Europe is to get a new focus on diseases caused by the environment, it was announced yesterday.
The World Health Organisation claims that one in five deaths in Europe are linked to environmental factors, such as pollution, noise and poor housing.
Now the German government has agreed to back WHO to expand its centre based in Bonn, Germany, to tackle environmental health problems.
The centre, first set up ten years ago, says that air pollution is responsible for cutting more than eight months off European life expectancy. It says poor housing is responsible for 100,000 deaths.
Its latest report focuses on poverty in the newest EU countries, identifying some seven million people with no bath or shower in their homes.
WHO regional director Zsuzsanna Jakab said: “We live in a constantly changing environment that prompts us to be innovative in our work and adapt our strategies to it.
"I envisage the renewed centre as a regional hub of excellence, supporting European countries in providing healthy environments to all their people – and, I emphasise, to all their people, equally."
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