President’s bulletin: Annual General Meeting update

Thank you to the members that took the time to attend and vote at the CIEH Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 28 June.

For those of you who were unable to attend or wish to revisit, below is a transcript of the update I gave at the meeting.

Update from the President

Thank you Chair. Hello everyone. 

To paraphrase Charlie Munger, who was Warren Buffet's business partner, “I spend each day trying to be a little environmental health wiser than I was when I woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day, if you live long enough, like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve."

I don’t deserve to be President. I am doing my best for environmental health, members and the CIEH. Six months as President has been a privilege, honour and for me an awakening. A real awakening in that after almost five years in retirement I now have to set a wake-up alarm in the morning to ensure I am ready to speak to various people and that I turn up online on time– so much for the joys of retirement relaxation.

I must give a big thanks to the Chief Executive and all at the CIEH for the support provided to me. The CIEH team consists of truly dedicated and outstanding individuals, whose commitment is unparalleled. Thank you all.

Let me commence by reading a quotation that has absolute relevance today.

“The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.”

This was written in the early 1940s by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German, as part of his Theory of Stupidity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenceless.

Bonhoeffer was hanged due to his involvement in a plot against Adolf Hitler at dawn on 9 April 1945 at Flossenbürg concentration camp just two weeks before soldiers from the United States liberated the camp.

Consider the threats to the world today such as climate change and its denial, populism and the emergence of political characters promoting ideas at complete odds with Amicus Humani Generis (Friend of the Human Race) the CIEH motto.

These threats and emerging characters are so worrying and alarming when all the evidence for example on climate change supports the warming of the earth and the catastrophic existential consequences. Just turn to Bonhoeffer and his theory of stupidity for a possible explanation.

The CIEH’s vision is - “Safer, cleaner and healthier environments for the benefit of all”.

The work of environmental health could not be more relevant in 2024. It is ongoing and will continue to be. The work never ends as environmental health is – Putting Wrong Things Right.

The pillars of environmental health are supported by the CIEH Advisory Panels.

• Environmental protection
• Food safety and integrity
• Health and safety
• Housing and community
• Public health

It is not for me here to list all the issues, the work needed and indeed all the inter connections and linkages. Suffice to say the Advisory Panels are working very hard and I thank all of the Advisory Panels for making an environmental health difference.

How we show the value of environmental health in fiscal terms to a new government will be absolutely essential to gain adequate and improved resourcing. Environmental health stops people falling into what is now a very fast wide flowing river of morbidity and mortality – more preventive environmental health inputs are vital so that the NHS is not saving ever increasing numbers of people by pulling them out of the river downstream.

This morbidity and mortality are not limited to: 

• Socioeconomic inequality
• Housing and living conditions
• Healthcare access
• Quality of care
• Education
• Lifestyle and behavioural factors
• Environmental factors
• Mental health
• Demographic factors.

All dealt with in greater or lesser detail by our CIEH Advisory Panels.

This week Sir Richard Peto (who uncovered the direct link between tobacco and cancer with Sir Richard Doll exactly 70 years ago) spoke up that smoking deaths were becoming normalised in the UK. He compared the 300,000 tobacco deaths with the 200,000 covid deaths during the pandemic. Nothing would have a greater impact on reducing preventable deaths than ending smoking completely.

Our distinguished colleague Ian Gray is here today. I will not refer to Ian by his membership number - 007, as who knows what will happen?! Ian did so much work on smoking in public places and the introduction of the legislation, which we are so familiar with and accepting of today. The tactics of muzzling the critics by the tobacco industry are being used by big oil and gas industries and by other harmful commodity industries, such as alcohol, gambling, unhealthy food and not least the vaping industry.

Linked with all these determinants is Environmental Psychology – something I have taken an interest in recently - which is all about the interplay between people and their environment. Mental health is inextricably linked to the environment. Green spaces increase mental wellbeing. It is called the green effect. Surfers are no longer riding on the crest of a clean wave. They are now riding a continuing news media swell of sewage overflows.

I have a particular fixation as a cyclist promoting car free cities (not least for improving air quality) and how “car brain” also known as motonormativity seems to accept as normal the five deaths and 82 serious injuries that occur each day on UK roads. Why should vulnerable road users have to accept dangerous road users? It would not happen in the workplace. No one wants to live in a car free city, until they live in one. Something for the Public Health Advisory Panel perhaps?

Some highlights as President in the last six months have been:

• The recent and excellent CTSI / CIEH Conference in Leeds. Meeting old friends and making new contacts post Covid was like a rediscovered revelation and so enjoyable. Please do think about supporting our conference next year.
• The hardest task I have had as President, so far, was judging the CIEH Outstanding environmental health team award. All the entries were worthy of an award. Congratulations to the Wakefield Council Environmental Health Commercial Services Team on winning the 2024 award.
• Attending the careers fair at the University of the West of England in April was so interesting and enlightening meeting students and learning of their concerns and important plans for the future. I was informed by one graduate that employers seek experienced candidates, however, newly qualified graduates need to be offered a job to gain experience. A catch 22 for some. The Universities delivering environmental health courses are vital for the profession.
• The President’s Commission is focussed on – Workforce capacity and capability. The Satellite Panel is working hard to provide outputs that deliver the outcomes and impacts (which are two different important short- and longer-term effects) to deliver the environmental health workforce of the future. Next week I will be attending in person two secondary schools in Cardiff and Barry to talk to pupils. A great opportunity to attract young people into our profession. They are our future.
• The second hardest task was taking a video for CIEH social media channels in the pouring rain for World Water Day. It was published, but I will not be receiving a BAFTA award. Social media's importance for information in the UK is multifaceted. It serves as a crucial source of news, a platform for public engagement, a tool for political and social advocacy, and a medium for cultural expression. However, it also poses challenges in terms of misinformation. How it is utilised for environmental and public health is crucial. The CIEH as an online influencer can achieve beneficial environmental health outcomes into the future that past communication methods may fail to do. In addition to social media the growing importance and use of Artificial Intelligence will certainly be imminent in the environmental health sphere.
• Keeping with technology – the CIEH Digital archive resource continues to increase, expand and develop. Engrossing, interesting and very useful. Thank you CIEH.

Water is my President’s theme. Water and all of the associated issues in 2024 – water quality, pollution, flooding and scarcity. Climate change will make water the new liquid gold. An environmental and public health life necessity.

I would like to remind everyone that the charity partnered with the CIEH will continue to be – Water for Kids. It is remiss of me that I have not, as far as I can recall, made this public. Apologies to Water for Kids. We will engage very soon.

The Member engagement survey (closed on 7 July). Thank you to members who spent a few minutes completing this. It is so important that the CIEH collects the information provided from members so it can act and deliver services fit for the future. 

I would like to thank the Chair and Board of Trustees for all their support, dedication and hard work.

I am very grateful to all the members that have taken the time and trouble to contact me. Please continue to do so. I welcome all your comments, suggestions and even the diatribes. Thank you to all members, without you the CIEH would not exist.

To finish with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer said almost one hundred years ago , “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

As President I see everywhere that Environmental Health Professionals have that readiness for responsibility and are striving to make the environment safer, cleaner and healthier for the benefit of all.

Diolch yn fawr pawb. Thank you.

Mark Elliott FCIEH, CEnvH, MPH President CIEH

28th June 2024

You will find the AGM Agenda, related documents a voting results on the CIEH AGM webpage.