The European Commission recently launched an Action Plan containing trans-European measures for the reduction of the number of patients due to environmental pollution. The Plan that represents the Union’s main contribution to the 4th Interministerial Conference of the World Health Organization on health and the environment, due to be held in Budapest from 22-25 June defines 13 actions grouped in three priority programmes: the better understanding of the relation between environment and health with a view to establishing the epidemiological effects of exposure to the environment; the reinforcement of research at the European level, in particular as regards the more common diseases linked to the environment (allergies, neurological pathologies, tumours, pathologies of the endocrine system); and the use of new data to reform national and Community policies for the reduction of risks. The Commission fixed the year 2010 as the deadline for completing the analysis and implementing the measures proposed by the Plan.
