Health – as an Ecological Challenge
A sound Green policy should treat health as a core issue rather than treating it like a sub-section of social or environment policies. Once it sees health as crucial for human well-being and development, such a policy has strong messagesnot only to social and environment policies, but to industry, employment, education, and food policies as well.
Europe Écologie/Les Verts have shown that such an approach can provide very effective action tools on the national level. Think of campaigns against Bisphenol-A and Aspartame in France. But it also opens perspectives for the long term, ike much tougher European laws, a paradigm change in public awareness, and a rethinking of the financing of public health. It may even provide answers to the increase of the costs for public health.
Aim of the project: Start an exchange of expertise between parties; put the issue on the agenda of the EGP. Strategy: narrow down to one urgent problem that is present everywhere.
Proposal :
How do chronic diseases affect our health insurance systems ?
- Find partners (health commissions/working groups/specialists) in at least 4 parties: may – September
- Organise a multy country analysis and comparison, from the specific national health system : 6 months.
- Organise a European meeting with translation in Brussels - Spring 2012
Partners: (suggested): HEAL (Health Environment Alliance ), GEF, parties …
Background
Thanks to hygienic measures, infectious diseases are getting less and less important as causes of death, world-wide. Non transmissible diseases like cancer, cara, and heart- and coronary diseases however, form an increasing part of morbidity and mortality. According to the WHO they now represent 60 % of mortality world wide and are likely to represent 77 % in 2018.<CHCK>, whereas in Europe they even cause 86 % of mortality (and 77 % of morbidity). ,
They also form a rapidly increasing part of the health care budget;, with, according to a recent report by The Economist, cancer at the top. There is even evidence that the crises of health insurance systems in rich countries is not economical in the first place, or due to an increase in average age, but has everything to do with this is increase.
It then becomes important for ecologists to analyse the causes; which part of this ‘epidemic’ as André Cicolella calls it, is due to environmental causes , life style included? the environment. If so, says Cicolella, ‘the current health crisis should be considered as the 4th ecological crisis, because it is, just like the climate, natural resources, and biodiversity crises, the consequence of human activity.
Read also:
Report Health workshop Heerlen 9 (Nov.2010), and the full Project proposal by André Cicolella (Europe Écologie/Les Verts). Coordination: Lynn Tabak, Alexander Tietz.
