WHO Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health e-News: June/July 2017

Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health

Public Health & Environment e-News

Dear Readers,

The June/July issue of the World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health, Environ­mental and Social Determinants of Health (PHE) e-News focuses on the Seventieth World Health Assembly highlighting PHE related events. It brings you the latest on:

Þ 2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home, more than twice as many lack safe sanitation          Þ More can be done to restrict sunbeds to prevent increasing rates of skin cancer   Þ New Innov8 Facilitator’s manual: a capacity building tool to ensure no one is left behind Þ WHO Chemical Risk Assessment Network Þ Large-scale international emergency exercise evaluating response to a nuclear emer­gency Þ United Nations agencies urge Europe’s action on 1.4 million annual deaths from pollut­ed environments Þ Information session on progress made under the WHO Global Plan of Action on Work­ers’ Health (2008 - 2017) Þ Unbridled economic growth threatens health

Click here to access the web page, and to download a printable copy of PHE e-News. A shortened version of PHE e-News (for Blackberry/smartphone users) is included below. Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health World Health Organization http://www.who.int/phe

2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home, more than twice as many lack safe sanitation

Some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.45 billion, lack safely managed sanitation, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. The Joint Monitoring Programme report, Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2017 Update and Sustainable Develop­ment Goal Baselines, presents the first global assessment of “safely managed” drinking water and sanitation services. The overriding conclusion is that too many people still lack access, particularly in rural areas. “Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization. “These are some of the most basic requirements for human health, and all countries have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can access them.” Billions of people have gained access to basic drinking water and sanitation services since 2000, but these services do not necessarily provide safe water and sanitation. Many homes, healthcare facilities and schools also still lack soap and water for handwashing. This put the health of all people—but especially young children—at risk for diseases, such as diarrhoea. To access the report, press release and infographics click here.

More can be done to restrict sunbeds to prevent increasing rates of skin cancer

WHO underscores national actions to limit the use of artificial tanning devices, such as sun­beds, in a bid to reduce the associated health risks, such as melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. For more than three decades, the deliberate exposure to ultraviolent radiation (UVR) from artificial tanning devices used for cosmetic purposes has increased the incidence of skin cancer, and is driving down the age of first appearance, according to a new WHO report, Artifi­cial tanning devices: public health interventions to manage sunbeds. It is estimated that sunbed use is responsible for more than 450 000 non-melanoma skin cancer cases and more than 10 000 melanoma cases each year in the United States of America, Eu­rope and Australia combined. The largest percentage of users are women, and in particular adolescents and young adults. Click here to access the web story, WHO database on sunbed regulations, more on artificial tanning sunbeds and infographics.

New Innov8 Facilitator’s manual: a capacity building tool to ensure no one is left behind

The Innov8 Facilitator’s manual is designed for persons conducting capacity-building work­shops of applications of the Innov8 approach for reviewing national health programmes to leave no one behind. The manual – designed as a partnering publication to the Innov8 Technical handbook – provides an overarching introduction to the facilitation of a generic Innov8 review process entailing three workshops: sensitization, review and redesign, to aid and support the adaptation process.  Innov8 is an 8-step review process that supports programmes to be more equity-oriented, rights-based, gender-responsive and to address social determinants in order to contribute to the pro­gressive realization of universal health coverage and the right to health. Click here to access the facilitator’s manual and the technical handbook. For more on Innov8 approach click here.

WHO Chemical Risk Assessment Network

The second meeting of the WHO Chemicals Risk Assessment Network was a combination of keynote lectures, presentations about ongoing network activities and group discussions to plan future activities. The development of a capacity-building strategy for the network was central to the meeting. Other themes addressed included combined exposures to multiple chemicals, human biomonitoring, identifying new and emerging risks and new scientific approaches for regulatory safety assessment. WHO also launched its publication, Chemical mixtures in source-water and drinking-water dur­ing the meeting. This document provides an overview of available tools and practical recom­mendations to support the assessment and management of risks to human health associated with chemical mixtures in drinking-water and its sources, including through use of case studies. The meeting was hosted by the European Food Safety Authority and took place from 20 to 22 June 2017 in Parma, Italy. For more information, click here.

Large-scale international emergency exercise evaluating response to a nuclearemergency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) along with 82 Member States and 10 interna­tional organizations held a two-day international emergency exercise that tested responses to a simulated accident at a nuclear power plant in Hungary. As part of its new Health Emergencies Programme, WHO is enhancing its emergency preparedness and response capacity. Simula­tion exercises are a vital element in this process as it is through testing that we can strengthen our systems and procedures. Large-scale exercises of this kind are conducted every three to five years to test arrangements in place for fulfilling obligations under the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. Based on a national exercise in a Member State, the Lev­el 3 Convention Exercise (ConvEx-3) is IAEA’s highest level and most complex emergency exercise. It is designed to identify emergency preparedness and response best practices as well as areas for improvement. The exercise took place from 21 to 23 June 2017. For more information, click here.

United Nations agencies urge Europe’s action on 1.4 million annual deaths frompolluted environments

WHO Regional Office for Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Environment Programme call on European leaders to scale up action to prevent environment-related deaths and diseases affecting their population. Each year, at least 1.4 mil­lion Europeans die prematurely due to polluted environments; this corresponds to at least 15% of Europe’s total deaths. Around half of these deaths are due to outdoor and indoor air pollu­tion. European citizens lose 50 million years of healthy life from environmental risks annually. This call to action came as the Sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health opened in Ostrava, Czech Republic. On 13–15 June 2017, over 600 representatives from the 53 coun­tries of the WHO European Region gathered together with international and nongovernmental organizations to sign a declaration committing them to prioritize action on environmental risks to health by 2018. For more information, click here.

Information session on progress made under the WHO Global Plan of Action onWorkers` Health

On 6 September 2017, WHO will hold an information session on progress made under the WHO Global Plan of Action on Workers’ Health (2008 - 2017) . The session will provide an op­portunity for interested partners, stakeholders and individuals to hear about and provide feed­back on the progress made in the implementation of the ten - year global plan of action on workers’ health. The meeting is open to any party with a demonstrated interest in workers’ health. An expression of interest to participate should be submitted to WHO by registering on the following link. The 60th  World Health Assembly in 2007 endorsed the WHO global plan of action on workers’ health for the period 2008 - 2017. The plan aimed to strengthen the performance of health sys­tems in protecting and improving the health of all workers. The priorities for action included na­tional policy instruments, workplace health protection and promotion, occupational health ser­vices, data and evidence as well as integrating workers’ health in other policies. For more information click here.

Unbridled economic growth threatens health

During the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting in Hamburg, leading health and environmental ex­perts convened by Oxford University’s Green Templeton College’s Emerging Markets Symposi­um issued a warning that unbridled economic growth in many leading economies will have dis­astrous economic and social consequences if urgent action is not taken to reduce environmen­tal risks. Their report notes that global environmental threats pose an acute danger to human health. It calls on governments to adopt a broad one-health system that addresses both the social and environmental determinants of health, and to increase the meagre percentages of health budgets spent on prevention, to assist in achieving the WHO goal of reducing noncom­municable diseases by 25% by 2025. Click here to access the full report Environmental health in emerging markets and here for thepress release in various languages.

© World Health Organization 2017. All rights reserved.

· Please forward this email to anyone who may be interested in its contents. · To subscribe to this mailing list, please send an email tolistserv@who.int with the following exact text "subscribe Health and Environment News" in the body of your email message. · To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please send an email tolistserv@who.int with the following exact text "unsubscribe Health and Environment News" in the body of your email message. · PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL