Newsletter October 2007

New version of the EU School Milk Scheme has been adopted.

On 8 July 2008, the European Commission adopted the new EU School Milk Scheme proposal, applying from August 2008. The Commission stated that this new EU School Milk Scheme will benefit a larger number of children and has increased attention with regards to a healthier diet and eating habits for children. Background On 26 September 2007, the Council adopted a package of measures that introduced a flat-rate subsidy for the European School Milk Scheme. This meant that for the first time, (...)

Conference on participatory democracy methods

EPHA Vice President Report of the conference

Secretariat News October 2007

Events organised by EPHA 2 October 2007 saw the joint EPHA and HEAL conference on climate change and the challenges for public health: priorities for EU action. Lara and Frazer Goodwin attended the meeting, with Frazer chairing the concluding session of the day. A report of the Meeting can be found at EPHA’s website. The alcohol and drugs working group meeting took place on 15 October 2007 with different EPHA members. Caroline Bollars and Frazer Goodwin attended and chaired the (...)

Conference on the role of the internet in medicine

The University of Vienna will hold final conference of the project “Virtually Informed: The Internet in the medical field” on 25-26 January 2008. The conference is organised by the Department of Social Studies and its aim is to investigate the role and impact of the World Wide Web as a health information source in the Austrian medical context. Concretely, issues as the notion of “informed patient” will be contrasted with the doubts of policy makers about (...)

"Communicating Europe in Partnership": EU information priorities

The European Commission has presented proposals for "Communicating Europe in Partnership", a document proposes joint communication priorities with other EU institutions and voluntary management partnerships with Member States. Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy said that citizens want clear information from the EU institutions and that it’s time to end the blame game and work together. Built (...)

Questions raised about the health impact of electromagnetic fields

The BioInitiative Working Group, an international group of scientists, researchers and public health policy professionals, has published in collaboration with the European Environment Agency (EEA), a new report which raises concerns about the negative effects of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones, power lines and other sources, and calls for new safety standards. The report, “Bioinitiative: A Rationale for a Biologically-Based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic (...)

Health Impact Assessment is increasingly used by policy-makers

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has launched the book "The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment: Scope and limitations of supporting decision-making in Europe", on 16 October 2007. The book is the result of a 3-year research project involving 22 teams from 19 countries, funded under the EU Public health work programme. Health impact assessment (HIA) is a support tool for intersectoral policy-making. It is used to assess the potential health consequences of (...)

Friends of the Earth’s seminar on misleading advertising

Friends of the Earth (FoE) organised a seminar on misleading advertising on 1st - 2nd October. The event was intended to provide NGOs with the necessary tools to take action against false environmental and social claims used in corporate marketing campaigns. At the seminar, Bradford Rohmer (FoE) presented his report: "Greenwash confronted - Misleading Advertising Regulation in the EU and its Members".The report assesses the European legislation on misleading advertising and compares the (...)

Hepatitis: where do we stand?

On the occasion of the fourth annual world hepatitis awareness day, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) draws attention to the current state of play of viral hepatitis. According to the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), hepatitis C is the most common form of viral hepatitis in the EU. More than 29,000 cases were reported in 2005 against 6,800 for hepatitis B. In both cases, males are generally more affected than women. (...)

International Day of Older Persons and Mental Health – October 2007

The United Nations celebrated the International Day of Older Persons on 1 October 2007 with the theme of "Improving the life quality of older people". The World Health Organisation(WHO) also launched the WHO Global Age-friendly Cities Guide and organised several events around the world. The WHO 10 October 2007 has marked the fifteenth annual commemoration of World Mental Health Day. The theme of this year, “Mental Health in a Changing World: The impact of Culture and (...)