Experts voice fears over #Brexit potential impact on public health

Experts have voiced concern that Brexit could jeopardize UK co-operation with the EU on public health early warning systems, writes Martin Banks.

They warn that Britain’s decision to quit the EU could put at risk its current close collaboration with the EU over emergency notifications about dangerous diseases.

It could mean, for example, Britain importing contaminated food after receiving no official updates about an outbreak in the continent, or France receiving no word of an infectious disease outbreak across the Channel.

As an EU member, the UK participates in the Early Warning and Response System of the European Union (EWRS), a tool for monitoring public health threats in the EU that could spread across borders, and the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), which sends alerts 24/7 about potential threats detected in the food supply.

A European Commission spokesperson said that the UK would participate in all EU rapid alert systems until it leaves but accepted that the situation was “not at all clear” after March 2019 when Britain is due to exit.

Paul Cosford, director of health protection at Public Health England, a government agency, told leading news provider Politico that Britain was a world leader in tackling cross-border threats and underlined the importance of communication.

“We benefit from a range of international information-sharing mechanisms in the area of health security, including with the EU, among others and believe it is in everyone’s interests to continue to collaborate closely going forward.”

A spokesman for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said: “At this point it cannot be excluded that the outcome of the (Brexit) negotiations could have an impact on our work with UK public health institutions.”

Switzerland’s current problems over integrating into the EU single market has partly signalled the alarm.

The country’s foreign ministry said that Bern’s stalled talks means that its bilateral arrangement with the EU on public health early warning systems is still on hold.

Switzerland’s negotiations with the EU have been held up by the same sort of issues that are central in Brexit negotiations: the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and freedom of movement.

The warning about the impact of Brexit on public health comes against a backdrop of current discussion on the future of the RASFF system which came under intense scrutiny following the fipronil scandal last year. Food safety is one of the EU’s core competencies but last year’s panic over fipronil in eggs underscored how difficult it is for Brussels to police its own laws if member countries fail to flag concerns quickly or keep data secret.

The issue of public health has been brought further into sharp focus by the divergent experiences of the EU and UK on tackling salmonella, cases of which have increased in humans in the EU by 3% since 2014, and by the controversial formaldehyde file, which saw contradictory positions taken by the UK and the rest of the EU.

While most member states encounter serious problems in salmonella control, with a damning ECDC report released last month and a 50% rise in RASFF notifications in 2017, the UK is an acknowledged leader in tackling the bacteria. Last October, the UK’s Food Standards Agency  declared Lion mark eggs safe to be eaten raw after a 30 year salmonella warning. The ECDC says the UK’s monitoring for salmonella is superior to the rest of Europe, with many countries in the EU still underreporting the incidence of the disease.

An ECDC source told this website: “The RASFF system is directly linked to the European Economic Area or close bilateral agreements with non-EU members such as Switzerland. All the signals from London are that the UK does not want to join the EEA after it leaves the EU, and this raises serious questions about the future of public health cooperation between the UK and EU.

“This has increased fears that RASFF lines of communication between the UK and the EU could break down completely after March 2019.”

The Commission has proposed reforming the food safety system in the wake of the fipronil scandal but this has been at a standstill for almost a year.

But some fear that the UK’s exit from the EU threatens to increase the strain on an already broken system.

One MEP, who did not wish to be named, said: “The bungled handling of the formaldehyde dossier demonstrates how unprepared DG SANTE is to handle such a crisis, and casts further doubt on the future of health at an EU level.”

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