• In 1999 a major ministerial conference was held on environment and health in Europe under the auspices of WHO, which produced the London Declaration on Action in Partnership. It marked a new commitment to action in partnership for improving the environment and health in the 21st century. The ministers and representatives of the European Member States committed “to develop policies and implement actions to provide children with a safe environment, including during prenatal and postnatal development, towards the highest attainable level of health.”
  
• In June 2000, the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation Council (comprised of the top environmental officials from Canada, Mexico and USA) passed a council resolution on children’s health and the environment. The resolution commits the Parties to develop a cooperative agenda to protect children from environmental threats, and, among other activities, calls for the formation of an Expert Advisory Board to provide advice to the council on these matters.
  
• In 2001 in Kuala Lumpur, South-East Asian nations met to negotiate an agreement designed to prevent a repeat of the forest fires and their devastating haze that beset the region in 1997 and 1998 and caused significant health problems. Regionally integrated approaches such as these, engineered around the concept of prevention, can significantly help to reduce environmental health threats to children.
  
• In collaboration with several governmental and international organizations, WHO organized an international conference entitled Environmental Threats to the Health of Children: Hazards and Vulnerability held in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2002. The scope of the conference was largely regional and focused on Children’s Environmental Health (CEH) issues that had the highest prevalence and health impact in South East Asia and Western Pacific Regions. It presented and discussed recent knowledge and new research results and methodologies used to identify the effects of environmental threats to children’s health. The purpose was to increase health and environment professionals’ awareness of the effects of pollution on children’s health and development and to motivate the required action. The major outcomes of the conference included a statement setting priorities for action and a commitment to national and international activities in the area of CEH.

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