30/11/2007 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 30.11.2007 - According to the experts speaking today in Paris at a hearing on environmental health risks, held by the PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, 30% of Europeans suffer from environmental illnesses, and 4 to 9% even suffer from serious ailments having environmental causes. "This has a considerable cost for health insurance schemes" said PACE rapporteur Jean Huss (Luxembourg, SOC), who hopes that this argument will help make governments more aware of the need for a genuine prevention and environmental health strategy.
Environmental illnesses have many causes, which the experts present cited as ranging from mercury in dental fillings, DEHP - a phthalate and the most commonly used plasticizer - and asbestos to electromagnetic fields and designer foods. The illnesses are also very diverse, encompassing allergies, respiratory problems and asthma, reproductive problems, certain degenerative diseases of the nervous system and certain forms of cancer, not to mention new conditions such as "sick building syndrome". The experts called inter alia for the introduction of a Europe-wide warning system allowing enhanced consultation between "whistleblower" doctors and the scientific and political communities and, above all, the active involvement of NGOs.