Stephen Battersby - CIEH

---

ePolitix.com speaks to Stephen Battersby, president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, about its upcoming conference on climate change and healthwhich takes place on November 20 in London.

Question: How does climate change impact upon public health?

Stephen Battersby: In a wide variety of ways: there is a growing body of information and evidence on the health impacts of climate change. And there is an increasing realisation of the need to know more. As recently as October 2008, the World Health Organization agreed a research agenda to develop an evidence-based framework for action on the human health implications of climate change.

This plan will build on a comprehensive review of what is already known about health risks from climate change.

But not only does climate change carry a direct and indirect health warning. It is already - and will continue to at an ever-escalating rate if left unchecked - contributing towards widening the gap in health inequalities.

In other words, the health impacts of climate change will inequitably affect those in our society who are most disadvantaged and least able to cope.

One example of this is the rapid and exponential price rise in commodities such as fuel and food. The reasons behind these are fundamentally linked to the developed world's insatiable hunger for fossil fuels – and the drive to find 'greener' alternatives to what is ultimately a finite natural resource in the form of oil.

It is very likely that we will see increasing numbers of people in our society in both food and fuel poverty as a result of this, along with the adverse health effects that often follow.

There are likely to be increased threats to health and wellbeing in the British Isles as a result of climate change. These have been predicted based on current evidence and modeling. They can be grouped under three main headings in terms of the anticipated or predicted impacts, namely:

• Increasing temperatures – problems associated with heat waves, food poisoning, vector borne disease
• Increasing rainfall – problems associated with flooding and water-borne disease
• Global issues – social problems associated with the climate changing, such as overcrowding, migration and changing weather patterns linked to issues of food security and production capacity

Question: Who will we be hearing from at the conference?

Stephen Battersby: The conference will take the form of a half day with lunch question time event chaired by Charlotte Smith, presenter of BBC Country File and Radio 4 Farming Today and it will be web cast to the CIEH website and advertised for access to all our members and stakeholders.

There will be an eminent panel of key speakers, including Professor Tim Lang of City University, probably the foremost expert on food policy and safety issues, who will be talking about future food safety and security issues; Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency; David Pencheon, director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit; Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association Environment Board and Paul Kelly, director of corporate affairs at Asda.

The panel will be joined by Professor Stephen Battersby, president of the CIEH, and will be asked to address the five key challenges for them or their organisations in addressing climate change effects on public health.

There will also be a pre-recorded video presentation from Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor at Griffith University, Australia.

The event will be held at the CIEH's new and prestigious conference facility, 15 Hatfields, which has been designed to full environmental specifications and we think is the most sustainable venue in London.

To coincide with the conference, the CIEH will be issuing a web based resource that will be the first of a range of materials we shall be developing which we hope will raise the profile of climate change within the profession and advocate the case for environmental health interventions in mitigating the health impacts and developing adaptation strategies.

The material will include a comprehensive resources section, providing links to the major sources of information on climate change and its potential health impacts.

Question: What part can environmental health practitioners play in addressing the health impacts of climate change?

Stephen Battersby: Human health must be the key driver at the heart of action on climate change – it must be embedded in the political debate, in strategies to change how we live and in how we plan for the future. This will require action at all levels and by everyone. Environmental health practitioners are no exception – indeed, we believe we should be key players and enablers.

At the heart of environmental health is a fundamental understanding of the relationship between people's health and the environment: whether that be in the houses they live in, the places they work, the food and drink they consume or communities they interact with.

Environmental health practitioners, whether they work in the private, public or voluntary sectors, have the skills to make a significant contribution to what must be a shared priority for all of society.

We can make this contribution in three core domains. Externally with the businesses, organisations and communities we work with on a daily basis; internally within our own organisations or at a personal level within our families and local communities.

This work needs to include both activities and interventions designed to reduce carbon emissions, as well as to prepare for events such as heat waves, floods, global food shortages, infectious diseases and mass population shifts.

And it is those least able to cope with climate change - the old, the poor, the sick and the young - who are hardest hit by climate change even in Europe and the so-called developed nations.

Climate change places a spotlight on health and social inequalities and presents us with multiple challenges on how to keep the most vulnerable people safe and work together as a public health community.

Many governments around the world have made economic development a key priority and strategic goal. However, the economy and the environment are critically interdependent – a healthy economy requires a healthy environment.

It is imperative that we all realise that unless we can secure our survival as a species then all the economic growth in the world will be for nothing.

Question: What is your goal in launching an associate parliamentary group for environmental health?

Stephen Battersby: It is part of the Chartered Institute's commitment to raise the profile of environmental and public health issues at the highest level and to enhance the role of environmental health and its practitioners.

One of the frustrations for the CIEH over the years when it has come to projecting our views to government and parliamentarians is that there is no specific select committee or parliamentary group or department of government that encompasses the whole interconnecting range of functions and interests of direct relevance to environmental health.

There are select committees for health and for environment but both of these subjects, though related, are distinct from environmental health.

We are delighted with the support we have received from parliamentarians to date: over 30 MPs and peers have pledged their support to the group. We have had a very successful inaugural meeting in June and we will be holding a second meeting on November 18, at which we will be discussing the increasingly important need for planning and environmental health collaboration in the creation of sustainable and healthy communities.

The APG is just part of a wider strategy to press our case on public health issues that matter; for instance, we intend to argue that government measures to address climate change issues are far too fragmented, despite the welcome creation of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Government needs to be more joined-up when tackling the wide range of issues that climate change impacts upon, including health.