Politics of coordination in environmental health

Environment and health are deeply rooted into each other, which we are reminded of now and then when major hazards like the Fukushima nuclear accident occur, or when scientific discovery reveals that certain persistent health problems as declining sperm counts of men, are embedded in environmental conditions. Since mid-1980´s a growing number of sector co-ordination efforts between public health and environmental policy sectors have emerged in EU and nationally, which also have been present in the sustainable development and health promotion policies. In local projects, policies, and international regimes various ad hoc initiatives to long-term strategies have evolved. These efforts are full of proclamations on the interconnectedness of environment and health, but in fact severe drawbacks in policy sector co-ordination have occurred. The paper gives analytical tools from A. Lenschow´s work on environmental policy integration, for studying the efforts and paradoxes in sector co-ordination, in order to reflect on the pro et cons of integrative approaches to environment and public health. We will give an overview of the various approaches to coordinative efforts from an international to a national level (Denmark) in order to discuss whether and how firm policy co-ordination is substantiated, and is it a real option?