Europe Chapter Reports

Past Work Reports

Current Work Report: Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023

Chapter Leadership:
Current council members include Hanna Boogaard, Petter Ljungman, Carla Ancona, Ana Vicedo-Cabrera, Kurt Straif, Elaine Fuertes. Maria Foraster has recently stepped down as council member, pursuing a new career and we are currently in the process of her replacement.

We have a large group of active associate members who join in our monthly calls and participate and contribute to our activities. These include 22 members: Adjani Peralta, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US; Aina Roca-Barceló, Imperial College London, UK; Artur Badyda, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, Alexandra Schneider, Helmholtz Zentrum, Munich, Germany; Annette Peters, Helmholtz Zentrum, Munich, Germany; Barbara Hoffman University of Düsseldorf, Germany; Bénédicte Jaquemin, French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France; Danielle Vienneau, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland; Ebba Malmqvist, Lund University, Sweden and AirClim; Lorenzo Fabri, ISGlobal, Spain; Maciek Strak, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Netherlands; Massimo Stafoggia, Dep of Epidemiology Lazio Region, Italy; Meltem Kutlar Joss, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and University of Basel, Switzerland; Mette Sørensen, Danish Cancer Society, Denmark; Michelle Turner, ISGlobal, Spain; Mireille Toledano, Imperial College London, UK; Payam Dadvand, ISGlobal, Spain; Rajini Nagrani, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research & Epidemiology-BIPS, Bremen, Germany; Sierre Clark, UK Health Security Agency, United Kingdom; Tamara Schikowski, Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany; Ulrike Gehring, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and Zorana Andersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

We would like to thank Maria Foraster, ISGlobal for her service. We also would like to thank Evan de Schrijver, University of Bern, for his service as associate member and SNRN liaison who decided to step down due PhD work commitments.

Overview of recent and planned chapter activities:
The Europe Chapter has been very active in multiple activities to bring scientific evidence to the fore in informing the ongoing revision of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD). We have worked closely with the European Respiratory Society (ERS), Brussels health-based NGO’s (e.g., HEAL, EPHA) and the Health Effects Institute (HEI) as well as engaging other stakeholders and decision-makers. This includes:

Various smaller in-person meetings in Brussels with MEPs including Javi Lopez, the rapporteur for the Directive.
Provided suggestions for amendments to the AAQD directly to the MEP Javi Lopez, under the “Health Group” umbrella, spearheaded by HEAL.
A joint-statement with ERS in a First-line response to the release of the AAQD to the European Commission.
We have submitted an ERS-ISEE commentary based on our response for publication in a scientific journal of environmental epidemiology.
We have submitted a letter to the EU Environmental Ministers calling for more ambitious actions towards healthy air in Europe, highlighting the insufficiency of the current proposal for AAQD.
We have scheduled and planned a high-level meeting in Brussels on May 24th with a full day of notable presentations from scientists as well as involving key stakeholders within EU. We are organizing this together with the ISEE Policy committee and others including ERS, HEI and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

During the last years we have had a strong interest in engaging research from Eastern and Southeastern Europe and hosted several online activities to that effect. We are currently planning a new event with the aim of an in-person meeting in the region later this year.

Furthermore, recognizing the importance of growing interest in noise and health research we have been planning for future activities. This includes discussing the EU proposal for reducing the number of people affected by transportation noise with key ministers.

Members of our chapter have also prepared an ISEE ERS ELF statement commenting the health consequences of the planned new UK coal mine.

Our activities align with the ISEEs priorities of bringing scientific knowledge and engagement in adequately informing public health and environmental policy. We also strive to expand engagement in research and capacity building through targeting geographical areas in Europe where environmental health is particularly threatened such as in Eastern Europe, foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. We also recognize the importance of considering less well studied environmental hazards such as transportation noise and exposures as a result of climate change.

We have not spent funding since the last chapter report but plan to use some of our funds in supporting the in-person event in Brussels as well as the South Eastern Europe meeting.