CHEMICAL SAFETY IN WHO
REGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE
The WHO European Region
53 Member States: 900 000 000 pop.
WHO European Centre for
Environment and Health
The Centre structure
• Five teams
environmental health policy and governance
water, sanitation and climate change
living and working environments (chemical safety)
environment and health intelligence
Head of the office team
Chemical safety vs/and chemicals
management
• Three type of environmental factors determining
human health:
chemical
biological
radionuclear
Chemicals and sustainable development
Economy growth
Food security
Households
Health
Etc….
Environment
Pollution
Diseases and
ill-health
Sustainable development
Chemical safety
and SDGs
• Management of
chemicals will benefit
to achievement of
many if not all SDGs
WHA Resolutions
WHO Risk Assessment
Network
WHO Network of National
focal Points on chemicals
and health
Ostrava Declaration: Portfolio of actions
Priorities
Substitu
tion, Risk
Reduction Capacity
building
Exposure
monitoring,
HBM
Research
the IHR
Policy and
legislation
HS
involvement
Development of national
policies and actions to protect
vulnerable population groups
from the adverse impact of
chemicals
Ensure capacities to prevent and
respond to acute events and
strengthen poison control
centers
Ensure core capacities for the
IHR implementation in terms of
chemicals events
Promote human
biomonitoring as a
public health policy
tool and support
Develop policies to promote substitution of hazardous products
Provide relevant information to all
partners about health effects of
chemicals and effective actions to
prevent it
Establish multisectoral
mechanisms to
coordinate actions
Promote international
collaboration in scientific
research
Mapping priorities and activities
• Prohibition of Lead in Pants (11 countries)
• Development of biocides regulation
(Georgia, Ukraine)
• Implementation of key elements of sound
chemicals management systems (Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan)
• Elimination of mercury-containing devises
from the health sector (Albania, Montenegro,
since 2021)
Sharing knowledge and best practise, assistance in drafting of
legal acts and strategies, training on basic elements of a legal
framework and legislation enforcement
HS
involvement
Priority
Substitution
Policy and
legislation
Mapping priorities and activities
• Standard operating procedures for
sampling and analysis of mercury
in biological matrices, and
• Survey protocol on mercury HBM
• Pilot mercury HBM survey (the
Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan plus 4
countries in other WHO Regions)
• Overview of methods for sampling and
analysis of chemicals in indoor air
HS
involvement
Priority HBM,
exposure
Mapping priorities and activities
• National chemical registers and
inventories: benefits and
approaches to development
• A tool/software for assessment of
combined exposure to multiple
chemicals in indoor air in public
settings for children (will be launched
in May 2021)
HS
involvement
Priority
Risk
assessment
and
reduction
Mapping priorities and activities
Training on basic element of sound chemicals management system (11
countries, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, 9-13 April 2019)
Promotion of participation in the WHO Chemicals Risk Assessment
and WHO Chemicals and Health Networks
Capacity building in the health sector - trainings in the framework of
funded projects; topics that were covered:
- risk assessment and risk communication;
- cumulative risk assessment,
- rapid risk assessment;
- HBM,
- REACH and chemicals registration;
- biocides regulation;
- GHS;
- IOMC Toolbox on decision making;
- health impact assessment; etc.
HS
involvement
Priority
HS
involvement
Thank you
(zastenskayai@who.int)