Children's Environmental Health

Children are the most vulnerable group for adverse health consequences of environmental factors, such as polluted air, chemicals, contaminated and polluted water, food and soil, radiation risks, unhealthy housing, environmental noise, risks related to transport, and the consequences of armed conflict and environmental disasters, poverty, disruption of social protection and health systems.

Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health Budapest, Hungary, 23–25 June 2004
'The future for our children'  was the European response to this situation. WHO/Europe has taken the lead in the action for children and has focused the Conference on 'The future for our children'.

The delegated ministers from the 52 European countries and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) European region had reached consensus and made political commitments to ensure safer environments for children, through the adoption of a Conference Declaration and of a children's environment and health action plan for Europe.

The Healthy Planet Forum was conducted in parallel with the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, ’The Future for Our Children’, June 22-25, 2004, in Budapest, Hungary.

The REC Country Office Hungary acted as focal point all along the over one year preparation phase and as host organisation during the Forum.

The Forum was a very colorful, multinational and multicultural event - with a very limited budget, but enormous voluntary ‘civil efforts’ - that generated a vast amount of ‘added value’ to the environment and health ministerial agenda.
 

Currently adopted Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe sets up four Regional Priority Goals addressing: water sanitation for all children; reduction of health consequences from accidents and injuries, pursue secure and supportive human settlements for all children; prevention and reduction of respiratory disease; reducing the risk of disease and disability.

“To ensure the development and implementation of national children’s environment and

health action plans, we commit ourselves to using and adapting existing national bodies on

environment and health or to establishing new mechanisms that will involve all relevant

stakeholders, including the corporate sector, trade unions, child-focused NGOs and parents’,

children’s and youth organizations.”  Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe, 2004(Chapters 21, 22, 23)

Urgent need for actions obliges us to find ways for establishing new mechanisms for the best use of existing programs, such as national NEHAP, including an assessment of and comparative review of the mechanisms of law enforcement on environmental health considerations with EU (in this case on UK example), the environmental and health impacts on children, an evaluation of the economic mechanisms.