Environmental health in Europe. A WHO perspective

Concern about public health implications of environmental conditions in countries in the European region reached high political levels, demonstrated by European ministers of health and of environment protection at their second European Conference on Environment and Health, Helsinki, 20-22 June 1994. The report "Concern for Europe's Tomorrow", prepared by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health was a basis for endorsing by the Conference an Environmental Health Action Plan for Europe and adopting a Declaration by which the ministers committed their governments to developing National Environmental Action Plans by the year 1997. Interactions between health and environment, integrated with policies and programmes for sustainable development, provide a unifying framework for a new public health.