Warning over enviromental challenges of economic success

Economic success brings with it challenges to environmental health, a major conference in Dublin was told today.

Ann Marie Part, Chairman of the Irish Environmental Health Officers Association, told the ninth World Congress on Environmental Health that Ireland has changed a lot since the Celtic Tiger began to roar.

“So much has changed for the better in Ireland and this has been especially marked by our economic success,” she said.

“However this has created new challenges in regard to environmental health.

“We are now apartment dwellers with often just one dweller per household. We live further from work and we spend endless hours on cars and trains.

“Deaths on our roads are relentless – accidents at work are on the increase. We are cash rich and time poor. We eat out more often and obesity is now a major concern.”

Ms Part said the industry and services sectors had boomed in recent years meaning more and more people were leaving the farming sector.

“The sons and daughters of farmers are now the hedge fund managers and agriculture, once our most important sector is now dwarfed by industry and services,” she said.

“Per capita GDP is 10% above that of the two major European economies and second only to Luxembourg in the EU.”

The five-day conference at Trinity College has attracted over 400 leading environmentalists from around the world to address the four key areas of Environment and Health, Public Health, Occupational Health and Food Safety.

Other speakers at the conference today were John O’Shea of GOAL, Professor Gerard Hastings of the University of Stirling on Tobacco, Jorgen Schlundt, WHO, on Food Safety and Dr Robert Maynard, Dept of Health, UK, on Public Health.

Minister for Health Mary Harney will address the conference on Thursday.