NIEHS-IOM webinar to analyze Rio+20 declaration By Cindy Loose
For more than a year, NIEHS has been working to make human
health an integral part of an international agreement on
sustainable development. Those efforts culminated in June, when
thousands of participants and others gathered in Rio de Janeiro
for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development. The results of the conference, including an
expected declaration of intent for action, will be analyzed this
month during a webinar sponsored by NIEHS and the Institute of
Medicine (IOM). Sustainability and health “Sustainable
development is a widely shared goal, and our message has been
that human health is both a driver of sustainable development
and an indicator for judging success or failure,” said NIEHS
Senior Advisor for Public Health John Balbus, M.D., who has led
NIEHS efforts to ensure that health was central to conference
discussions and decisions. “We know that making the planet
healthier goes hand in hand with making people heal