Chairman’s Address IDEA Annual General Meeting 17th Feb 2008

We are now entering our 11th year.. We have worked hard as an organisation but the problems are ongoing. Some progress has been made, particularly in relation to the EU, but it often seems like a case of one step forward and two back.

Because of our small numbers we continue to operate mainly through the media with press releases, letters, articles and interviews to try highlight environmental risks that science is demonstrating are today damaging our health. Threats continue to arise from chemicals, GMOs, ionising and non-ionising radiation, all leading to pollution of our air water and food. These are being inceasingly recognised by the establishment across the world particularly WHO , UNEP and the EU. The REACH chemical legislation from the EU, though much diluted due to corporate intervention, is an example of a good start in the chemical sphere. Pressure needs to be maintained by independent scientists and NGOs to ensure that momentum is maintained and that there is no backsliding. The GMO issue is struggling but there is probably still hope that Ireland at least can be maintained more or less GMO free. The widespread recognition that the child, born and unborn, is particularly vulnerable to pollution in all its forms has been an important recent development. Children's environmental health is now practically a new medical subspecialty. This is being driven in the US and Europe by NGOs such the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), HEAL, HCWH , INCHES [International Network on Children's Health Environment & Safety] and ISDE along with official bodies such as WHO and UNEP.

We have close ties with all these organisations and I believe if we are to make an impact we need to foster and even extend these international links. This is quite feasible utilising modern communications such as email, SKYPE and videoconferencing but it is also necessary I believe to do a certain amount of travelling so as to improve contacts and networking, which ultimately improves effectiveness. Also it is easy to feel isolated when many colleagues and friends often are not on the same wavelength and it is always a great moral booster to meet others who share your concerns, particularly if they are world leaders in their field. There are new threats on the horizon such as nanotechnology. To some extent these are being monitored by organisations such as European Environment and Health Committee (EEHC), national governments, European Commission, UN, OECD etc)

It would be remiss of me not to mention the greatest environmental threat to us all - Climate Change or more appropriately Climate Chaos. Again there are signs of progress on this front particularly at international level in the UN and the EU. This year the WHO is focussing on CC and Health and there are at least 3 international CC/Health Conferences in Europe alone in the first 6 months of this year. Even China and India, whose economies are probably the greatest threat to the reduction in the global carbon footprint in the short to medium term - assuming that the US will eventually see sense - are beginning to show some evidence of understanding the problem. In the Irish context, which admittedly is of little consequence in terms of global carbon output , there has been a little window dressing by government, but absolutely no recognition of our perilous situation by the public and certainly none that I can detect by the medical profession at large. I believe that this is a sociological/psychological impasse which we must overcome in order to progress and quickly. I think we must forge links with sociologists and psychologists to work out a plan of action - a road map - in order to move forward. The drip drip, stop/go effort to date is not good enough. The situation demands a paradigm shift in attitude and behaviour, individually and collectively, if we are to prevent catastrophe. We particularly need our international connections to make this work and I believe we can with Gods help and hard work.

Dr Philip Michael. Feb 2008