Research and expertise in the health domain

According to the Environment Charter, which has constitutional significance, "everyone is entitled to live in a balanced and healthy environment". In France, this principle constitutes one of the foundations of the National Health and Environment Plan (PNSE) which, within a European scope, aims at preventing health risks due to environmental pollution. Recently, during the French National Conference on the Environment, the position of the "Establish a healthy environment" working group was at the heart of the debate. A sustainable development issue, health is integrated into Veolia Environnement's businesses: its four divisions - Water, Environmental Services, Energy and Transport - have all committed to tackling the challenge of reconciling human activity and health and environmental protection. The Company is increasingly investing in eco-friendly technologies and carries out research in order to assess the impact of its businesses on people's health.

Our research and development aims at preventing health risks for our employees, the users of our services and people living in the vicinity of our facilities. Our health assessment work is based on:

• medical, technical and biostatic expertise;
• epidemiologic studies;
• exposure studies and health risk measurement studies;
• the identification of emerging health hazards. Our research is based on the development of sampling techniques and analysis methods to measure new pollutants or trace pollutants in the environment.

2007 HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• continued epidemiologic study in Tangier and study on employee exposure to bioaerosols in wastewater treatment plants;
• production of a tool designed to evaluate chemical risks in Veolia Environnement's research centers and finalization of a quantitative study on the risks associated with the land spreading of sludge;
• research on inside air pollutants and emerging pollutants such as fine particles and nanoparticles.