we can on good grounds assumethat not any major public health issue will come out from EMF exposure.Scientifically we are close to give comprehensive picture. However, a group ofpeople is using scientific uncertainty to question the recommendations and iscreating political pressure on several levels to revise the existingrecommendation for the exposure of the public and to set them to extremely lowlevels. SANCO is pushing RTD to launch a large prospective cohort study, whichcould give an answer in 10-15 years. Case controls studies have not thecapacity to provide information additional to our current knowledge. Mr Turecki (RTD) proposes to combinethe cohort study with the planned health examination survey. Mr Karjalainen(RTD) notes that the ERA-net tool can be used to combine Member State andCommission efforts particularly concerning large cohorts.

Indoor air quality. WHO is finalising, as mentioned, the work on indoor air qualityguidelines which is an important imput for the Commission work on indoor airquality. SANCO has launched a call for tender (4 million Euro) on indoorquality in schools including the indoor air pollutants mentioned in theguidelines and potential health effects. SANCO is through and externalcontractor carrying out an impact analysis of the three SANCO related action inthe E&H Action Plan 2004-2010; indoor air quality, EMF and training ofprofessionals. The evaluation will be ready in 7-8 months and will be includedin the progress report of the E&H Action Plan. SANCO is reorganising totake a total grip on the complexity of the built environment by a multifactorialapproach including indoor environment (air quality, noise, radiation, injuryprevention) but also with bearings on the urban environment and urban planning.

Mr Nolan informs that he is a member ofa US round table on Environment and Health organised by Institute of Medicineof US National Academy of Sciences. He can act as a bridge between E&H workin Europe and the US.

Mr Bontoux informs that DG ENV hasfinanced a study on the assessment of toxicity of mixtures. Methodology iscoming online. Possible to analyse real life situations of low level exposuresin complex situation. He underlines also importance of Information Systems tocome further in the E&H area. Progress has been slow and we need to investmore in this area. In the future we may see environmental determinants ofhealth as a parallel to social and economic determinants of health.

3. The Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010

The Commission is producing a progress report on the implementationthe E&H Action Plan. The aimis to present progress after the mid term review in 2006 and to assess theoutcome of the whole Action Plan since 2004. Furthermore, to propose actionsafter 2010 and to clearly indicate that the issue of E&H is not finishedwith the current action plan. The aim is to present the progress report inParma. The chairman proposes that the document currently is given the status ofa staff working paper. The document will be presented and discussed at theConsultative forum on 3^rd December and will after revision be put inInterservice consultation. Later, the new Commission has to decide on thedirections of a new action plan and which follow up points should be givenpriority.

4. Any other business

With no other business themeeting closed at 11.45.

DG ENV led informalmeeting on the future of the Environment and Health Action Plan post 2010

(Chair: Paul Speight, DG ENV, D4)

Present: Michael Hübel (SANCO), Birgit van Tongelen (ENV), GiulioGallo (SANCO), Tuomo Karjalainen (RTD), Thomas Turecki (RTD).

The objective of the meeting was to discuss the draft progressreport prepared by DG ENV. There was a general discussion on the text and onthe presentation of the different topics. SANCO suggested that the link to theWHO European Environment and Health process should be more clearly indicated.They also felt the text to be too technical in some parts, particularly bearingin mind that it was going to be presented for a larger audience in Parma. Itwas agreed that DG ENV should revise the text and send a new version by thenext day for final comments. After this final round the document will be sentto the Consultative Forum and later, as mentioned, to interserviceconsultation.

There are many question marks concerning the continuation or followup of the 2004-2010 Action plan. One is if E&H will be a priority of thenew Commission although it appears likely that the Environment and Health workwill continue in one form or another. Therefore, we should start to collectideas for a follow up. The group agreed to begin with a Commission brainstormand also including DGs which until now have not been included in the E&Hdiscussions. At the same time keep an open communication with DG SEC GEN tounderstand in what direction the winds are blowing. We should preferably havethe broad lines ready in early March in order to the to prepare the speakingnotes for the Commissioners in Parma. Early January is proposed for this firstCommission “brainstorm” on future E&H issues.

How to label files and versions when uploading (DJ and PP 26.10.2009)

2009-10-26T00:00:00Z

Dear colleagues,

We would like to propose a common way of labeling draftcontributions to the EH report. The proposal to name files is as follow:

‘Topic’ ‘draft’ ‘0’ ‘(initials of the author)’

Authors: initialsof the authors indicate a person who provided a contribution, or in case ofcontributions with several co-authors, a name of person who submitted/uploadedthe file. They do not necessarily indicate a leading author.

Topic: a word orabbreviation, for example: EMF, noise, EH info, NBS (for nano-bio-science), IAQ(for indoor air quality).

Just to exemplify the principle we take the Chapter Nature,Health and Well-Being (NHVB). Authors: Dorota Jarosinska (DJ) and Peter Pärt(PP) (Not uploaded yet)

NHVB draft 0 (DJ): Thefirst draft uploaded by Dorota

NHVB draft1 (DJ) New,developed version, uploaded by Dorota (in case there is one).

NHVB draft 2 (editors) Newversion after editing by Editorial group

NHVB draft 3(DJ) Dorota’scomments/revision of the edited version

NHVB draft 4(final)(editors) Thedraft final version which will be send to external reviewers

NHVB draft 5(DJ) (final) Thefinal version, taking into account comments from external reviewers

NHVB draft 6(final)(editors) Thefinal version to go to print

NHVB-Case“Green gym” draft 0 (PP) “Factsquare” on Green gym’s authored by Peter

NHVB-Case“Green gym” draft 1 (editors) Editorialcomments/suggestions

NHVB-Case“Green gym” draft 2 (PP) Peter’smodification approval of the edited version.

…. (tofollow the same rules as draft sections)

Number: indicatesconsecutive versions of the draft, starting with 0

In cases, where for one topic there is more than one draftcontributions, files should be numbered in the following way:

0 (for the number of the version of the draft).1. (toindicate ‘part’/’sub-section’).

For example: NBS draft0.1. (BSK); NBS draft 0.2. (DR)

In this case ‘0’implies this is the first draft of part ‘1’ and of part ‘2’, prepared bydifferent authors. Once the draft is revised by the author it would become, forexample: NBS draft 1.1. (BSK), then draft 2.1. (BSK), etc…

Please remember also that the EHReport portal allows addingcomments when you upload the files, so any additional, explanatory informationmay be inserted there.

Please note that external review process will be runseparately, so this archiving system applies to the internal work of ourproject team.

We will also upload this short guidance on the portal, under‘Project management’.