WHO's environmental and health process aims to draw attention to the importance of environmental issues for health and health impacts on the environment.
Sweden was represented at the conference by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Public Health Authority and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
The Environment and Health Process
World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO / EURO) initiated in 1989 the European Environment and Health Process (EHP). The process is managed by WHO / EURO and the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Environment Committee.
The overall aim of the process is to highlight the importance of environmental issues to health in the work the WHO conducts and health issues to environment in the work of the UNECE. How health is affected by environmental factors is thus the core issue.
Ministerial Conferences
Within the framework of the work, a number of ministerial conferences have been organized, 1989, 1999, 1999, 2004 and 2010. Health and Environment Ministers have been invited. The conferences have, among other things, resulted in ministerial declarations. Sweden has usually participated at civil servant level, which was also the case in Ostrava 2017.
Organization
European Environmental and Health Task Force (EHTF) are to contribute to the implementation and monitoring of the EHP. EHTF consists of two focal points of each Member State, from the health and environment sectors, as well as representatives from international organizations. Sweden is represented in EHTF by the Public Health Agency of Sweden and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
EHP's focus so far
The Ministerial Conference in Budapest in 2004 resulted, inter alia, in the adoption of the "Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe" (CEHAPE) and that Member States undertook to implement actions aimed at children. The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare was mandated to produce a report in the area.
The Ministerial Conference in Parma in 2010 resulted in the so-called Parma Declaration. According to the declaration the work 2010-2016 focus both on the implementation of the Plan for Children's Environment and Health agreed in 2004, and on the following key challenges:
- impact of climate on health and environment
- health risks for children and other vulnerable groups where risks arise due to poor environmental conditions, working or living conditions (especially lack of water and sanitation)
- socio-economic and gender inequalities amplified by the financial crisis
- chronic diseases with the aim to facilitate the lives of those who carry them by developing policy for urban planning, transport, food security and the living and working environment.
- concern over non-degradable, endocrine disruptors and bio accumulative harmful chemicals and (nano) particles
- insufficient resources in parts of the WHO European Region
In 2015, at the so-called Mid-Term Review, Member States met to assess progress in implementing the Parma Agenda and to discuss future directions. See also the report "Improving Environment and Health in Europe: How far have we gotten?".
The Declaration of the Sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, adopted on June 15, 2017, has been negotiated by members, observers and stakeholders, for example in Vienna 2016, where youth organizations were invited. The Ministerial Declaration has two annexes; A compendium of possible actions to advance the implementation of the Ostrava Declaration and on that describes the institutional framework for the European Environment and Health Process.
Seven priorities are identified:
a) Improved air quality
b) Water, sanitation and hygiene
c) Chemicals
d) Waste and contaminated sites
e) Urban environment
f) Climate change
g) Environmentally sustainable health system
Each country undertook to produce a portfolio containing measures to be implemented by 2018. A roadmap and a structure for the continued work are needed. The annex to the Ministerial Declaration which contains possible actions should be seen as an inspiration source. A country's portfolio need not contain all the actions in the Annex and may also contain other actions.