Archived press release

Ministers Ignore Major Health Threats

16 June 1999

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 9.30 - Wednesday 16th June, QE11 Centre, Westminster:Protestors dressed in chemical protective suits will be outside the opening of the Conference.

A Europe-wide Ministerial Conference on Health and the Environment - which Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott is opening today - will be a major missed opportunity to clean-up the environment and improve public health, says Friends of the Earth. Although tobacco smoke and injuries feature on the agenda, most major environmental threats to people's health - including industrial pollution, hormone disrupting chemicals and contaminated foods - will be ignored by Health and Environment Ministers attending the conference. The Ministers are also ignoring the health threat posed by antibiotic marker genes in GM food.

Preparation for the conference, organised by the World Health Organisation, has been dogged by politicians fighting to prevent discussions on core issues. This has led to issues such as hormone disrupting chemicals being dropped as a priority issue for action. The Children's Health and the Environment paper was due to contain the following text: “There is increasing evidence that many chemicals released into the environment have the ability to interfere with the functioning of the endocrine system, producing effects such as cancer,reproductive disorders, immune dysfunction and neurological effects.” However, the final text will not contain these words.

Charles Secrett, Executive Director, at Friends of the Earth said:
“ Health Ministers from across Europe are deliberately missing out on a huge opportunity to improve public health by ignoring serious environmental threats.We need a coherent set of action plans to tackle these environmental threats which jeopardise so many people's health. Instead we are faced with politicians who avoid the real issues, such as contaminated food and hormone disrupting chemicals. Ministers must treat environmental pollution and degradation seriously to prevent this major cause of ill health in the UK and throughout Europe.”

Details of environmental health threats which will and will not be discussed at the conference is available from Friends of the Earth.
Analysis of WHO papers

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust