Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-195"
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"en.20050222.13.2-195"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it was high time that account was taken of the direct impact which environmental factors may have on man. This is something that we oncologists know about and, unfortunately, frequently come up against.
Environmental pollution plays a huge part in the development of cancer, a disease which will attack one in three Europeans during their lifetime. Allow me to give you a prediction, Commissioner: at the rate at which cardiology, both interventional and surgical, is progressing today, do not be surprised if, in a few years' time, cancer becomes the primary cause of death in the Member States of the European Union. However, the prevention of cancer and other diseases is necessary and clearly more economical than their further treatment. I would like to emphasise here that smoking, against which Commissioner Kyprianou is campaigning, is the basic but not the only environmental factor which plays a huge part in the development of cancer. Unfortunately, the Commission confines itself in the REACH plan to pronouncements alone, while it delays the definition of legislative measures and special headings for their application with the excuse that more research is needed. As Mrs Ries also said, the plan is an evaluation plan rather than an action plan. There are numerous valid scientific studies on substances which are harmful to the environment and human health, which makes us wonder what interests the Commission is protecting: the interests of the European citizen or of the big industries? There is an urgent need for certain specific dangerous substances referred to in the report to be withdrawn from the European market, especially as safer alternatives are available. In this case, among other things, the supposed lack of information should not be put forward as an excuse for the lack of action. Similarly, it is absolutely necessary for resources to be found both for research, which naturally needs to be intensified, and for the prevention of diseases with an environmental cause.
Nowhere does the plan propose taking recourse to the precautionary principle. Nor does it stipulate where the money will come from. In addition, resources are needed for informing the public and professionals, with a view to cleaning up workplaces and indoor and outdoor spaces frequented by children from active and passive smoking, which the report provides for, as well as from other factors. I should like to emphasise here the vulnerable position of low-income social groups which, because of their economic and social position, are exposed to a disproportionate degree to environmental risks, such as workers in unhealthy professions.
I close with the hope that both the European Commission and the European Council will take serious account of the report by Mrs Ries, whom I congratulate on her work."@en1
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