Over 70 Member States have joined the WHO Global Chemicals and Health Network with forty-one participating Member States attending the inaugural meeting of the Network held 5-8 November, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. Member States were asked to develop a poster to display at the inaugural meeting with the goal to share activities from the WHO Chemicals road map that they are addressing or planning to address as well as ideas for collaboration.
The meeting led to the identification of common challenges successes, and opportunities for collaboration in the implementation of the roadmap; greater awareness of health impacts of chemicals and the importance of health ministry participation in chemicals management at the national, regional and global levels; and the role of the health sector in international chemicals discussion and in the beyond 2020 discussions.
The meeting concluded with Member States recommending the network to meet again soon to finalize the plans for the beyond 2020 period.