Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, Resolution 1816 (2011) - Health hazards of heavy metals and other metals – (Rapporteur: Jean Huss, Doc. 12613, Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 27 May 2011)
As a result of a great amount of scientific research, the permanent exposure of human beings to small doses of heavy metals, such as cadmium, mercury and lead, is increasingly being recognised as one of the co-determinants of certain neurological, cardio-vascular and autoimmune illnesses. Given that every individual has a right to a healthy environment, preventive health strategies aimed at reducing human exposure to heavy metals should be a political priority of all countries. This is made all the more urgent given that the high cost to national health insurance systems is provoked by chronic medical conditions caused, amongst other things, by such harmful substances. The member states of the Council of Europe are invited to put into practice the conclusions of the most recent studies and to limit, as far as possible, the use of heavy metals in agriculture, industry and the medical sector so as to limit their further bioaccumulation in nature, the food chain and, finally, in the human body. Furthermore, the right to a healthy environment should be reinforced through existing instruments of the Council of Europe, such as the revised European Social Charter, as well as through other international treaties, some of which are under preparation.
Publication type:
project report
Publication language:
English
Publication date:
2015
Publication URL:
http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=12818&lang=en
Institute:
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) (PACE)
Country:
EU
Project:
Health hazards of heavy metals and other metals (PACE)

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