EuSANH methodology article published

 The EuSANH methodology article “A framework for scientific advice on health: EuSANH’s principles and guidelines” has been published in author version in Health Research Policy and Systems.

 The publication can be downloaded from the website of Health Research Policy and Systems: http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/11/1/6

EuSANH members’ update, December 2012

 WELCOME

Dear friends,

Let me first thank all of you for the confidence and support received to propose me as new president.  EuSANH enters now a new period during which we have to develop this network based upon the good foundational work done so far. We have something to offer, and we have to make sure that we can disclose this potential to policy makers, public health practitioners and society at large. We already discussed in Malta some activities for 2013, and we will review them at the beginning of the year.

EuSANH is as capable as the ideas we all may have. Please let me know about them.

EuSANH is highly indebted to the Health Council of the Netherlands. Great thanks to André, Louise and of course Dorine. Many thanks also to the rest of you, who made EuSANH what it is.

Carlos Segovia.

Please find the latest EuSANH news, mainly focussing on the activities EuSANH performed during the last European Public Health Conference in Malta on 7-10 November.

NEW EUSANH PRESIDENT – CARLOS SEGOVIA

On 8 November EuSANH held its second Governing Council meeting at the EPH conference in Malta. Nine EuSANH member organisations were represented. With the transfer of the EuSANH banner, Carlos Segovia from the Carlos III Health Institute in Spain was officially nominated as the new EuSANH president for the coming period. Segovia gave a short speech highlighting his ideas for 2013. Also the EuSANH secretariat will be transferred to ISCIII, contact persons are Lucía del Rio ldrio@isciii.es and Mercedes García mqarciaq@isciii.es. Minutes of the meeting have been sent to all EuSANH members. 

NEW EUSANH ADVICE PUBLISHED: childhood leukaemia and environmental factors

This EuSANH report is a joined activity of the Dutch and Belgian Health Councils. All EuSANH members were contacted at the review phase to nominate national experts for review the report. They provided constructive comments. Furthermore, in a face-to-face review meeting last May, all provided comments were discussed by the Committee.

This concrete example from collaboration of EuSANH members was presented at the GC meeting by Jean Nève (SHC, BE). He stated that it is stimulating to work together and harmonise the advisory process. As it is also time consuming, good project management is essential. The report was published in the Netherlands and Belgium on 7 December 2012 and is also being widely distributed among EuSANH members. Click here for the report and inform your Ministry of Health on this EuSANH advice.

EXCELLENT EUSANH WORKSHOP ON ‘REASONS BEHIND THE DIFFERENCES IN NATIONAL VACCINATION SCHEDULES FOR UNDER FIVE’

The issue was presented by prof. Karl Ekdahl from ECDC and Heidi Theeten from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute of the Antwerp University. This was be followed by a panel discussion with EuSANH members’ experts on the observed differences. Harmonisation of vaccination schedules is not considered the main issue, as differences in vaccination schedules do exists. But the reasons behind the differences should be explained in an understandable and coherent way to the public. A workshop report will follow soon. Presentations can be found in the EuSANH public library.

KEY NOTE LECTURE ON VALORISATION BY LOUISE GUNNING

Past EuSANH’ President Louise Gunning gave a keynote lecture on valorisation at the opening session of the EPH conference in Malta last November. She highlighted that producing sound scientific advice is one way to get the message from research to policy and decision makers.

EUPHA MEMBERS WERE TRAINED IN EUSANH METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK         

Last EPH conference EuSANH members also gave a training seminar to EUPHA members on the principles and guidelines of producing sound science advice. The presentation and booklet of the framework can be downloaded here .

REQUEST FOR MEMBERS’ WORK PROGRAMME OF ADVISORY TOPICS FOR 2013

A reminder to send the advisory topics your organisation is going to work on next year to the EuSANH secretariat. These topics might be relevant for others too and can help you to make use of existing advisory reports from other SABs. On the other hand collaboration between members on the same topics can be initiated as was done on the leukaemia advice by the Dutch and Belgian Health Council. Furthermore, a POP tool developed by our Belgian partners might be used in near future to listing, planning and searching all members’ activities.

Finally, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you do not want to receive the EuSANH updates anymore, please return this message with the subject: ’please delete me from the mailing list’

Every year, about 80 children in Belgium and 140 children in the Netherlands are diagnosed with leukaemia. A longstanding question is which role environmental factors play in the occurrence of this disease. An extensive evaluation of the scientific knowledge on a wide range of possible factors, jointly undertaken by the Belgian Superior Health Council and the Dutch Health Council within the framework of the European Science Advisory Network for Health (EuSANH), shows in general limited evidence for causal links with leukaemia in children. The possibilities for protective measures are therefore also limited, especially given the complex interplay between genetic susceptibilities and environmental exposures, both natural and man-made. It is highly likely that most cases of leukaemia cannot be prevented, and it will probably never be possible to explain individual cases of childhood leukaemia.

The incidence of childhood leukaemia has increased in the last decade of the 20th century, giving rise to questions about the role of exposure to certain environmental factors. Although this trend now seems to have been stopped or even reversed, these questions inspired the current risk assessment. In their evaluation of health risks and recommendations for policy measures, the two health councils have been guided by a precautionary approach. They therefore recommend limiting the exposure to possibly detrimental environmental factors as much as is feasible.

Only for ionising radiation, a link with childhood leukaemia has been labelled as ‘established’. With the exception of radiation emitted by the noble gas radon, exposure to naturally occurring radiation cannot be reduced. In the case of man-made radiation, however, a reduction in exposure is possible: in medical diagnostics more caution in weighing risks and benefits is warranted, particularly where young children and pregnant women are concerned.

A relation with exposure to benzene is deemed ‘likely’, a relation with parental tobacco smoking and with exposure to pesticides and certain other chemicals, such as PCBs, ‘possible to likely’. These findings justify efforts to further reduce such exposures, once again focusing on pregnant women, as well in the work place as at home, and on children.

Two potentially protective relations are also considered ‘likely’: breast-feeding and exposure to day-care attendance or other contacts between young children.

For all other environmental factors under study, including electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of high power lines, the likelihood of a relation with childhood leukaemia has been labelled as either ‘possible’, ‘uncertain’ or ‘unknown’. At most, these findings can reinforce existing recommendations and protective measures, including those to limit other health risks.

Since the numbers of patients per country may often be too small to firmly establish links between environmental factors and childhood leukaemia, more international studies are necessary. Further study on the risks of exposure to a number of specific factors, particularly pesticides and frequent ultrasounds, is also required, as is research into the accumulation of exposures and risks.

The publication ‘Childhood leukaemia and environmental factors’ (nr 2012/33) can be downloaded from here. A printed version can be requested with the Health Council secretariate, fax +31703407523, e-mail: order@gr.nl. Further information can be obtained by dr Eric van Rongen, tel. +31703405730, e-mail e.van.rongen@gr.nl.

The publication can also be downloaded as report nr 8548 from the website of the Superior Health Council of Belgium: www.hgr-css.be. Further information can be obtained by Wendy Lee, e-mail: wendy.lee@gezondheid.belgie.be, tel: +3225240946, GSM: +32477980102.

EuSANH’s update – September 2012

Dear members and friends of EuSANH,

 Please find the latest update to inform you on some interesting activities and topics.

 EuSANH Workshop on vaccination schedules, Malta 8 November 8.30-10.00 am

The workshop ‘Reasons behind the differences in national vaccination schedules for under five’ has been scheduled at the European Public Health pre-conference programme on Thursday morning 8 November at 8.30-10.00 am. The issue will be presented by Marc Sprenger, director from ECDC and Heidi Theeten (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp). This will be followed by a panel discussion with EuSANH members’ experts on the observed differences. You can find the outline at http://www.eupha.org/repository/conference/Malta%202012/Pre-conferences/EU_sanH_pre_conference.pdf  We hope to welcome all members, advisors and others interested to attend our session and participate in the discussion.

 Invitation EuSANH Governing Council meeting, Malta 8 November,  2:20-3:50 pm

We are pleased to invite all EuSANH members for the EuSANH Governing Council meeting during the EPH conference in Malta on Thursday afternoon, November 8th. The programme will include the business meeting with the change of the presidency and secretariat, a review on our activities in 2012 and a forward view on 2013.  As we will extend our Executive Board up from the current four to five members, we would like to know your interest to become an EB member. Nominations for the Executive Board members and location of the Secretariat can be send by 1 October tod.coenen@gr.nl. The final programme will be send by the end of October. Please do not forget to register for the EPH (pre)-conference at www.eupha.org

 Reminder membership fees

To have our EuSANH finances in order before the Governing Council meeting, we would like to remind you to pay your outstanding 2012 membership fees before 1 October 2012.

 Reminder for your advisory topics 2012-2013

If you are going to work on advisory topics that could be of relevance for other EuSANH members please let me know. A title in English, a short description and a contact person might be sufficient to start first contacts. Further appointments can then be made in Malta. An overview will be published on our website.

For more information on the specific issues, please contact the EuSANH secretariat at d.coenen@gr.nl

Dear members,

Enclosed you will find the EuSANH NEWSLETTER !
May we remind you to forward the EuSANH e-newsletter to relevant national and regional stakeholders and target groups.

As this newsletter is open for improvement, I kindly ask you to send your comments to eusanh@eusanh.eu .

Kind regards

The Childhood Leukaemia Project: evaluation of a bottom-up international collaboration between scientific health advisory bodies within the EuSANH framework 

Within the framework of EuSANH two of the participating SAB’s, the Dutch Health Council (HC) and the Belgian Superior Health Council (SHC), decided to collaborate on a scientific advice regarding the role of environmental factors in the induction of childhood leukaemia.

At the start of the project, a project fiche was written by the secretariat members with the help of experts. A list of necessary expertise was drafted by the secretariats of the SAB’s and 8 experts per country were chosen from shortlists of national top experts, assuring 1 or 2 experts per expertise.

Travel expenses were paid by each SAB for their own experts, the organization of the meetings was assured and paid for by the SHC and the drafting of the document (including a systematic literature review) was assured and paid for by the HC.

As to the setup of the advice, prior to the meetings of the experts, a systematic literature review was conducted by the HC. A small group of experts decided on the search and inclusion/exclusion criteria used for this systematic literature search which was thereafter performed the Dutch branch of the Cochrane Collaboration.

The next step consisted of five meetings of each approximately 4 hours in Antwerp. At the first meeting the methodology and results of the literature search were presented to the group of experts: determining ‘gaps’ and important publications which were missed by the systematic literature review. In the next meetings, spread over one year, draft advices were discussed by the working group.

The advice is currently being finalized and will be peer reviewed by a large group of invited experts from Belgium, The Netherlands and other EuSANH partners on the 3^rd of May.

Dear members,

Enclosed you will find the EuSANH NEWSLETTER !
May we remind you to forward the EuSANH e-newsletter to relevant national and regional stakeholders and target groups.

As this newsletter is open for improvement, I kindly ask you to send your comments to fabrice.peters@health.belgium.be

Kind regards

Dear members,

Enclosed you will find the EuSANH NEWSLETTER !
May we remind you to forward the EuSANH e-newsletter to relevant national and regional stakeholders and target groups.

As this newsletter is open for improvement, I kindly ask you to send your comments to fabrice.peters@health.fgov.be

Kind regards

Dear members,

Enclosed you will find the EuSANH NEWSLETTER!
May we remind you to forward the EuSANH e-newsletter to relevant national and regional stakeholders and target groups.

As this newsletter is open for improvement, I kindly ask you to send your comments to fabrice.peters@health.fgov.be

Kind regards