12/5/2002
Brief
Created in May 2001, the French agency for environmental health and safety - Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire Environnementale (AFSSE) - was officially inaugurated 27 November 2002 by Jean-François Mattei, minister of health, the family and the handicapped, and Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, minister of ecology and sustainable development.
Reporting to both ministries, the agency's role is to ensure public health and safety in the environmental field and to assess health hazards linked to the environment. AFSSE joins the ranks of public health and safety agencies AFSSA in the food field and AFSSAPS in the health products field.