Europe Chapter Reports

Past Work Reports

Report for Annual Conference 2023

Membership

Currently the Chapter consists of 7 elected members, and 20 associated members.
Elected members: Ana Vicedo-Cabrera, Carla Ancona, Ebba Malmqvist, Elaine Fuertes, Hanna Boogaard, Kurt Straif, Petter Ljungman

Associated members: Adjani Peralta, Aina Roca-Barceló, Alexandra Schneider, Annette Peters, Artur Badyda, Barbara Hoffmann, Bénédicte Jacquemin, Danielle Vienneau, Marine Savouré, Massimo Stafoggia, Meltem Kutlar Joss, Mette Sørensen, Michelle Turner, Mireille Toledano, Payam Dadvand, Rajini Nagrani, Sierra Clark, Tamara Schikowski, Ulrike Gehring, Zorana Andersen

Chapter/Committee objectives:

Our objectives are to support the translation of research into timely and effective environmental health policy across Europe as well as provide a forum for research networking and training in our region.

We have had monthly calls including elected and associated members to organize our work. We have an active ISEE Europe website, and have sent a fall 2022 and a summer 2023 newsletter to all ISEE members in Europe to keep them abreast.

Main activities during 2022-2023 in relation to the strategic plan:

1. Translation of research into policy

Activities regarding the revision of the EU air quality directive: The Europe Chapter has been heavily involved in activities associated with the ongoing revisions of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD). The European Commission’s proposal includes important steps to achieve cleaner air but falls short of what is ultimately needed to maximize public health benefits, and a clear path towards complete alignment with the 2021 WHO Air Quality Guidelines is missing. We are working closely with the Policy Committee, the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the Health Effects Institute (HEI) and recently building ties to the European Society of Cardiology. On top of our previously reported joint-statements, papers, and letter to the EU Environmental Ministers, we have organized the following:

1. Together with ERS and HEI we have organized a successful full day meeting of stakeholders and scientists in Brussels on May 24th discussing the current AAQD. The
meeting was very well attended with about 130 people in person, and about 100 virtual participants. The agenda, slides and also the recording are available
online. We have submitted a workshop report to European Respiratory Journal for wider dissemination.

2. Published a joint ISEE/ERS commentary in Environmental Epidemiology on the AAQD.

Activities on climate change and health: The Europe Chapter has a strong commitment to amplify and contribute to the climate change research community, working closely with the Policy Committee on several activities, including application of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) observer status, ISEE membership to the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), and the coordination of our future presence at COP28 and future conferences. We have developed a short Policy Brief for distribution to the Parties at the Bonn Climate Change Conference in June 2023, a critical meeting on the path to COP28. Furthermore, we are preparing some activities and communication material to ensure health co-benefits are discussed at COP28.

2. Research networking and promotion (South)Eastern European activities.

We continue to work to better include scientists from (South)Eastern Europe and are organizing an in-person meeting in Eastern Europe in fall 2023. We have organized, together with HEI, an early morning session at ISEE 2022 entitled “Air Pollution and Health: The Case of Central and Southeast Europe". We gave a platform to the specific air pollution issues and solutions in (South)Eastern Europe in the May 24 meeting in Brussels and were able to pay the travel expenses from three persons from Eastern Europe to participate in the meeting.

3. Training activities

Improve communication. We have organized two well attended and appreciated training sessions teaming up with two Brussels-based NGO’s, namely Health and environment alliance (HEAL) and the European Environment Bureau (EEB), involved in promoting environmental health to improve our communications and understanding of the decision-making process in the EU to help identify effective ways to bring science to the decision makers. The third training session is planned on September 6.

ISEE Young Conference 2024. In collaboration with INSERM we are in the middle of organizing the 5th Early Career Researchers Conference on Environmental Epidemiology in Rennes, France, which will be held in June 2024.

Planned activities during 2023-2024 in relation to the strategic plan:

ISEE Europe activities associated with climate change and health as well as the ongoing revisions of the AAQD will continue. We will organize the ISEE Young Conference in Rennes. Furthermore, we will continue to organize activities to increase involvement and support for environmental epidemiological research in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. We will also arrange activities to be decided on to raise the profile of noise research, especially as there are no noise limits in Europe despite the existing WHO guidelines.