Newsletter May 2008

Newsletter May 2008

Welcome to the May edition of EPHA’s newsletter.
May was a busy month for many members, as well as the EPHA Secretariat, with the deadline of the European Commission’s Call for Proposals occupying many of us with project and operating grant submissions.
The month saw a number of health wins in Brussels, with delays in approving the Amflora potato and pesticide-releasing plants. The battle over restrictions on chemicals with severe impacts on health has also been deferred, with the Slovenian (...)

Spotlight on the European Committee for Homeopathy (ECH)

Who are we?
The European Committee for Homeopathy (ECH) is the one and only European association of medical doctors and other statutorily registered health professionals in the field of homeopathic medicine.
Who do we represent?
The ECH represents 37 homeopathic doctors’ associations in 22 European countries as well as many homeopathic veterinarians, dentists and pharmacists in Europe.
What is our mission?
The ECH aims to promote and defend the quality of the science and medical practice of (...)

Spotlight on the Croatian Association for Sanitary Engineering - Chamber of Sanitary Engineers & Technicians

Who are we?
The "Croatian Association for Sanitary Engineering - Chamber of Sanitary Engineers & Technicians", national Professional organization for development of sanitary engineering in the Republic of Croatia.
Who do we represent?
We represent sanitary engineers and technicians in the Republic of Croatia, i.e. experts in environmental hygiene and professional health. We are the national professional organization for the development of sanitary engineering in the Republic of Croatia. (...)

Spotlight on the Royal College of Physicians (RCP)

Who are we?
Established in 1518, the Royal College of Physicians is an independent body and registered charity that aims to ensure high quality care for patients by promoting the highest standards of medical practice.
Who do we represent?
The College is a professional membership organisation representing the concerns of over 22,000 Fellows and Collegiate Members worldwide and we provide leadership, support and advocacy for the membership.
The College is committed to involving patients in (...)

Spotlight on the European Respiratory Society (ERS)

Who are we?
Founded in 1990, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) is a not-for-profit, international medical organisation dedicated to lung health and respiratory disease. It is the largest society of its kind in Europe.
Who do we represent?
The ERS represents 9,000 respiratory professionals worldwide. Doctors make up the majority of the society’s members, but other categories also include nurses, physiotherapists and scientists. Members join to take advantage of the numerous (...)

HEAL referenced in new Environmental Justice journal

Tamara Steger, from the Centre for Environmental Policy and Law and HEAL Executive Committee member, appears in the first issue of "Environmental Justice" as author of an article on promoting environmental justice in Central and Eastern Europe.
EPHA is delighted to announce the inclusion of an article by Tamara Steger, Centre for Environmental Policy and Law and HEAL Executive Committee member, in the first issue of "Environmental Justice" journal published by Marie-Ann Liebert inc (...)

EPHA Newsletter April 2008: small technical problem rectified

Many thanks to readers who drew the attention of the EPHA Secretariat to the small bug in our last newsletter. This problem has now been rectified, however anyone accessing the April newsletter via the email will continue to experience the bug.
Readers will notice that in the April newsletter their own email address is displayed as a contact detail on one of the articles. However there is no need for concern as the nature of this technical problem means that your email address is only (...)

EFSA Stakeholder Consultative Platform meeting, 24-25 April 2008

On 24 and 25 April, the European Food Safety Agency organised the 7th meeting of the EFSA Stakeholder Consultative Platform in Parma which EPHA attended.
The meeting was opened by the EFSA Director, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, who provided the stakeholders with an overview of the progress on EFSA activities. After this intervention, Ritta Maijala, explained EFSA’s task as a risk assessor.
After the two general interventions, the Stakeholders had the opportunity to hear about EFSA’s (...)

*Updated* PGEU lunchtime Parliamentary debate on Adherence to medicines in Europe

PGEU, the organisation representing European Community Pharmacists, organised a lunchtime debate hosted by MEP Mojca Drčar Murko to debate how can EU policy contribute to improving adherence to medicines in Europe. A number of MEPs, representatives of patients’ and health professionals’ organisations and of the Pharmaceutical industry, prominent researchers as well as some of Europe’s pharmacy leaders, participated to the event.
On the occasion of the lunch debate, PGEU launched its (...)

Mental Health Europe (MHE) response on public transport

Mental Health Europe (MHE) has submitted its response to the European Commission´s Green Paper on urban transport, “Towards a new culture for urban mobility”.
Mental Health n Europe (MHE) report “From Exclusion to Inclusion – “The way forward to Promoting Social Inclusion of People with Mental health Problems in Europe. An analysis based on national reports from MHE members in the 27 EU Member States” highlights the problems that are faced by people with (...)

Preparation for 7th Round Table on poverty and social exclusion - 7 May 2008

On 7 May 2008 DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, convened the second meetting with stakeholders to discuss the organisation of the seventh European Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion that will take place on Marseille next 15 and 16 October 2008.
Background
In 2006, the EU strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion, the so-called EU social inclusion strategy, was merged with two separate strategies on pensions and health to form a single EU strategy on (...)

Commission supports proposed pesticide legislation

Amid failure to reach an agreement in the Council of Agricultural Ministers and fierce lobbying on the part of the pesticide industry: the new EU commissioner for health, Androula Vassiliou showed strong support for the proposed legislation on pesticide approval.
Member States failed to find a common position in a meeting of the Council of Agricultural Ministers about new EU legislation on pesticide approval. Most importantly, a compromise could not be reached on thecut-off criteria to ban (...)

Improvements to the mechanisms of health reporting

The European Commission has called for an improvement in health reporting in recognition of the challenges facing a Europe wide health information system.
The EU called for greater consistency in high quality and fully comparable information. Eurostat and Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO) have outlined their recommendations to help achieve this goal: suggesting a common framework should be adopted so that this health information should have relevance on an (...)

Health and Consumer Intergroup - Different Strategies in the Fight against Obesity

On 23 April 2008, the Health and Consumer Intergroup organised a meeting in Strasbourg to talk about the different Strategies in the fight against Obesity
The meeting was a joint action from the Health and Consumer Intergroup combined with the Fruit and Vegetables Intergroup, which have objectives that although are not always similar, are reconcilable, especially regarding public health.
The Intergroup invited three highlevel speakers to talk about their vision on the fight against obesity. (...)

Recent upsurge in measles puts unvaccinated people at risk, warns ECDC

The ECDC warns of a resurgence in measles cases across Europe in the first quarter of 2008. With concerns over Euro 2008 exacerbating the situation, the ECDC and WHO Europe call for higher vaccination rates.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has recently warned of increased numbers of measles cases in the first quarter of 2008: more than 1300 cases have been reported this year compared with 800 in the same quarter last year. This is a serious blow to the World Health (...)

New Italian EU commissioner nominated

Italy’s empty seat at the European Commission table has now been officially taken by Antonio Tajani - a man familiar with EU political scene, as headed MEPs from the Forza Italia political party led by Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr Tajani, a 55-year old law graduate and former journalist, is to replace Franco Frattini, the commission vice-president in charge of justice and home affairs dossier. Mr Frattini formally stepped down on Thursday (8 May), following his appointment as Italy’ new foreign (...)

**Update** Commissioner delays plans to lift poultry ban

Commissioner Verheugen has blocked the procedure of sending the proposal for lift of the poultry ban to the EU agriculture ministers. This mean a decision will be taken in September at the earliest.
Background
As part of the political debate around chlorine-washed poultry, 21 of 27 European Union Agricultural Ministers on May 19 announced opposition to the European Commission proposal currently being drafted. The proposal is to lift a European Union ban on treating poultry with (...)

CAP Health Check goes a step further towards modernisation and simplification

European Commission further modernises and streamlines the Common Agricultural Policy in response to increasing food prices. Reforms remove restrictions and standardise payments. Rural Development to play a larger part in European agriculture.
Mariann Fischer Boel (the EU agriculture commissioner) presented a reform package on the 20th of May, in a bid to not only reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) but also to slow down the soaring food prices.
The ’Health Check’ is aimed at (...)

**Updated** Food additives such as ’Azo dyes’ require a warning label.

This article has been updated in May 2008 following the vote in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee of the food additives proposal.
In May 2008, the ENVI Committee in the European Parliament, voted in the second reading of the food additives proposal a requirement for an azo dye warning label following the publication of the Southampton Study. The Southampton Study linked six artificial food colours and the preservative sodium benzoate to hyperactivity in (...)

The Commission delays decision on Amflora approval

On 7 May 2008, the European Commission delayed decisions on whether to allow European farmers to grow numerous types of genetically modified crops, including the Amflora potato.
This genetically modified potato produces unusually large quantities of starch and contains two controversial marker genes linked to the risk of increasing drug resistance.
On 17 February 2008 the EU Agriculture Council did not approve the application and the Commission was thus the one in charge of taking the (...)

EuroFound Report "Working conditions of an ageing workforce"

EuroFound, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has just published a new Report on the Working conditions of an ageing workforce.
This Report on the Working conditions of an ageing workforce is written by Villosio, Claudia; Di Pierro, Dario; Giordanengo, Alessandro; Pasqua, Paolo; Richiardi, Matteo.
Abstract
The report highlights four factors which are key to shaping the age structure of Europe’s workforce: ensuring career and employment (...)

EuroFound Summary "Safety and Health at Work"

On the occasion of World Day for Safety and Health at Work, observed on Monday 28 April 2008, Eurofound has put together a summary of some of its recent work on working conditions and health and safety at work.
On the occasion of World Day for Safety and Health at Work, observed on Monday 28 April 2008, Eurofound (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) has put together a summary of some of its recent work on working conditions and health and safety at (...)

EPHA presented to the UKBO Health Working Group

On 23 May 2008, EPHA presented its work and priorities to the UKBO Health Working Group.
The event was organised by the North West of England representation of the health sector to the European Union, an EPHA member and Chair of the UKBO Health Working Group. The event was attended by the UK devolved administrations and regions working on health issues, with invited guests from other EU regions.
The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here (...)

Consultation meeting on the 2nd Report on the Application of the Tobacco Products Directive 2001/37/EC - 28 April 2008

The consultation meeting was organised by Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection and was an opportunity for the non-governmental health organisations to have an open discussion and give comments to the Second Report on the Application of the Tobacco products Directive 2001/37/EC, adopted in November 2007.
Background
The First Report on the application of the tobacco products Directive was adopted on 27 July 2005. The Second Report contains the second assessment of (...)

***UPDATE***The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) launches the Healthy Workplaces campaign on Risk Assessment

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) will present its European campaign on Risk Assessment at a press conference in Brussels on 13 June 2008.
Jukka Takala, Director of EU-OSHA, will highlight the importance of the campaign topic and give an insight into the campaign activities that will take place over the coming two years. Commissioner Vladimír Špidla will put the campaign in the wider context of the Community Strategy for Health and Safety at Work (2007 - 2012). (...)

EU broadens inquiry into drug market

European antitrust investigators are expanding the scope of a major inquiry into the €484 billion pharmaceutical market in a bid to determine whether companies are blocking generics makers from getting less-expensive medicines to market quickly.
Neelie Kroes, the European Union competition commissioner, is trying to determine whether drug companies’ efforts to block competitors by extending patents were also distracting them from developing new medicines, which have been slow in (...)

New Global Campaign Calls on Ministers to ’Act now for Health’ - Civil society asked to show its support

2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration - a commitment made in 1978 that Health for All would be achieved by 2000. It was not.
ACT NOW FOR HEALTH is a joint campaign to persuade ministers from around the world to recognise that health must be a priority in 2008.
2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration - a commitment made in 1978 that Health for All would be achieved by 2000. It was not. Governments did not meet their commitments. We are now at (...)

Medicines: Patient groups divided on liberalising information

Following the European Commission consultation on Information to Patients, earlier this year patient groups have come out divided on the need and the solution to the reform of EU rules on patient information. The European Commission’s proposals would allow the pharmaceutical industry to potentially provide information on prescription drugs over the internet, television, the press, radio and brochures.
The consultation, and expected legislative proposal, is very contraversial and many (...)