Prescription for Johannesburg
Statement of Public Health and Other Public Interest Organizations on the World Summit on Sustainable Development
August/September 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa
The undersigned public health and other public interest organizations present the following statement on the important linkages between public health, the environment, and sustainable development. This “Prescription for Johannesburg†serves as guidance for addressing critical environmental health issues at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (the Summit) and its preparatory meetings.
We, the undersigned public health and other public interest organizations,
Recognizing that sustainable development and public health are intrinsically linked because human health is dependent upon the environments in which people live, work and play;
Noting that rates of a number of human diseases and health conditions are on the rise worldwide, including:
· Asthma, which kills more than 180,000 people worldwide each year and affects the breathing of up to 150 million more children and adults, rates that have risen steadily during the past decade.[i]
· Diabetes, which is rising dramatically and expected to affect more than 300 million people worldwide by 2025.[ii]
· Lead poisoning, a completely preventable disease that nonetheless still affects tens of millions of children and adults worldwide.
· Pesticide poisoning, which kills some 40,000 agricultural workers yearly worldwide, and affects the health of between 2 million and 5 million more due to improper use and labeling of dangerous pesticides.[iii]
· Diarrheal disease, which kills 2.2 million children annually, with 90 percent of cases caused by environmental factors such as poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water and safe food.[iv]
Understanding that environmental pollution has been linked to these health conditions and to a number of other detrimental effects on human health, including cancer and birth defects;
Mindful that the World Health Organization has determined that poor environmental quality is responsible for 25 percent of all preventable ill-health in the world today, and that children’s health is most damaged, with as much as two-thirds of all preventable ill-health due to environmental concerns occurring in children;[v]
Acknowledging that children are uniquely vulnerable to environmental exposures because they are in a dynamic state of growth, with many vital systems such as nervous, immune and respiratory systems not fully developed upon birth, and are thus more likely to suffer and die from preventable health problems caused or exacerbated by environmental conditions;
Aware that poverty is a major contributor to, and the result of, environmental degradation and human illness;
Recognizing that pollution prevention and the sound management of chemicals is essential for sustainable development and the protection of human health and the environment;
Conscious of the need for the transfer of financial and technological resources in order to build the capacity of developing countries to deal with poverty, environmental pollution, and public health, and to promote sustainable development;
Recalling that the international community has committed itself to addressing crucial environmental health issues through international treaties and fora such as the Stockholm Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
Have agreed and strongly recommend that:
1. The Summit identify and prioritize efforts to further integrate environmental and health concerns and solutions in all countries;
2. The Summit address precaution, as set forth in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, in decision-making for sustainable development;
3. The Summit devote particular attention to issues of children’s environmental health in the context of sustainable development, and that all governments, worldwide, commit to domestic steps to specifically recognize the special susceptibilities of children and protect them from harmful environmental conditions and exposures;
4. Even before the Summit, all governments commit to ratifying the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and depositing their instrument of ratification by June 6, 2002, such that the Convention might enter into force on or before the close of the Summit;
5. All governments commit to ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, including a commitment by all countries to substantial domestic cuts of greenhouse gas emissions;
6. In addition, specific outcomes of the Summit should include, among other things:
- A global initiative to implement previous commitments to phase out leaded gasoline, and to achieve the expedited completion of the phaseout;
- A global commitment to reduce by half the proportion of households worldwide without full access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation systems by 2010;
- A global plan of action to ensure the timely phaseout of DDT under the Stockholm Convention, including commitments to increase development assistance for less-toxic malaria control programs, and to increase funding worldwide for malaria research;
- A global initiative to develop standardized systems and methods for tracking environmental contamination, human exposures, and relevant health outcomes in all countries; policy and performance indicators and data reporting to monitor and evaluate program implementation; and procedures for providing the public with access to such data;
- The establishment of a Intergovernmental Panel on Children’s Environmental Health that will assess the effects of environmental exposures and conditions on children’s health and the risk of exposure, and a commitment to establish standardized methods of data collection and analysis, data reporting, and public dissemination of information collected;
5. Each United Nations regional organization initiate an annual meeting of Environment Ministers and Health Ministers of the region, for discussion of regional environmental health concerns and development of common strategies and joint activities to dedicated to improvement of health in the region; and
6. The United States and other industrialized countries renew their commitments to sustainable development by taking leadership at home, building the capacity of their own governments to protect human health from harmful environmental conditions, and committing to the transfer of financial and technological resources to effectively promote sustainable development around the world, including meeting and expanding their current commitments to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
[i] WHO. Bronchial Asthma. Fact Sheet No. 206. World Health Organization:2000.
[ii] International Diabetes Federation. June 2000.
[iii] International Labour Organization. New report on farm safety. Warning to agricultural workers: Mortality rates remain high, and pesticides pose an increasing health risk. World of Work No. 22, December 1997. Available http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/magazine/22/22farm.htm
[iv] WHO. Health and Environment in Sustainable Development: Five Years after the Earth Summit: Executive Summary. World Health Organization: 1997.
[v] WHO. Health and Environment in Sustainable Development: Five Years after the Earth Summit: Executive Summary. World Health Organization: 1997.
Signed By:
[Contact Karen Perry at Physicians for Social Responsibility for current sign-ons to date.]
