Inches

Update from the Coordination Committee INCHES - March 1999

The update is a rewritten version of the minutes of the INCHES coordination meeting which took place in Rome, 15 March 1999.

The meeting was superbly organized by the WHO office in Rome. US EPA was the sponsor of the meeting.

Representatives of the coordination committee and some other invited persons expressed there role or that of the organization they were representing, within the network. Some more decisions were taken about the structure and activities of the network.

Report 15 March 1999

Maria Cherkosova - Russia

Maria pointed out that there are several medical problems for children in her region. She named the cosmic activities and the problems with rocket fuel (some special form of hydrazine). She has contacts with specialists in the USA. There is a need for dissemination of the available information on this problem to the different persons in the field. Translation is not a problem, to obtain material on this issue is not a problem. She would like to get support from INCHES in getting more attention to this emerging disease problem. A possibility is to present material on this issue during the London Healthy Planet Forum. This should be taken in consideration by the small working group that will prepare the INCHES participation at this Forum.

Maria Cherkosova also asked for INCHES support in establishing a Russian Branch of INCHES. A funding proposal for this was distributed.

Wondy Asnake, representing UNEP, mentioned that UNEP, in particular the HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING UNIT, would the INCHES initiative. The Unit could be able to allocate some funds to specific projects/ activities, provided there is a clear cut on where this initiative will take us all. The unit could also be a good source of expertize to dealing with children's environmental health related issues.

Wondy mentioned the UNEP Children Programme and an International Children's Conference on the Environment especially for children in the year 2000, the so called Millennium International Children's Conference to be held in Eastbourne, England, 22-24 May 2000. It is anticipated that the Conference will bring together 1000 children (10-12 years old) from over 120 countries to learn about and raise their concerns on Sharing the Planet, Water is life and Living in Cities! This could also be a good opportunity to talk about Children's environmental health and safety, and Wondy Asnaken will look into this. There are also possible connections to be made with other UNEP partners like the Foundation of Global Peace and Environment in Japan to spread the issue.

Wondy would deliver to INCHES a list of organizations that could be possibly of interest to INCHES, in particular those non-governmental organizations involved in community/public health issues and advocacy.

A final suggestion was the idea to contact the International Olympic Committee as possible supporter.

Stephan Boese O'Reilly, from the Oekologischer Aerztebund in Germany stated that Children's Environmental Health is the topic of attention for this year. There will be a workshop on training material for physicians and other health professionals in May. The Children's Environmental Health Network in the USA will try to deliver their material in May to the German organization in order to use it in their educational workshop. Joy Carlson mentioned here that the American Academy of Pediatricians is going to publish a Greenbook on these educational issues (projectmanager Ruth Etzel).

A discussion started on the possible initiative of the German government to establish offices for International organizations in Bonn. The German organization will try to get funds to establish an office there for INCHES. Discussions are underway regarding the possible establishment of a WHO office in Bonn; Children's health as a specific topic is not included in those discussions.

During the EXPO 2000 gathering the Germans want to organize a conference on the "New Paradigm" with Nicholas Ashford as speaker. INCHES could also be involved with this conference.

Joy Carlson from Children's Environmental Health Network, mentioned several activities of the American network.

the international work for INCHES is regarded as a new activity;
reaching out to other disciplines;
a project to look at possibilities for regional work of the network;
the continuation of the stimulation of research;
to redefine the structure of the network;
to establish a Paediatric Environmental health research infrastructure.

Elaine Price from WHO Europe gave an update of the activities of WHO regarding the London '99 Ministerial conference. News on this conference can be found on the WHO Europe Website.

Marie Louise Bistrup, Childwatch International Research Network, mentioned a wish to get rid of the double- and overinformation, and pointed to the need for a clear communication strategy and for public information.

Dawn Walker, from the Canadian Institute of Child Health mentioned the activities of their organization:

creation of an electronic network;
a project on climate change health effects with regard of prevention possibilities in influencing lifestyle choices and purchasing goods. The target groups are parents and their children. This project has funding for 3 years.
projects on the way with possible federal or provincial funding are projects on phtalates/plastics, heavy metals in sports products and multisite hair analysis for neurobehavourial disorders.

Meetings of CICH with the Canadian government showed great interest in INCHES. Funding was obtained for the writing of a report on the London '99 conference in reference to Child Health.

Dawn Walker asked for ideas about practical Canadian input during the London meeting. Ideas to be forwarded to her.

Lilian Corra, from the Associasion Argentina de Medicos dell'Ambiente, reported on the launching of the Pan-American INCHES chapter in Buenos Aires in October 1999 during the Interasma Conference. During this conference there will be a combined press conference on chemical exposure with representatives from ISDE, Greenpeace, Interasma and possibly INCHES.

Lilian also reported on the possibilities of contacting the White Helmets organization with a request of being a protective partner of INCHES and to look for possible projects together.

The organizations that have responded to the request by Marie Louise Bistrup and Peter van den Hazel to endorse the position paper resulted in the following list of organizations.

Not all of them have sent in this support by hardcopy mail. This is requested though.

Jagiellonian University in Cracow (letter)
16th street Community health center (email)
Canadian Institute of Child health (letter)
International Society of Doctors for the Environment (email)
Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (email)
Danish Society of Public Health (letter)
Oekologischer AerzteBund Germany (letter)
Irish Doctors for the Environment (letter)
Ukrainian Children Special Hospital, Kiev (email)
Norwegian Center for Child research (email).

During the meeting the request was repeated to send the letters of endorsement or support of the position paper to either Marie Louise Bistrup or Peter van den Hazel.

The committee agreed on accepting the position paper for a period of approximately 18 months till the planned 2nd International Conference on Children's Health, Environment and Safety in autumn of the year 2000.

There was a request to make a list of the organizations that have been approached up to now. This will be done. Everyone is asked to provide named of additional organizations who could be supporters of INCHES.

During the London '99 meeting the coordination committee will decide which organizations will be used for the letterhead.

Discussion followed on the use of the words endorsement, adoption and support. The strongest is adopt, followed by endorsement and then support. It was seen that Intergovernmental Organizations, eg. WHO could only give their support to INCHES. Others might endorsement the position paper. On the letterhead this will be made clear.

Dawn Walker made the distinction between:

founding partners, who will feel comfortable with the use of their logo. One could limit the letterhead with the names of these organizations.
partners, these could be many organizations.
supporters, would could be philosophically stand behind the ideas of the network, but cannot implement all the ideas.
the funding agencies, who can be found on the different levels of organizations.

The structure of the network will guide the way towards a definite solution to this.

In the working group meeting on 'Establishing the International Network on Children, Health, Environment and Safety', during the weekend it was agreed upon to work the coming period with a consortium of three host organizations. This should be included in the structure of the network. Discussion followed on the structure of the network. For example the question was raised of the network would solely be focusing on information exchange or also on advocating specific policy issues. This would influence the needed structure of the network.

Suggested is to have the coordination committee develop the structure. A warning was given not to think about the long run structure of the network. Especially in regard with future funding this should be taken in consideration. Practical questions will arise like who is going to hire staff?

Dawn Walker stated that the coordination committee needs three sets of people:

founding members, supplemented by experts;
liaison partners to funding organizations;
management representation persons.

Marie Louise Bistrup suggested that the coordination committee should reflect the regions and the different kind of NGO's. In the long run every region needs a coordination committee.

The funding liaison persons in the coordination committee should only have an observation status and not a voting status.

Elaine Price said that WHO would be willing to sit on a coordination committee.

It was concluded that the role of the 'interim' coordination committee was:

to extend the regions;
to develop projects for different time frames;
to monitor ongoing projects;
to set up a secretariat;

It was decided that issues can be brought forward to the website.

Peter van den Hazel stated that to avoid discussion in this phase of INCHES about the scientific sound or precautionary principle INCHES could use the strategy of not making advocating statements, but use the strategy of asking critical questions to the organizations or persons in power of making decisions.

The position paper refers to several Intergovernmental Treaties and Declarations. If INCHES wants to have impact on these treaties it will influence the thinking about the structure of the network.

Stephan Boese O'Reilly pleaded for close cooperation with other international organizations.

Summary of decisions:

The coordination committee goes on as interim committee at least until autumn 2000, when there will be an international conference.

The Coordination committee is extended with representatives of the consortium of three possible hosting organizations: Danish Society of Public Health, the German Oekologischer Aerztebund and Childwatch International. Representative most probably are: Lis Keiding, Stephan Boese O'Reilly and Marie Louise Bistrup.

The German affiliated association will try to get initial funding for a secretariat by the German government.

A statement by INCHES for the Ministerial Conference in London will be prepared by Marie Louise Bistrup and Peter van den Hazel.

A fundraising strategy will be developed. This strategy should be build around the question of what the money will be used for. Money to get for networking as such is difficult. Everyone is asked to make sure that budgets for projects are large enough in order to include some money for the network activities.

Initial fundraising should include a item for fundraising research.

In London (probably a coordination committee meeting will take place there) it will be decided which organizations will be included on the letterhead.

The proposed INCHES homepages, developed by Childwatch International, will be further developed, expanded and refined, and will be launched in London at the INCHES session at the Healthy Planet Forum.

The logo as it has been used until now will be used in the future.
For economic reasons it can also be used in black and white.

A flyer on INCHES will be produced before the London Conference. This flyer will include information on the names of the members of INCHES, of the coordination committee, the website and the activities. This will be prepared by Peter van den Hazel and Marie Louise Bistrup.

Peter van den Hazel will prepare a synopsis for a dynamic background document of INCHES including information about the network, the activities and in the future about for example best practices, working protocols, teaching materials.

The funding proposal, as it was produced last year, will be redistributed for comments. It will be adopted accordingly to the possible funding agencies wishes and criteria. Peter van den Hazel is going to send the proposal to the Coordination committee.

The members of the coordination committee will contact each other through ordinary email system. Everybody is asked to get familiar with the system as presented by Matthias Otto (motto@uminfo.de). This would give us additional possibilities for communication. Other interested organizations are invited to make use of the same system.

Marie Louise Bistrup, Childwatch, will prepare proposal for a communication strategy, including division of labour between the internet-systems offered by UMINFO and EnviroWindows, and identification of the various target groups.

End of report.

The results of the working group meeting on 'Establishing the International Network on Children, Health, Environment and Safety', during the weekend of 13-14 March 1999 will be reported on by WHO.

As everyone can see, a lot of work has been done. But still a lot more has to be done in the future. Anyone who wants to assist us in any way is invited to contact Peter van den Hazel or Marie Louise Bistrup.

Everyone is invited to join us at the Healthy Planet Forum meeting in June in London. INCHES will launch there the European chapter. There will be different activities organized like a workshop. The European Environment Agency, Childwatch International, WHO and the Institute for Environment and Health of the University of Leicester are organizing a 3-hour satellite event on children's health and environment on June 16.

More news on this will follow soon.

Peter van den Hazel, 24 March 1999

Update from the Coordination Committee October -98

Last updated 31. May 1999

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