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GreenFacts Reactions to the first EU SCALE Consultative Forum

GreenFacts welcomes the initiative and its scientific approach

Brussels, December 19, 2003. GreenFacts Foundation has concluded its involvement in the first EU SCALE Consultative Forum in Brussels on December 18-19 with the following statement: "GreenFacts welcomes the initiative of the EU to bring together well-known experts from a wide variety of stakeholders to consider the environmental impacts on children’s health on firm scientific basis."

GreenFacts was represented at the SCALE Consultative Forum by Dr Sue Barlow, a member of the GreenFacts Panel of Experts. On the nature of the event, Dr Barlow remarked that "There is evident good will from the conference participants to work together following the Commission’s excellent initiative. It must be commended that so many eminent scientists from across Europe have freely given their time to prepare reports that will form the basis of a Commission Action Plan on environment and children’s health."

The scientific demands of such an activity are significant. The Commission has brought together over 300 experts in a short timeframe to discuss a wide range of children’s health issues. Dr Barlow added that: "The SCALE initiative needs a strong scientific foundation in order to enjoy credibility among policymakers."

GreenFacts sees its role in the SCALE Consultative Group as one of assuring that the best available scientific information is available for the decision-making process. "With an issue as sensitive as children’s health, reliable scientific information is essential" declares Jacques de Selliers, GreenFacts Foundation’s General Manager, "GreenFacts is presently preparing several publications summarizing authoritative documents on topics within the SCALE mandate, so that policymakers will have easy access to the scientific information." In 2004 GreenFacts will be releasing publications on endocrine disruptors, dioxins, cadmium, lead and mercury – all SCALE-related issues.

About SCALE
SCALE is the EU acronym for the multi-DG European Environment and Health Strategy, focusing initially on children’s environment and health issues. It will produce an Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010 prior to the WHO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Budapest in June, 2004.

About Dr Sue Barlow
Dr Barlow is an independent toxicologist based in the UK. She is the former Vice-Chair of the EC Scientific Committee on Food. She was an editor and lead author for the WHO’s 2002 International Programme for Chemical Safety (IPCS) monograph: The State of the Science on Endocrine Disruptors, an authoritative scientific document on the endocrine issue. She is also the author of the GreenFacts publication on endocrine disruptors, based on the IPCS document and presently undergoing peer review.

About GreenFacts Foundation
GreenFacts Foundation asbl is a non-profit organization based in Brussels that summarizes authoritative scientific documents on environment and health matters. Its summaries, freely available on www.greenfacts.org, are published following a peer review process managed by an independent Scientific Board. GreenFacts was formed in December 2001 by stakeholders from the academe, industrial groups and environmental NGOs concerned about the difficulties of communicating scientific information on environment and health issues.

For further details, contact:

GreenFacts asbl
32.(0)2.211.34.25

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A draft version was first sent accidentally to some recipients (Print version ).

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