News that Gibraltar will soon see health studies carried out on a randomly selected number of residents is welcomed by the ESG. The group has been calling for such studies to be done for some time now and was reassured to see a pledge made by the GSD party in its election manifesto to begin epidemiological studies by the end of 2007, with or without Spanish participation.

It is hoped that these initial studies will mark the beginning of such data gathering which at last will provide facts about the state of our health on the Rock. The ESG has been working alongside environmental and health groups in Spain over the years who are concerned about industrial pollution and its effects on the health of Bay populations. A coalition of such cross border groups was formed called “Plataforma Por el Estudio Epidemiologico”.

This coalition is being advised by Professor Benach of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain whose peer reviewed studies have exposed alarming clusters of higher mortality in the south-western region of Spain: specifically in Huelva, Seville and Cadiz, with the Bay carrying significant rates of cancer and other life threatening disease. The ESG believes that activities in the Bay pose a variety of environmental threats to health and that Gibraltar residents are also exposed.

The ESG would be happy to assist Government in the pursuit of any data gathering exercises and will place its resources at Governments disposal, as required.