Minister Lončar presented a team of medical experts who will deal with the impact of lithium mining on citizens’ health. This is an ad hoc improvisation that does not solve the systemic problem of the impact of pollution on the health of the population.
Two days later, a hundred medical workers from Gornji Milanovac sent their support to the fight against lithium and boron mining in Serbia. In Obrenovac, the health workers from the emergency services, who, due to open coal mines and ash pits, know very well and from direct experience the value and importance of citizens’ fight for health, came out to greet the protest column.
They were left without the support of their superiors, and now they are the subject of an unfounded and brutal inspection procedure!
Medical workers in Serbia, in addition to experts who deal with environmental pollution, perhaps know the extent of environmental problems the best. They know exactly how many people are coming to them because of Escherichia coli and sewage pollution. How many people have asthma and other respiratory problems due to air pollution. How many people suffer from allergies and sterility. How many people have malignant diseases.
In 2020, the Institute for Public Health “Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut” published a study entitled “Improving the Management of Contaminated Sites in Serbia”, which was clearly concealed, but saw the light of day after a long and arduous institutional struggle.
Contaminated sites are areas where anthropogenic activities are performed or have been performed that have produced or could have produced contamination of soil, surface or underground water, air and the food chain, which results or may result in an impact on human health.
The study found the following shortcomings in protecting health from pollution:
- Insufficient enforcement of applicable regulations.
- Insufficiently clear division of roles and responsibilities of competent institutions in the wider field of environment and health.
- Absence of multisectoral cooperation and approach in solving environmental and health problems.
- Inadequate monitoring of the state of the environment.
- Lack of data on the state of the environment and its impact on health.
- Systematic monitoring of the health status of the population in contaminated localities has not yet been established.
- Lack of human resources and expertise in all sectors.
- Lack of financial resources.
- Technical defects. Lack of infrastructure for environmental protection at the local level (especially in the areas of waste and water management) i
- inadequate organizational structure of local governments for dealing with environmental issues.
- Insufficiently developed public awareness and participation. This particularly applies to that part of the general population that is directly exposed to environmental risks in the vicinity of contaminated sites.
This study also contains recommended measures that are necessary to reduce the impact of pollution on the health of the population. Four years have passed and neither funds nor personnel have been allocated for its implementation.
This move by the Ministry of Health leads to even greater mistrust. That is why the awakening of the people is very important and should be welcomed. Share further, to be heard and spread further!