Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-30-Speech-2-268"
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"en.20040330.10.2-268"2
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"Mr President, doctors since the time of Hippocrates have known that our health is dependent on our environment. Media coverage in recent years has only confirmed people's concerns. Today's epidemiological landscape has changed dramatically. It is dominated by cardiovascular diseases, cancers, allergic conditions and respiratory diseases. These diseases have many causes, which are often complex and interact with one another. These causes are often uncertain and some are not yet known. It is recognised, however, that the environment, in the widest sense of the term, plays a leading role.
Our physical environment is thus one of the major risk factors for the health of our citizens. I will not dwell now on the dangers presented by polluted industrial sites or nuclear power plants. Above all, we must from now on take more account of the immediate environment that causes thousands of cases of cancer. Chemicals, electromagnetic waves or urban and atmospheric traffic pollution: these are the major challenges for public health in Europe. Our behaviour and our way of life encourage an excessively rich diet, and stress and the intensification of work give rise to many health problems. For example, we must take a strong stand against smoking, in particular passive smoking and smoking around children. We must now put in place strong regulations allowing smoking to be banned in the workplace and in public places.
In the face of these challenges, we are concerned by the weakness of the Commission's proposals. The Greens call for a still more specific and more ambitious strategy, which will be able to rise to the health challenges of the twenty-first century. This, may I add, is the direction taken by the amendments we have tabled. We must tackle the problems at their source by putting forward specific actions right now, while accepting the inherent uncertainties of scientific knowledge. The strategy must therefore be firmly based on the precautionary principle and the principle of prevention. In this context, we are calling for a significant strengthening of the strategy of reducing exposure to risks.
The Greens ask for these various major lines of thinking and action to be taken into account, so that the European Union is able to deal with the fears and expectations of our fellow citizens and, above all, with the revolution in public health that we must carry out."@en1
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