Good morning
Welcome to the 5th International Conference on Environmental and Occupational Health
Since its first meeting in 2002, this conference has provided fora for experts, scientists and managers in environmental and occupational health to present their latest works and discuss innovative policies and interventions to address both new and long-standing health challenges every 4 years.
At its 5th gathering, this year, we have more than 300 participants from 16 countries today. We can say with confidence that this conference is truly an international conference. I would congratulate this success to the leaders of the Ministry of Health of Viet Nam and the National Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health of Viet Nam.
The theme of this conference is “Occupational Health and Environment: Challenges and Opportunities in Sustainable Development”. This topic is very relevant and timely.
Last July, the Member States of United Nations gathered at a high-level political forum on sustainable development in New York in order to review progress towards the SDGs. This year, the theme of SDG review is “transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies”. The high-level political forum focused its review on several goals.
Of these, review findings on goals 6 are quite relevant to the theme of this conference. Target 6.1 aims to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. Target 6.2 aims to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.
Goal 13 is about climate action which will be reviewed in-depth at the high-level political forum in 2019. Target 13.1 aims to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. Target 13.2 aims to integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
The Paris Agreement is a collective commitment of countries in order to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial level and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degree Celsius.
There are 195 signatories to this Agreement – 194 countries and the European Union – which means this is the truly global commitment. This Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2015.
As of today, 180 parties either ratified, accepted, approved or accessed their signatories to this Agreement. Planetary warming continues. In 2018, we witnessed an exceptional heat wave has been sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic Circle and Scandinavia to California, Japan, the Republic of Korea and North Africa for several weeks, setting record high temperatures and causing drought, wildfires and excess deaths. Studies showed that climate change has impacts on health and health systems. Stronger efforts are needed to build climate- and disaster-resilient health systems to protect public health from climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
Goal 3 is about healthy lives and well-being. Target 3.9 aims to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination by 2030.
The high-level political forum in 2017 already went through an in-depth review on the progress of SDG3. Some of its conclusion are quite relevant to today’s conference. These included that:
- Health solutions need to take a human rights approach
- Health solutions need to proactively address climate change and pollution, financial mechanisms, training of health care workers and devoting adequate and timely funding, technology and innovation.
- The importance of working across sectors, including the private sector should be further highlighted.
- Flexible and participatory science, technology and innovation roadmaps at national and global levels are essential to support SDG achievement.
- More attention should be given to existing low‐cost technologies requiring scientists and innovators to engage with the realities of local communities.
Colleagues and friends
WHO is committed to support countries and communities to make progress towards SDGs including environmental health, occupational health and climate action.
Later this month, WHO, with financial support from Australia, will launch a project to strengthen the quality and sustainability of water, sanitation and hygiene services including in health care facilities in four countries – Bhutan, Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam. In Viet Nam, we will focus our support on the following areas:
- Improving drinking water quality through rolling out of National Program for Water Safety and strengthening capacity of rural water suppliers; and
- Strengthening WASH in health care facility.
Approximately 7 million people are dying from air pollution every year, incuding 2.2 million in the Western Pacific Region. WHO will convene the first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health from 30 October to 1 November this year in Geneva, Switzerland. This conference will be organized in collaboration with UN Environment, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The conference will update the evidence on the health impacts of air pollution; methods of monitoring pollution and health exposures; and tools for assessing and implementing effective interventions. It will support strong health sector leadership for change, in partnership with other sectors. Cities and countries will be invited to join the Breathe-Life campaign and commit to reducing air pollution by 2030 in line with WHO Air Quality Guidelines.
WHO Viet Nam will also launch the Breathe-Life campaign later this year in Viet Nam.
Dengue Fever is a climate-change-sensitive mosquito born infectious disease. In order to strengthen climate change adaptation and address dengue epidemics, WHO Viet Nam will develop an integrated dengue outbreak early warning system driven by satellite data with the support of United Kingdom. It is a joint programme of WHO and UNDP as well as academia and government authorities in health and meteorology in Viet Nam and United Kingdom.
In occupational health area, we are alarmed that the majority of workers are not provided with even the most basic occupational health services in their workplaces. Globally only 15% of workers are receiving occupational health services by their employers. Most of workers in the small business, self-employed or informal sector do not receive any occupational health services at all. This is not acceptable because workers are one half of the total population in most countries, and they are those who produce goods and services of the society. In this context, WHO is promoting Universal Occupational Health Coverage. WHO Viet Nam is also advocating the total ban of asbestos in Viet Nam to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.
Ladies and gentlemen
This international conference will cover all of the above topics comprehensively. I would like to encourage that the participants from Viet Nam and around the world actively exchange their experiences in the plenary, parallel and poster sessions for three days. I hope you will build a consensus on possible collaborations meet the challenges as mentioned above. This international conference could be a starting point for the international partners to cooperate to improve occupational and environmental health in the era of SDGs.
In closing, I would like to thank main organizer of this conference, the National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health for their dedication and hard work.
My big thanks should also go to the co-sponsor, the National Institute of Occupational Safety Health of United States.
I wish all the participants productive discussion and scientific achievement during next three days.
I wish all the participants from outside Ha Noi enjoy delicious food, hospitality, history and beautiful scenes of Ha Noi during your stay.
Thank you.