Tue, Sep. 26, 2017
The choice of this theme is very relevant as on 6th March 2017 Margaret Chan, Director General at WHO launched a worldwide campaign to tackle air pollution as the ‘major public health issue of our generation’. Dr. Chan said that the dangers of failing to control all forms of air pollution were much greater than the risks caused by diseases such as Ebola, & HIV AIDS. WHO states poor quality air affects more than 80% of the world’s population. All IFEH members are encouraged to make a real effort this year to promote WEHD as we anticipate that the health impact of poor air quality will now escalate year by year. We leave it to individual MOs to decide how to approach World Environmental Health Day; for some they will concentrate on indoor air quality, perhaps the use of inappropriate fuels for cooking and heating or the impact of other forms of pollution such as second hand smoke. The promotion of existing projects such as AirTEXT in London might be an attractive approach. Please keep the IFEH webmaster informed of progress when planning your projects for this year’s WEHD, (Henning Hansen)