How the Recovery Plan will protect us from climate diseases
What's in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP) on health, environment and climate. The in-depth study by Enrico Martial
The relationship between health, environment and climate is one of the reforms combined with the investments found in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr, also called Recovery Plan), in particular within Mission 6 "Health", equipped with 18, 1 billion euros. These are the health effects induced on the one hand by pollution and contamination and on the other by natural risks and climate change, which affect the hydrogeological fragility and geographical position of the country.
For the "pollution" part, the NRP also evokes 58 contaminated national sites of interest and the critical conditions of air quality in widespread urban areas and on the industrial plain of the Po. The national sites (SIN) are at serious health risk and periodically updated by ISPRA : industrial areas that are abandoned or in operation, or with accidents involving the release of pollutants or hazardous waste buried or stored. Several reclamations are underway (from Emarèse to Piombino and Cogoledo, from Porto Torres to Bologna and Milazzo) but the process is long, the effects on health affect 6 million inhabitants, 10% of the national population.
As regards air quality, the situation is known: in addition to some urban areas, the Po Valley has been in a serious situation for years (it is 17% of the national surface) and after a patient and inexorable procedure the EU Court of Justice has condemned Italy with sentence of 10 November 2020 , which foreshadows the incoming financial penalties. The first formal notice dates back to 2014 and state intervention has long been necessary: the provisional traffic blocks in Milan or Turin are emergency and not decisive. The other measures (methane or hybrid buses, energy efficiency, etc.) remain limited and fragmented, with differences between areas and cities.
For the "climate change" part, the NRP says that we are quite disarmed and that we need prevention and adaptation tools for the effects on health, based on the guidelines of the G7 Health (under the Italian presidency in 2017), with reference to the Climate and Health Sheet for Italy of the WHO and the 2017 report of the WHO " Protecting health in Europe from climate change ".
If the Italian public debate relegates the issue to "then we'll see" or to ecology, the PNRR and with it the Ministry of Health seem more concerned. There is talk of the damage to health, among other things, due to heat waves (in 2015, 13% more deaths in the over 65s), to the increase in allergens, to the West Nile or Chikungunya virus (in Emilia Romagna in 2007 and in central Italy in 2017), food safety with respect to pathogens of aquatic or animal origin, or with respect to aflatoxins, of which Italy will be the country most affected in the EU.
Without fear, in these sad times, the PNRR response focuses on prevention.
As a "reform", the " National Health-Environment and Climate Prevention System (SNPS)" is established, which affirms the autonomy of the issue with respect to the sector of the National Environmental Protection System (SNPA) in which it has been dealt with so far, from air quality to the spread of allergenic pollen, to the remediation of contaminated sites. The SNPS will have a regional structure (like the ARPAs for the SNPA), while 190 reference structures for prevention will be developed. The two systems, SNPA (i.e. environment) and SNPS (climate-environment health prevention) will be the subject of a single digitization action.
It will take new skills and therefore new health professionals for environmental and climate related issues. A national training center will therefore be created, courses and lessons in the regions, a specialization school in the medical departments by 2025. Legislative measures will follow this path, which is precisely linked to investments.
The expenditure, even if it concerns a very considerable grain, is limited to 500 million in 5 years, within the 18.1 billion euro “Health” mission 6 and a 196.5 billion euro NRP. This is an assignment to initiate or accelerate a more complex process, as occurs in the Recovery Plans of other Member States, with investments complementary to ongoing programs on the circular economy or animal supply chains in the France Relance plan, or on the digitization in the field of railway modernization in the German GRRP.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/come-il-recovery-plan-ci-proteggera-dalle-malattie-del-clima/ on Tue, 30 Mar 2021 05:49:14 +0000.