Impairment of the environment and its effects on human health - Second symposium of Members of Parliament, Specialist in Public Health
Recommendation 660
(1972)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 21 and 22 January 1972 (18th and 19th Sittings) (see Doc. 3061, report of the Committee on Social and Health Questions). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1972 (19th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having taken note of the resolutions of the Second Symposium of Members of Parliament Specialists in Public Health ;
2. Considering that the rapid development of science and technology in industry, agriculture, transport and the other sectors of human activity is a factor contributing to the improvement of the standard of living, and that this trend should accordingly continue ;
3. Considering, however, that technical progress and methods of industrial production have contributed extensively to the deterioration of the environment which threatens the health of the individual ;
4. Considering that national laws on the production, composition and marketing of foodstuffs are in most cases inadequate for the long-term protection of the health of consumers ;
5. Recalling, in this regard, the proposals appended to its
Recommendation 641 (1971), which concern not only the protection of animals in intensive rearing, but also the protection of consumers of meat and milk products ;
6. Considering that concerted action should be taken at regional, national and international level to protect the health of the individual against the harmful effects of the deterioration of the environment ;
7. Considering that the harmful effects of noise on man's physical and mental health are constantly increasing ;
8. Conscious of the fact that the protection and improvement of the standards of environmental health are very costly, and being of the opinion that the political parties should encourage and support the public authorities in those important tasks which cannot be carried out except with the financial assistance of each tax-payer,
9. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
9.1
a submit to the governments of member States the resolutions of the Second Symposium of Members of Parliament Specialists in Public Health ;
b instruct the competent committee(s) of government experts to co-operate with the other organisations concerned, notably OECD and WHO, in drawing up scientific and technical standards, and in preparing the legal ground for an effective action at national and international levels against the harmful repercussions of the modern world on the environment, and especially on the health of the individual ;
c continue the work of drawing up standards of food hygiene from the production stage to that of consumption, as has already been undertaken by the competent intergovernmental committees of the Council of Europe, with the ultimate aim of harmonising legislation and regulations in this sphere;
d promote, in particular from the toxicological angle, national and international research :
on the innocuousness of intentional and unintentional food additives ;
on the effects on human health of the use of certain therapeutic veterinary and anabolising products in animal rearing ;
on the effects on foodstuffs of certain packaging materials ;
on the effects of cosmetic products ;
e extend the mandate of the present European Information Centre for Nature Conservation :
to include the health aspects of environment among its information and education activities ;
to report in its regular publications on the progress made and experience acquired in member States ;
9.2 invite member governments :
a to promote :
the establishment in each country of a national body responsible for promoting and co-ordinating the work of all environmental health services ;
the employment in government services of a competent staff sufficiently numerous to combat the threat to the health of the individual springing from the present state of the environment ;
the organisation of university and postgraduate and other courses to train the personnel required by the authorities for carrying out effectively their environmental health functions with particular regard to technological developments ;
b to work out and fix maximum noise levels as proposed by the Committee of Ministers in its Resolution (69) 1, and to introduce the laws and regulations necessary for their strict enforcement ;
c to draw up European legislation accompanied by strict control measures, relating to the various aspects of the sale of foodstuffs ;
d to supply, through mass media and in co-operation with the national agencies of the European Information Centre for Nature Conservation, as full information as possible on questions pertaining to environmental health, in order to stimulate support and co-operation on the part of the public for measures designed to improve the quality of the environment.
