EC Actions on Indoor Air Quality

In the Sixth Environment Action Programme the European Commission's commitment to provide "an environment where the level of pollution does not give rise to harmful effects on human health and the environment", is clearly stated. The European Commission, with strong support from the Member States and the European Parliament, has put forward the European Environment and Health Strategy (the Strategy) in June 2003. This integrated Strategy for Environment and Health, known as the �SCALE initiative�, had the ultimate objectives to reduce the disease burden caused by environmental factors in the EU, to identify and to prevent new health threats caused by environmental factors and to strengthen EU capacity for policymaking in this area. SCALE meant to be incremental in scope and to be implemented in consecutive phases. It is based on Scientific evidence, focused on Children and other vulnerable population groups, meant to raise Awareness, improve the situation by use of Legal instruments and ensure a continual Evaluation of the progress made. The European Environment and Health Strategy was jointly issued by: the Directorates-General of Health (DG SANCO), Environment (DG ENV), Research (DG RTD) and the Joint Research Centre (DG JRC). It has a long-term vision seeking to address the links between poor health and environmental problems. The European Environment and Health Strategy will be implemented in cycles, initially focusing on four priority diseases: childhood respiratory diseases, asthma, allergies neuro-developmental disorders childhood cancer endocrine disrupting effects An Action Plan for 2004-2010 has been acknowledged for the implementation of this strategy during the first cycle. The preparation of this Action Plan was based on full stakeholder involvement. More then 300 experts were involved. Nine technical Working Groups (TWGs) and a Consultative Group were set up, consisting of environment experts and health experts from Member States (Ministries of Health and Environment), academia, industry and major ...