EFA

A day before our event on COPD, EFA and Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) coordinated a workshop on “Integrating environment and health policy towards better health”. The event was co-chaired by Marie-Christine De Wolf, President of HEAL and by Marianella Salapatas, EFA President. In the first part of the workshop, integration of environment and health in EU policy was discussed; both from the European Commission Directorate General Health perspective and from the NGO perspective (HEAL). The second part of the workshop gave concrete policy examples from various angles: The French national environment and health action plan was presented. For the patient perspective, Breda Flood from the Asthma Society of Ireland took the example of policies affecting outdoor and indoor quality, and climate change was discussed from a doctor’s perspective. The speakers, panel and the participants debated on recommendations to be presented to the Plenary, and they showed wide support for a Second EU Environment and Health Action Plan which would be an overarching framework for integration of environment and health policy at every level, EU, Member States and local. More on the results of this workshop to come in our July eZine. Open Health Forum website. DG Health video on health in all policies featuring EFA and HEAL project www.knowyourairforhealth.eu: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/dalli/multimedia/videos/index_en.htm