On 18 January 2005, the Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament discussed the issue of monitoring autism in the EU raised by the open question to the Commission posed by Kathy Sinnott (ID, IRL).
The Commission representative said that the Commission was not monitoring or planning to monitor the incidence of autism throughout the EU. However, one of the priorities of the 2005 Work Plan for the implementation of the Public Health Programme concerns information and definition of indicators on non-psychiatric brain diseases, including autism.
Ms Sinnott stated that autism had become an epidemic in Europe and as such came under the competence of the European Commission.
An epidemic is defined as a significant increase in the incidence of a condition such that there is an occurrence rate of 1 person per 200 in a specified population. Ms Sinnott stated that some estimates from the UK indicate that autism is now occurring in more than 1 in 80 children. Yet, the the incidence rates for autism in Europe were last updated in the 1980s.
Ms Sinnot pointed out that in the US, where autism is occurring in more than 1 in 50 children, it had been acknowledged an epidemic and each state was obliged to report the incidence rates at least once a year. She expressed her concerns about Commission’s lack of urgency and called on it to follow the American example.
Other MEPs, including John Bowis (UK, PPE), Irena Belohorska (NI; SK) and Ioannis Matsakis (EPP-ED, CY) shared Ms Sinnott’s concerns.
It was decided that the issue would be further discussed by the Committee’ s Public Health Working Group and brought back to the full Committee if required.
The Public Health Working Group, initiated in November 2002 during the passage of the Public Health Programme through the last Parliament, has been reestablished in the new Parliament under the chairmanship of Georgs Andrejevs (ALDE, LT). Its task is to follow up the implementation of the Public Health Programme 2003-2008 and discuss other topical health issues that could not be properly addressed in the full committee due to the time constraints.
