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Published on August 9, 2007

Ministers responsible for the environment and health in 14 Southeast and East Asian countries will today adopt a regional charter to express commitment to increasing capacity to manage the environment and health. The meeting will be held in Bangkok.

Initiated by high-level environment and health officials of the 14 countries in 2004, the Charter of the Regional Forum and Framework for Cooperation on the Environment and Health in Southeast and East Asian Countries is now complete and will be adopted during the Ministerial Regional Forum on Environment and Health.

HRH Princess Chulabhorn, as the president of the Chulabhorn Research Institute, will attend the meeting as the keynote speaker.

The 14 countries to adopt the charter, which is the first regional agreement linking environmental and health issues, are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea.

Pisaan Saanprasert, director of the Public Health Ministry's Bureau of Environmental Health, said the charter demonstrated that all 14 countries were concerned about public health issues caused by environmental deterioration in the region.

"Now we not only have environmental and health problems, but also environmental health problems. We have to tackle the problems by addressing the two issues at the same time," Pisaan said.

He said regional commitment to dealing with the problems was a priority as the issue is borderless. Regional environmental problems that have been discussed in recent years include haze that originates in Sumatra and causes health problems for people in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

A World Health Organisation study last year showed that environmental risk factors contribute to 24 per cent of the global burden of

diseases and 23 per cent of all deaths.

In Thailand, environmental problems contribute to 40 per cent of all deaths. Lifestyle and genetics come second and third, said Pisaan. He said a recent study showed that cancer among Thais was mostly caused by environmental problems rather than genetic factors.

Under the charter, all 14 countries would cooperate in drawing up regional action plans to address environmental issues including air quality, water supply, hygiene and sanitation, solid waste and hazardous waste disposal, toxic chemical and hazardous substance disposal, climate change and contingency planning, and preparedness and response to environmental health emergencies. Moreover each nation would also draw up its own national strategic environmental health plan on the same themes.

Pisaan said Thailand had already set up an Environmental Health Cooperation Committee and the drafting process for the national plan had already been started by the Public Health and Environment ministries.

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation