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The Government is to become the first in Europe to set environmental targets to improve health, ministers announced yesterday as they launched a three-year drive against teenage smoking. Although the Government's Health of the Nation target for cutting teenage smoking was missed by miles, ministers see setting health targets as a success.

Consultation that would lead to targets on airbourne particulates and on reducing deafness due to industrial noise could also lead to targets to reduce soil contamination, cancers due to radon and to set new water quality targets. However, the National Environmental Action Plan does not spell out the the targets and was condemned as "a missed opportunity" by Friends of the Earth which said the UK was set to miss seven of nine environmental health targets for the year 2000 set by the World Health Organisation.