Kristina Thompson and Marleen Bekker joined the European Public Health Conference in Dublin. This year’s conference theme was: ‘Our Food, Our Health, Our Earth: A Sustainable Future for Humanity’. They welcomed more than 2400 conference delegates. EPH is a very broad public health conference with 17 programme tracks that lead you through the conference to all workshops and sessions on a particular theme. To mention a few, tracks range from food systems, infectious or chronic diseases, habitat and environment, data, equity, maternal and child, citizen empowerment, diversity and migration, literacy to health systems and policies.

HSO@EPH

1. Kristina gave a presentation on her Impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on depression simulation.
2. In a preconference event organized by EUPHAnxt (the young professionals network Welcome to EUPHAnxt), Marleen facilitated a debate and minilecture on Translating research to policymakers: from pitch to public affairs.
3. At the conference Marleen organized a workshop on Planetary and One health policy and governance with prof. Marija Jevtic from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia; and mr. Lyudmil Ninov from the European Health Management Association. There were almost 100 attendants. We presented the European Planetary Health Hub, in which Maria and Marleen are participating; the EU BeWell project for health management implementation of planetary health considerations; and the One Health policy screening tool.
4. This was followed up by the conference theme lunch symposium with about 100 participants on ‘Climate change is a health emergency’. Marleen sat on a multidisciplinary panel discussing actions and conditions for a healthier planet. Marleen explained the huge importance of the EU Nature Restoration Act for legal member state accountability, and the Dutch reputation of litigation against tobacco and 2023 criminal court cases of the public prosecutor against chemical industry captains (Tata, Chemours and Chemelot). This is a groundbreaking trend where policies and industry permits are finally enforced by courts upon the human right to health protection, where governments have failed to do so for decades. The panel included experts from environmental health, mental health, public health law, and the Irish Royal College of Surgeons/ Irish Doctors for the Environment.
   More info

Already looking forward to the next EPH Conference 12-15 November 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal! Theme: ‘Sailing the Waves of European Public Health: Exploring a Sea of Innovation’ More info: Lisbon 2024 (ephconference.eu)