Strategic elements

  1. The environment should be managed as a positive resource for human health and wellbeing.
    In order to protect health comprehensive strategies are required, including, inter alia,  the following elements.
    • The responsibilities of public and private bodies for implementing appropriate measures should be clearly defined at all levels.
    • Control measures and other tools should be applied, as appropriate, to reduce risks to health and wellbeing from environmental factors. Fiscal, administrative and economic instruments and land-use planning have a vital role to play in promoting environmental conditions conducive to health and wellbeing and should be used for that purpose.
    • Better methods of prevention should be introduced as knowledge expands, including the use of the most appropriate and cost-effective technologies and, if necessary, the imposition of bans.
    • Low-impact technology and products and the recycling and reuse of wastes should be encouraged. Changes should be made, as necessary, in raw materials, production processes and waste management techniques.
    • High standards of management and operation should be followed to ensure that appropriate technologies and best practices are applied, that regulations and guidance are adhered to, and that accidents and human failures are avoided.
    • Appropriate regulations should be promulgated; they should be both enforceable and enforced.
    • Standards should be set on the basis of the best available scientific information. The cost and benefit of action or lack of action and feasibility may also have to be assessed but in all cases risks should be minimized.
    • Comprehensive strategies should be developed that take account of the risks to human health and the environment arising from chemicals. These strategies should include, inter alia,  registration procedures for new chemicals and systematic examination of existing chemicals.
    • Contingency planning should be undertaken to deal with all types of serious accident, including those with transfrontier consequences.
    • Information systems should be strengthened to support monitoring of the effectiveness of measures taken, trend analysis, priority-setting and decision-making.
    • Environmental impact assessment should give greater emphasis to health aspects. Individuals and communities directly affected by the quality of a specific environment should be consulted and involved in managing that environment.
  2. Medical and other relevant disciplines should be encouraged to pay greater attention to all aspects of environmental health. Environmental toxicology and environmental epidemiology are key tools of environmental health research and should be strengthened and further developed as special disciplines within the Region.
  3. Interdisciplinary research programmes in environmental epidemiology with the aim of clarifying links between the environment and health should be encouraged and strengthened at regional, national and international levels.
  4. The health sector should have responsibility for epidemiological surveillance through data collection, compilation, analysis and risk assessment of the health impact of environmental factors and for informing other sectors of society and the general public of trends and priorities.
  5. National and international programmes of multidisciplinary training, as well as the provision of health education and information for public and private bodies, should be encouraged and strengthened.