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A shared future - balanced development

6. Environment and health - Chemicals, environmental pollution, food, physical working environment and physical indoor conditions

Denmark should be a country where pollution from products, food, working environment, traffic and physical indoor conditions affecting the population’s quality of life and health is constantly falling. Harm to animals and plants from pollution should also be limited. The protection level must take account of especially sensitive groups of people - such as children, pregnant women, people who suffer from allergies or from chronic illness - and of particularly vulnerable ecosystems.

Today, the mean life expectancy of Danes is among the lowest in the European Union, and during the last 30 years it has only risen by two years.The primary reason for our low life expectancy is our lifestyle. In order to reverse this trend and improve public health, a number of health policy objectives for prevention and health promotion were presented in 1999, and these are to be taken further in the forthcoming health programme for 2002-2010.The quality of the environment also affects health. Chemicals, micro-organisms  and physical environmental factors maybe harmful to the health of people and animals, and to the environment.The quality of the environment is important in a sustainable society.

Objectives and activities in the future

Denmark must reduce harmful impacts on human health and on the environment to the greatest possible extent, no matter what the source.The Government plans to formulate a strategy for the connection between environmental factors and health, which is to clarify and prioritise measures against harmful impacts on health from, for example, environmental factors, chemicals in products and goods, food, working environment, physical indoor conditions and traffic.

6.1. Chemicals

While chemicals provide many advantages in a modern society, they also entail a number of disadvantages. We do not know enough about the effects on health and the environment of most chemicals today.While needing to expand our knowledge, we must also meet the objective of carrying out fewer animal tests. Computer models and other alternative test methods accommodate both aims.

International, active and future-oriented initiatives in the chemicals field are imperative, because chemicals disperse across borders - primarily through trade in goods but also via the environment. Denmark must be active in the European Union and contribute to ensuring that binding international agreements and conventions address major global environmental problems.

One objective of the Nordic strategy on sustainable development is that dispersions of chemicals that pose a threat to the environment and health are to cease within a generation.

The precautionary principle is an important political instrument, and the Government will endeavour to ensure that this principle contributes to a sufficient and high protection level for approval of pesticides and for the use of other chemicals. Pesticides are approved on the  basis of a risk assessment. Pesticides must be prohibited if their use has unacceptable effects on the environment or human health.

Another important instrument to protect people and the environment against the harmful effects of chemicals is the substitution principle. Substitution means   that harmful compounds, products or processes are substituted by other less harmful compounds, products or processes with the same function. Compounds and products with the least impact on the environment and health must be used as substitutes. The substitution principle is highlighted in the EU’s Sixth Environment Action Programme as a vital element in initiatives to protect people and the environment against harmful impacts from chemicals.

We must focus particularly on the protection of specially sensitive and vulnerable groups of people, especially children and pregnant women. Special attention is being paid to endocrine disrupters.

Objectives and activities in the future

Manufacturers, importers and authorities alike must make sure that chemicals, pesticides and biocides can be used in a way that is safe for human health and the environment.

Denmark must take active measures with respect to chemicals by phasing out hazardous chemicals by 2020 that, on the basis of new knowledge, prove to have harmful effects on human health and the environment.This is also a target in the EU’s Sixth Environment Action Programme.

In the next few years we must focus on the most hazardous chemicals. In the EU, Denmark will work for the implementation of the EU chemicals strategy. Highest priority for Denmark in the strategy is registration of all chemicals as soon as possible, and increased knowledge about the effects of all chemicals, at least in a set of   basic data. Screening using alternative assessment methods such as computer models could be applied. In the EU, Denmark will work for a ban on marketing compounds where no industrial data are available within fixed deadlines.

The use of chemicals must be limited, and whenever relevant any chemicals with harmful effects on human and animal health and on nature must be prohibited.We must avoid unnecessary tests and experiments on animals, including repetition of experiments that have already been carried out. At the same time, we must ensure that the tests carried out entail as little suffering as possible to the animals. 

Chemicals manufacturers must be responsible for examining all chemicals before they are marketed and for providing easily comprehensible information on how to handle products without risk to the  user or the environment.

It is important to retain a high level of protection in assessments of the effects of pesticides and biocides on health and the environment. Biocide consumption must be reduced as much as possible or substituted by less harmful compounds.The Government   will endeavour to use the substitution principle in pesticide assessments. With a view to reducing consumption, pesticide taxes have been introduced, and a number of initiatives have been taken as a follow-up to the Action Plan on Pesticides II to reduce the over-consumption of pesticides in Danish agricultural production. In the long term, the use of pesticides must be reduced to the greatest possible extent. Pesticides must be prohibited if their use has unacceptable effects on the environment or human health.

Nationally and internationally, the  Government will endeavour to ensure that children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups of people are not exposed to hazardous amounts of endocrine disrupters. Dioxin is suspected of being an endocrine disrupter. Dioxin emissions from known  sources must beminimised, and knowledge concerning previously unknown sources must be increased.

6.2. Environmental quality and other environmental factors

The quality of the Danish environment has improved over the last two decades. However, a number of areas remain where the environment is so polluted that it may affect human health or have negative consequences for nature and animals.

One cause of air pollution is suspended particles from diesel vehicles. Recent surveys indicate that suspended particles have an impact on health. The scope of this impact is uncertain. The existing particle level is considered to aggravate conditions, particularly for people with respiratory diseases, and to increase mortality rates.The particle level is considered to have a negative impact on the population’s mean life expectancy, but it is uncertain by how much. Much can be achieved through cleaner technology, diesel and petrol quality requirements, filters on diesel-driven vehicles and trains, and requirements concerning cleaning the smoke from incineration plants. At the same time there is a need for more knowledge about the health impact of the various particle sizes and thepopulation’sexposure to suspended particles.

Ground-level ozone may cause respiratory problems and damage trees and crops. The yield loss due to ozone is estimated at approximately 10 per cent.The greater part of ozone in the air above Denmark is transported here from the south. Ground-level ozone must be limited by reducing NOx and VOC emissions in the countries south of Denmark.

Many people are exposed to noise nuisance. Traffic is the most important source of noise with road traffic being the largest contributor. According to recent estimates, more than 500,000 dwellings are exposed to noise of more than 55 dB from road traffic, the recommended limit value for new housing areas. For approximately 145,000 of these, exposure exceeds 65 dB.The vast majority of dwellings exposed to road traffic noise are in big towns, and more than half are in the greater Copenhagen area.Thanks to the ongoing initiatives of the Danish National Railway Agency, for example setting up sound barriers, the number of dwellings exposed to more than 65 dB from train traffic has fallen to about 7,000. Due to the phasing out of the noisiest aircraft, the number of dwellings exposed to more than 65 dB from air traffic has dropped to about 1,500. In addition, an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 dwellings are exposed to noise exceeding the recommended limit values from companies and noisy leisure activities, such as shooting ranges and racetracks.

The ozone layer, high up in the atmosphere, must be preserved. It protects the Earth from hazardous ultra-violet radiation from the sun, which in excessive doses increases the risk of skin cancer in humans and impedes plant growth.The greenhouse effect accelerates ozone depletion. In coming years, the thin ozone layer will aggravate the damage.

Industrial waste and air pollution have led to soil contamination - especially in old urban areas. Lead and tarry compounds in the soil are a health problem in particular to children living or playing  in these areas. Other compounds cause problemsbecause they disperse to the groundwater. Pesticide residues, chlorinated solvents, the MTBE petrol additive and oil and petrol may pose a  threat to clean groundwater.

Denmark is one of the few countries in Europe to extract almost all drinking water from groundwater that requires very little treatment at water treatment plants. Clean drinking water has always been a high priority as it is a vital resource, and its quality is of great importance for human health and for industry. Groundwater and drinking water monitoring shows, however, that in some areas groundwater quality is under threat. In rural areas, groundwater is threatened because of the use of  pesticides inagriculture, and nitrogen handling in  some parts of Denmark constitutes a major problem.Pesticide use in urban areas also causes pollution  of the groundwater. Contaminated soil threatens the groundwater because of the inappropriate handling of chemicals in the past.

Discharges to the aquatic environment of metals and xenobiotic compounds may affect animals and plants in the short as well as the long term. Many compounds accumulate in the food chains and are thus transferred to humans through the food we catch at sea.

Micro-organisms are everywhere. Some are vital, others may be pathogenic.We have knowledge of some micro-organisms from, for example, beach water, but risks may also come from waste, sludge and sewage. 

Objectives and activities in the future

The content of suspended particles in the air must be so low as to have no negative impact on the quality of the life and health of the Danish population or the environment. Denmark must focus on reducing the content of suspended particles in the air. First, we must get a precise overview of the extent of the problem in Denmark. At the same time we must increase our knowledge about the effects of various measures and technological solutions as a basis for future measures. In the EU, limit values have been established for emissions of particles from new lorries and buses.

Denmark must reduce acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone. Effective implementation of international regulations on the emission of SO2, NOX,VOC and NH3 in Denmark by 2010 has top priority. In the long term, it will be necessary to set new goals and launch new initiatives to ensure that these environmental problems are solved completely.

In 2003, the Government will present a strategy for reduced noise from road traffic. This strategy will include information regarding the feasibility of achieving a significant reduction in the number of dwellings severely affected by road noise. In addition, the strategy will assess the macro-economic costs. All dwellings exposed to train traffic noise exceeding 65 dB are expected to be offered noise protection by 2010. Noise is an important parameter for environmental approval of heavily polluting enterprises. Companies requiring environmental  authorisation often draw up action plans for noise reduction.

Ozone depletion must be halted to reduce the number of skin cancer cases in humans and improve the growing conditions of plants. Denmark will continue its international efforts to phase out ozone-depleting compounds.

It is important to continue our measures against soil contamination.We must make sure that soil contamination in urban areas and pollution that may threaten the current or future supply of drinking water does not give rise to health problems.

Clean drinking water remains a high priority.The ban on pesticides endangering the groundwater must remain in force.Work has commenced on as- sessing whether areas especially sensitive to leaching of pesticides can be designated. On this basis, assessments of the need to regulate application of pesticides in these areas will be carried out. Regional and local authorities and water utility companies must now implement the groundwater mapping framework and groundwater protecting measures to secure clean groundwater in the long term. Denmark must continue its efforts to minimise the threat to groundwater posed by the MTBE petrol additive, preferably by permanently phasing out this compound. Groundwater monitoring must continue to evaluate whether the measures taken to protect the groundwater are effective and to track new problems. Standards must be set for the approval of materials used to distribute drinking water.

Finally, the Water Framework Directive must be implemented in Danish legislation.The Water Framework Directive implies further protection of the aquatic environment. A new system must be established to define specific environmental objectives for ecological conditions in water districts. Concrete initiatives must be implemented based on the nature of and the human impact on individual  aquatic areas. Finally, a water plan must be drawn up which has regard to planning and monitoring results.

It is important to limit emissions to the aquatic environment of metals and xenobiotic compounds accumulating in the food chain. By 2020, emissions of environmentally harmful compounds must be stopped (the generation objective).Wastewater treatment in the open country must be improved. This will also further improve beach-water quality. Finally, the risk of known pathogenic micro-organisms must be assessed. Pathogenic micro- organisms must not be dispersed in the environment to a damaging extent.

6.3. Food

The variety of food has increased and changed over the last decades, for example because of trade and food technology developments. There is increased focus on food quality and safety.The environmental effects on food include inadvertent occurrences of hazardous compounds. Recent years have witnessed increased focus on pollutants in food, for example dioxins,hazardous metallic compounds,TBT (tributyltin) and residues from packaging and pesticides.

Residues of pesticides in food products must be minimised. Food must not contain unacceptable pesticide or pharmaceuticals residues.

To safeguard the population against unacceptable residues of xenobiotic compounds and pathogenic micro-organisms, the authorities lay down rules in this field and implement monitoring programmes.

The common EU limit value for dioxin, in both animal feed and food must secure people againstfood with high levels of dioxin.

For the subject of food safety, please see chapter 9.

Objectives and activities in the future

An absolutely high level of food safety continues. Food-borne illnesses must be combated. The useof additives must be limited as much as possible, and limit values must be established for concentrations of undesirable residues in food.

Limit values for environmental pollution must be established having regard to the precautionary principle.They must be as low as possible. Limit values must be adapted in parallel with new  knowledge, and safety  assessments, risk analyses and control of chemical pollutants and chemicals in production will be continued.

EU efforts to establish common limit values for pesticides should be given a higher priority, as there are still several hundred compounds without common limit values. In this connection, the Government will emphasise restrictive regulation of chemical pest control in agricultural production.

Levels exceeding the new EU limit values for dioxin must be followed up so that the sources of pollution are located and restricted.

Food labelling must be improved and misleading information avoided.

6.4. Health and safety

The Action Programme for a Clean Working Environment 2005 focuses on intensified preventive health and safety measures.The objective is to provide health and safety conditions to avoid completely or minimise fatal accidents, impacts of carcinogenic chemicals and brain injury due to organic solvents or heavy metals. At the same time, we must avoid injury to children and young people from heavy lifting and monotonous repetitive work, health injury caused by psycho-social risk factors and diseases or serious nuisances due to poor physical working conditions.

Chemical substances are often used inhigh concentrations in workplaces and may affect the health of employees. Employees therefore run the risk of serious health problems, such as carcinogenic effects, reproduction toxicity, brain damage or development of allergies. The hazardous compounds may also develop during the work process.

Measures of individual companies must contribute to creating safe, healthy and developing workplaces. An important element of sustainable development in companies is collaboration between management and employees on the environment and health and safety.This cooperation should be strengthened further.

Objectives and activities in the future

In coming years, health and safety measures must also concentrate on implementing the seven visions of the Action Programme for a Clean Working Environment 2005.Within the Action Programme there will be renewed priorities so that the most serious health and safety problems are solved first. Health and safety must be improved through dialogue and cooperation between employees, enterprises, the social partners, and the Government. The use of chemicals at workplaces must be minimised. Work-related injuries caused by exposure to carcinogenic compounds and organic solvents or heavy metals must be avoided by using the least hazardous compounds or materials (the substitution principle).

Companies must receive clear directions for use from manufacturers. Health and safety conditions must be included at the planning stage. Suppliers must be motivated to develop products that take health and safety into account. The social partners must support initiatives to phase out problematic compounds.

6.5. Physical indoor conditions

We spend a great deal of time in our homes. We must therefore focus on good daylight conditions, suitable temperature levels, good air quality and good acoustic conditions in our buildings. Building products and materials must be healthy and must not emit compounds or vapours that may be harmful to health. Possible health effects are headaches, respiratory difficulties and allergies.

In recent years, Denmark has developed a scheme for physical indoor conditions with respect to construction  products. Extensive measures have been introduced againstproblems of mould fungus and increasing numbers of people who are   allergic to house dust mites. Requirements concerning indoor climate and ventilation in building regulationshave been tightened significantly and information has been provided on suitable measures regarding humidity andventilation in housing.

Objectives and activities in the future

Further development and increased demand for the Danish indoor climate labelling scheme is to be encouraged.

Instruments to document the effects of building products on the environment and indoor climate must be developed.

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