WEN has secured a half million pound lottery grant to develop a self-sustaining network of community action for a healthier environment.

The Community Fund grant of £547,150 over three years is for a UK-wide project called 'Women Taking Action for a Healthier Planet'. It will focus on links between health and the environment and demand preventative action. The project will build on the work of the Network's previous lottery-funded project, 'Putting Breast Cancer on the Map', which enabled women to map their own experience of cancer and potential links to their environment.

Helen Lynn, WEN's health co-ordinator, explained: "The prevailing approach to 'preventative' health is to increase screening and ask people to change their individual lifestyles. But when we live surrounded by a cocktail of chemicals in the air, water, land and food, there is only so much one person can or should do. WEN believes we need to protect the health of present and future generations by applying a precautionary approach to the use of toxic substances. Government and business should be encouraged to eliminate the risks, not wait for absolute proof of particular health-environment links.

"We are delighted the Community Fund has awarded the grant in full. Many people are deeply concerned about the effect of pesticides and other synthetic chemicals on our bodies and our environment. This will give them the power to do something about it."

Women Taking Action will give voice to the concerns of local communities. Women are often the first to spot potential risks and may be disproportionately affected by them yet they are under-represented in politics and business and their views are marginalised in public policy-making.

The grant will be used to set up a self-sustaining network of women-centred groups, run workshops about taking action, initiate national campaigns and support local campaigns so women can take action and influence health and environmental policies. The project will encompass occupational health and wider environmental influences and make connections with other WEN campaigns on issues such as waste, nappies and local food. WEN will be working closely with Sustainable Wales, Friends of the Earth Scotland and contacts in Northern Ireland. Breast cancer is likely to be the first focus but the grant will enable WEN and local groups to make connections with other health/environment issues and develop new work as the project grows.

ENDS
For more information contact Liz Sutton, Press Officer, on 020 7481 9004 or Helen Lynn on 07957 408303.

Notes to Editors
1. Community Fund is the new name for the National Lottery Charities Board.
2. The grant is the second largest of nine grants to national organisations announced by the Community Fund in May 2001.
3. A summary of Putting Breast Cancer on the Map is available.