UN press release
EXPERTS AT UN MEETING URGE ACTION TO COMBAT ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES OF CANCER.
(New York; 18 March, 2011)
Medical experts attending a United Nations-convened scientific meeting today called for action to address preventable environmental and occupational causes of cancer, noting that nearly one in five of all cases of cancers are attributable to the environment, including work settings.
“Many environmental and occupational factors, including certain chemicals, radiation and airborne particles, can cause cancer,” said Maria Neira, the Director for Public Health and Environment at the UN World Health Organizations (WHO), which convened the meeting in the Spanish Principality of Asturias.
“These cancers could be prevented and reduced by changes in national and international policy to limit people’s involuntary exposure to these substances,” she added.
The cancers related to the environment, which comprise roughly 19 per cent of all cancers and cause 1.3 million deaths each year, are often the result of situations where people have limited control over the quality of air they breathe, the water they drink, and the level of chemical contamination in indoor and outdoor environments and at places of work.
In their “Asturias Pledge,” the experts urged governments to include environmental and occupational preventive measures in their national cancer control programmes, and ensure enforcement of national and international standards for environmental and occupational carcinogens.
They recommended that WHO lead a global effort in highlighting the importance of primary prevention of cancer, assess the impact of environmental and occupational interventions on primary prevention of cancer, and develop guidance for implementation of evidence-based interventions.
Civil society should raise awareness about practices and processes that increase carcinogenic risks, raise awareness, educate and advocate for funding to implement effective primary prevention of those types of cancers, the experts suggested.
Industry, for its part, should support and implement measures aimed at preventing the cancers. It should also contribute to policy development relating to the mitigation of occupational risks and workers’ exposures; eliminate or reduce exposure to known and probable carcinogens, and better inform workers on the risks they face in the workplace and protect them from carcinogens.
Reducing and eventually eliminating the exposure to environmental and occupational carcinogens is the most effective way to prevent a number of cancers, according to WHO. Stopping the use of asbestos can prevent lung cancer, mesothelioma and cancers of the larynx and ovaries, for example. Replacement of benzene with safer solvents will prevent leukaemia, the agency said.
Asturias Pledge
Environmental and Occupational Determinants of Cancer: Interventions for Primary Prevention
Asturias (Aviles and Gijon), Spain
17 – 18 March 2011
http://www.who.int/phe/news/events/international_conference/Call_for_action_en.pdf
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Environmental and occupational risk factors are estimated to be a substantial contributor to the cancer burden, many of them are modifiable and often result from involuntary exposure of populations, but have yet to be seriously addressed by cancer prevention programmes. The burden of cancer is currently shifting towards heavily populated low- and middle-income countries and is predicted to increase due to a rise in life expectancy as a result of economic development. Therefore, environmental and occupational interventions are key for reducing the incidence and mortality of cancer, can be cost-effective and contribute to the overall well-being of communities.
In line with World Health Assembly Resolution WHA58.22 on Cancer Prevention and Control, where countries were urged to pay special attention to cancers for which risk factors are avoidable, including environmental and occupational factors, we, the participants in the first WHO International Conference on “Environmental and occupational determinants of cancer: Interventions for Primary Prevention”, call for a broad, public health driven response bringing together public heath, environmental, occupational and cancer control communities in a multi-sectoral and collaborative approach, to tackle known and preventable causes of cancer, using scientific evidence to raise awareness and promote environmental and occupational interventions in support of primary preventive measures:
TO GOVERNMENTS
1. Further develop surveillance of the burden of cancer, support research and build capacities for systematic identification and measurement of environmental and occupational risk factors as part of national cancer control programmes.
2. Include and implement evidence-based environmental and occupational preventive measures as part of policies, legislation and regulations, creating synergies among public health programmes, with NGOs and private and public institutions.
3. Adopt and enforce national and international legislation for protection against environmental and occupational carcinogens.
4. Support campaigns for behavioural change, including in the work place, to protect individuals from environmental and occupational cancer risks, through innovative approaches and collaboration with the media, and using easily accessible public information about the risks and protection measures.
TO THE WHO
1. Lead a global effort to highlight the importance of primary prevention of cancer through healthy environments, raising awareness and bringing together public heath, environmental, occupational and cancer control communities.
2. Shape the research cancer agenda so as to take account of environmental- and occupational-related cancers, including a better characterization of causes and assessment of the effectiveness of behavioural change and environmental and occupational interventions for the primary prevention of cancer.
3. Encourage governments to include environmental and occupational prevention measures as part of national cancer control programmes.
4. Develop guidance for the implementation of evidence-based environmental and occupational interventions based on population needs assessments.
5. Support the implementation of environmental and occupational prevention measures in developing countries and countries in transition through technical assistance, training and other means.
6. To support implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA60.23 on Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases: implementation of the global strategy.
7. Encourage governments to provide funding to further study environmental factors as potential causes of cancer and to support primary prevention of cancer due to known environmental and occupational risk factors.
8. Establish a coordinated network of institutions at national and international level to support policy development and implementation of primary prevention measures for environmental- and occupational-related cancers.
TO CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKS
1. Increase awareness raising about environmental and occupational determinants of cancer.
2. Advocate for the enforcement of national and international standards for exposure to environmental and occupational carcinogens and to enhance protection of workers.
3. Further develop innovative campaigns and strategies to raise awareness about individual behavioural change to support primary prevention of environmental- and occupational-related cancers.
4. Strengthen involvement in policy development and implementation related to the mitigation of environmental and occupational risks.
5. Advocate for research on environmental- and occupational-related cancers and on effectiveness of prevention measures, including those related to behavioural change.
6. Advocate for funding to tackle primary prevention of environmental- and occupational-related cancers, including support for awareness raising, education, and wider implementation of measures known to be effective.
7. Support the development of a global network of international environmental-, occupational- and health-related NGOs to advocate for the introduction of environmental and occupational aspects to the global cancer agenda, and with other actors to engage with the media in support of primary prevention of environmental- and occupational-related cancers.
TO INDUSTRY AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR
1. Incorporate measures for primary prevention of environmental- and occupational-related cancers into existing corporate initiatives and business management programmes.
2. Where necessary, develop substitutes, products, technologies and processes to eliminate the use of carcinogens, evaluate their effectiveness and support international technology and information transfer.
3. Provide information to governments, workers and consumers about hazardous substances and products, ensure clear labelling and responsible marketing.
4. Train workers, suppliers and sub-contractors in preventing exposures to carcinogens and establish prevention and mitigation measures.
5. Partner with governments and civil society groups in support of primary prevention of cancer.
Note that the pledge can be downloaded here:
http://www.who.int/phe/news/events/international_conference/Call_for_action_en.pdf
News Rerport:
EXPERTS AT UN MEETING URGE ACTION TO COMBAT ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES OF
CANCER.
(New York; 18 March, 2011)
Medical experts attending a United Nations-convened scientific
meeting today called for action to address preventable environmental
and occupational causes of cancer, noting that nearly one in five of
all cases of cancers are attributable to the environment, including
work settings.
“Many environmental and occupational factors, including certain
chemicals, radiation and airborne particles, can cause cancer,” said
Maria Neira, the Director for Public Health and Environment at the UN
World Health Organizations (WHO), which convened the meeting in the
Spanish Principality of Asturias.
“These cancers could be prevented and reduced by changes in national
and international policy to limit people’s involuntary exposure to
these substances,” she added.
The cancers related to the environment, which comprise roughly 19 per
cent of all cancers and cause 1.3 million deaths each year, are often
the result of situations where people have limited control over the
quality of air they breathe, the water they drink, and the level of
chemical contamination in indoor and outdoor environments and at
places of work.
In their “Asturias Pledge,” the experts urged governments to include
environmental and occupational preventive measures in their national
cancer control programmes, and ensure enforcement of national and
international standards for environmental and occupational carcinogens.
They recommended that WHO lead a global effort in highlighting the
importance of primary prevention of cancer, assess the impact of
environmental and occupational interventions on primary prevention of
cancer, and develop guidance for implementation of evidence-based
interventions.
Civil society should raise awareness about practices and processes
that increase carcinogenic risks, raise awareness, educate and
advocate for funding to implement effective primary prevention of
those types of cancers, the experts suggested.
Industry, for its part, should support and implement measures aimed
at preventing the cancers. It should also contribute to policy
development relating to the mitigation of occupational risks and
workers’ exposures; eliminate or reduce exposure to known and
probable carcinogens, and better inform workers on the risks they
face in the workplace and protect them from carcinogens.
Reducing and eventually eliminating the exposure to environmental and
occupational carcinogens is the most effective way to prevent a
number of cancers, according to WHO. Stopping the use of asbestos can
prevent lung cancer, mesothelioma and cancers of the larynx and
ovaries, for example. Replacement of benzene with safer solvents will
prevent leukaemia, the agency said.
A Shoppers Guide To Pesticides
http://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp_445924/A_Shoppers_Guide_To_Pesticides
From Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network
The UN’s call to protect forests in face of looming water shortages is as applicable here in Tasmania as anywhere else in the world. The current debate on the Pulp Mill and plantations has failed to give priority to the stand alone water conservation implications for Tasmania in the future from these developments.
UN Daily News Friday 18th March 2011
World must better protect forests in face of looming water scarcity, UN forum warns
With 1.8 billion people threatened by absolute water scarcity by 2025, and
two- thirds of the world’s population facing potential shortages, countries must better protect and manage forests to ensure the provision of clean water to vulnerable communities, a United Nations-backed forum warned today.
“Forests are part of the natural infrastructure of any country and are essential to the water cycle,” said UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) Forestry Department Assistant Director General Eduardo Rojas-Briales.
Forests play important role in providing drinking water for millions of people. The FAO is part of the 14-member Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), a grouping comprising 14 international organizations, including several other UN agencies and bodies.
“They reduce the effects of floods, prevent soil erosion, regulate the water table and assure a high-quality water supply for people, industry and agriculture,” Mr. Rojas-Briales said, speaking ahead of UN World Water Day, which will be celebrated this year on 22 March.
Today, at least one third of the world’s biggest cities, such as New York, Singapore, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Madrid and Cape Town, draw a significant portion of their drinking-water from forested areas. If properly utilized, forest catchment areas can provide at least a partial solution for municipalities needing more or cleaner water, according to CPF.
“The management of water and forests are closely linked and require innovative policy solutions which take into account the cross-cutting nature of these vital resources,” said Jan McAlpine, Director of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat.
The UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2011 the International Year of Forests and this “provides a unique platform to raise awareness of issues such as the water-soil-forests nexus, which directly affect the quality of people’s lives, their livelihoods and their food security,” she added.
Moreover, forests and trees contribute to the reduction of water-related risks such as landslides, local floods and droughts, and help prevent desertification and salinization.
They are in most cases an optimal land cover for catchments supplying drinking water, and forest watersheds supply a high proportion of water for domestic, agricultural, industrial and ecological needs.
Attack on inertia on sustainable food policy in EU – same problems here in Tasmania and Australia.
Alison
Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development – Europe
Academic attacks government sustainable food freeze
By Ben Bouckley, 25-Mar-2011
The co-author of an influential new report on UK food policy has hit out at the coalition government for its inertia on sustainable food policy since it came to power in May 2010.
Professor Tim Lang of the Food Policy Department, City University London, co-authored the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) report ‘Looking back, looking forward: sustainability and UK food policy 2010-2011′, which urges the government to up the pace of change in moving food systems towards “truly sustainable food”.
This is in light of biodiversity loss, carbon dioxide emissions (with 25% of all lorries on UK roads involved in food transport in 2008 and 50% of these running empty) water stress, volatile international relations threatening supplies, diet inequalities, social affordability, food waste (30% by value across UK households) and record oil prices of $200 per barrel.
One of coalition government’s early moves after taking office involved abolishing funding for the SDC in July 2010, and assessing the administration’s record to date on sustainable food, Lang told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “They’re doing nothing we can see, they’ve frozen. I had a meeting at the Commons recently with food industry insiders, retailers, industry people and we all agreed this.
“The lack of continuity is not helpful – if we really want to change things we can’t have a stop/start approach [from a policy perspective].” This reflects the report’s insistence that, after a “genuinely consensual perspective'”seemed to have taken root and a policy process began, it seemed to go into “suspended animation” after the 2010 general election.
Big Society ain’t working.
“The Big Society ain’t gonna sort out government catering procurement [of sustainable food] the food manufacturing sector, or Tesco,” said Lang; his report urges the government to re-energise integrated policy thinking by engaging with commercial bodies, civil society and scientists.
“Caroline Spelman [Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (DEFRA)] was pressed by the NFU [National Farmers’ Union] president on my report about a month ago, and asked ‘Where’s the food plan?’. All she could say was ‘Err.we’ve got Food 2030’ [DEFRA’s food strategy paper published under the last Labour government] but that was written in January 2010!”
The SDC’s final report insists that that a market-driven approach supporting sustainable food, or leaving change to consumers are “facile policy positions in the face of such a systems challenge [biodiversity loss, water stress, volatile international relations, diet inequalities, social affordability] continuity and clarity of long-term purpose is important and this need is reflected in some of our recommendations.”
More food, less land
Necessary changes we will need to make, the SDC report says, include producing more food on a global scale from less land, eating more plant-based foods and less meat and dairy (given its high use of grain) and to “waste dramatically less”.
Despite some progress in the 2000s in promoting sustainability across food systems, which led to the publication of Food 2030 vision, the report said not enough had occurred to dispel the SDC’s concern about the “failure to achieve systemic change”.
The SDC’s four priorities for action include:
1. Real government leadership for sustainable food: “Full ownership” of Food 2030 as the first step towards an integrated policy, supported by a new DEFRA-led delivery programme by September 2011 with a delivery plan moving from the short- (2020) to long-term (2050).
Other recommendations include DEFRA, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health encouraging new local food partnerships, to involve local bodies in the push for more sustainable UK food systems by 2030; an expert advisory body should also advise the government on sustainable food systems.
2. Sustainable food chains: DEFRA and the devolved administrations should promote the production of more food by sustainable means in the UK, with the priority given to horticulture, particularly fruit and lower GHG impact of meat and dairy production.
The SDC says an inquiry should examine rebuilding support for small farmers and the rise of part-time farming, with attention to capital availability, skills, education, labour and biodiversity. Meanwhile, the Common Agricultural Policy should develop into a Common Sustainable Food Policy on an EU level.
The Debartment of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) should also lend support to build skills, research capabilities and infrastructure to support thriving small businesses in the food sector, and establish local food hubs. There should also be mandatory health and sustainability standards for all publicly procured food.
3. Sustainable Consumption: The SDC says UK public bodies (led by DEFRA with other departments) need to define sustainable diets, and address policy accordingly; DEFRA’s forthcoming waste strategy should prioritise reduce food waste, including the goal of zero waste to landfill by 2015.
Meanwhile, a joint working party of academics, consumer groups and industry experts should look at ways of making consumer behaviour more sustainable.
4. Fairness: The SDC recommends that the Groceries Code Adjudicator and Competition Commission reference terms should involve explicit sustainability criteria, while government departments should make the concept and delivery of Fairtrade central by consulting large food firms.
The SDC also urges the government to address food and health inequalities, with new fiscal policies making sustainable and healthy choice more affordable, where this feeds into minimum wage and benefit levels.
