‘Fight Causes, not Symptoms of Health budget Explosion’
Health as a major ecological challenge - report Heerlen 9 seminar, Amsterdam, 5-7/11/2010
André Cicolella
Amsterdam, 7 November – Une bonne politique verte devrait, selon le biochimiste français André Cicolella, mettre la santé à sa base et, à partir de là, faire un appèl aux autres domaines politiques, de l’emploi à la nourriture, en passant par l’éducation et l’environnement. Il doit se servir à la fois de stratégies à court terme, comme la campagne contre le bisphénol-A en France, et à long terme comme un changement de paradigme chez le public et des lois européennes beaucoup plus sévères.
A sound Green policy should, said the French biochemist and health campaigner André Cicolella, put health at its core and, from there on, lay claims on policy fields like employment, education, and food. It should use both short-term strategies, like the successful campaign against Bisphenol-A in France, and long-term ones such as a paradigm change in public awareness and much tougher European laws. Watch André Cicolella, interviewed by Lin Tabak
Follow-up:
- GroenLinks’ Network Health, Care and Social Work of GroenLinks, meeting first in December, will take the issue a possible way to proceed
- The Network will try to gather enough EGP member party workgroups & specialists to formulate a joint proposal for a seminar in Autumn or Spring 2012.
Links:
- The Health & Environment Alliance is an excellent partner for the European project
- The Equality Trust in the UK has done extensive research on the impact of income equailties on the social fabric and the quality of life – including physical and mental health.
Report by Birgit Weiss & Alexander Tietz.
The panel, co-organised by the new network Health, Care and social work of GroenLinks, served both as a modest first step towards a new policy target for the European Greens and a source of inspiration for health, care and social work professionals of GroenLinks who are about to launch a specialised think-tank for the party. Cicolella’s presence was all the more important, because the biochemist, who has successfully sounded the alarm bells against toxic chemicals in the nineties, hasn’t only put health on his party’s agenda as an independent policy field, as one of the founders of the French-based Réseau Environnement-Santé he is a frequent guest to television debates.
2nd revolution
His task was not easy; the ambitions of the Dutch professionals who had joined the nternational audience for the occasion, ranged from addressing the bureaucracy and and the lack of inspiration in the hospital world, through developing a Green policy for medical research, to exploring the role social work could play in prevention and the social participation of the chronically ill.
Cicolella’s approach, on the other hand, starts from an ecological point of view. A Green vision on health, he stated, should be based on the paradigm that all human beings should be guaranteed healthy environment. That environment, he argued, is at tme moment under such serious threat that no less than a 2nd Revolution of Public Health is called for. ‘The first revolution has, from the mid-19th century onwards, successfully fought infectious diseases. Today’s diseases however are mainly of a non-transmissible nature, with cardiovascular affections coming first and cancer second – aids only coming third. But obesity is rapidly moving upwards; diabetes; and so are infertility – in France 7 out of 10 couples are affected, malformations and autism.’
Figure: the increase in rich countries of major diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the respiratory system, obesity and diabetes. (->SLIDES will follow)
Life expectancy
The increase of these diseases is the main cause of the general rise of health care expenditure – not the fact that people live longer, as is generally believed. On the contrary: there is statistic proof that, in Western countries, life expectancy of new-born babies is already going down – which is mainly due to the increase of diseases we are talking.’ So talking about the skyrocketing costs, he said, it would be better to fight the causes than the symptoms.
Figure: the corresponding increase in health care expenditure costs (will follow).
Figure: decrease of life expectancy in new-borns since 2000 (will follow)
The causes have everything to do with the environment. ‘The problem is, however, far more complex than that of for example water pollution. There are three main causes: first come the use of tobacco and alcohol, and life-style in general; next come the change of our food habits that started in the 1970s, and third toxic chemicals. Bisphenol A for example, used in many plastics, and epoxy-glues – to which 93% of the people in the United States are exposed. It causes infertility, with strong inter-generational effects: a grandmother can pass it to her granddaughter; pesticides, and chemicals used in perfumes, cookware, and furniture – traces of which have been detected in your drinking water.
Such is the challenge that we should reformulate our definitions of sustainable development, and the welfare state: they shouldn’t only include health, but also the relation man – environment.
Bisphenol A
‘How important exactly is behaviour?; someone in the audience asked. Cicolella: ‘The correlation with life-styles is ambiguous: in the Netherlands and the United States obesity and cardiac affections are linked to the lower classes, in Third World countries they are a problem of the rich. But the drastic increase in non-transmittable diseases can’t be explained by the change of human behaviour alone. There must be a connection to chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA), which affect the hormonal system.’
'A basic income high enough to make organic food available to all' (Jan ..., a Dutch organic farmer from
Q: Would a ‘health-care tax’ on hazardous products help? Lower prices for healthy food, a compulsory “label” for products containing dangerous preservatives? Would it be an idea to make food prices reflecting all external costs, including those for the environment, like recycling, and those for health care? And shouldn’t such a principle call for an unconditional basic income, so people can afford to buy organic (and ethical) food? And lastly: Wouldn’t a change of agricultural concept be needed, one that subjects conventional instead of organic production to controls and certificates.
Paracelsus
However logical these proposals might be from a social or greening-the-market point of view, Cicolella stuck to his health-based approach. ‘I prefer legislation to price measures and labels’, he said, ‘because they put the responsibility with the individual, whereas it should be with the state. A problem with current legislation is, that it puts a limit to the concentration, the dose, but ignores the dangerous cumulative effect many chemicals have. The poison isn’t only in the dose, as Paracelsus said, but also in the period of exposure, in short: the overall quantity that can be absorbed without causing serious harm.’
Precautionary principle
Marijke Colle, IIRE-secretary general, a retired biology teacher and our special guest to this session, added: ‘The REACH directive (the current EU chemicals legislation) with which the Greens in the European Parliament agreed, was a defeat. Far too many concessions were made to industry, which successfully lobbied against proper risk assessment procedures, and the application of the precautionary principle that for each new substance to be allowed on the market would have demanded proof that it doesn’t affect human health. Consequently, chemicals still are admitted until their toxicity is proven. Which, can take a very long time: for asbestos it took 100 years from the moment the first suspicions arose until there was scientific proof of its toxicity. During those years they can do a lot of harm. But the problem with the precautionary principle, even if applied, is that various definitions exists and clear criteria still have to be established.’ Watch video.
Towards a sound Health policy
‘A sound health policy’ she stated, should, apart from asking for chemicals to be banned, also demand a healthy working environment, stress the importance of health education, healthy behaviour and healthy food, fight possible causes for deterioration like genetically modified organisms, nano tubes (like in ‘antibiotic silver socks’ – fabrics) and fight toxic chemicals – like titanium dioxide, the ‘new asbestos’ (a white pigment used in paint, mirrors and even tooth paste).
Healthcare and social work have an important role in raising public awareness. Therefore Green politicians should seek close cooperation with the professionals in those fields. An addition, they should design a strategy on the EU level, aimed at a much tougher legislation and the application of the precautionary principle.
Strategy
Talking strategy (slides will follow), Cicolella concluded, a public debate is needed about the need for a paradigm change, in which the public, unions, non-profit health insurances, and all other stakeholders participate. ‘In france it is taking shape: only yesterday I was invited by regional mutual aid organisations, who reunite millions of people. That debate should be accompanied by short-term campaigns aimed at banning chemicals for whose toxicity there is ample proof – even if the effects aren’t imminent. The campaign against Bisphenol-A Les Verts launched in March 2009 is an excellend example: by the beginning of this year most members of the public were aware of the dangers and in June 2010 the French Parliament has banned its use in baby bottles.’
