Health and the environment: a global challenge. WHO Commission on Health and Environment

A healthy environment is not only a need, it is also a right; the right to live and work in an environment conducive to physical and mental health is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone shares the responsibility for ensuring that this right is duly acknowledged. The responsibility for action lies with individuals and with business. Governments have the responsibility of setting up the strategic and institutional framework within which action is taken. There are three main global objectives: achieving a sustainable basis for health for all--by slowing down population growth as soon as possible, and promoting life-styles and patterns of consumption among affluent groups and countries that are consistent with ecological sustainability; providing an environment that promotes health--by reducing the risk of physical, chemical and biological hazards and ensuring that everyone has the means to acquire the resources on which health depends; making all individuals and organizations aware of their responsibilities for health and its environmental basis.