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Environment and Health in EEA assessments and reporting Ecoinformatics meeting 08-11 April 2008, RTP, NC. EEA work in Environment and Health. 6 th Environmental Action Programme (2002-2012) Climate change Nature and biodiversity Environment and health Natural resources and waste
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Environment and Health in EEA assessments and reporting Ecoinformatics meeting 08-11 April 2008, RTP, NC
EEA work in Environment and Health • 6th Environmental Action Programme (2002-2012) • Climate change • Nature and biodiversity • Environment and health • Natural resources and waste • EU Environment and Health Action Plan (2004-2010) • WHO pan-European Environment and Health process (follow up of Budapest conference, 2004) • Both promote information systems and indicators
Council Conclusions on Environment and Health The Commission is invited: - to continue developing a comprehensive environment and health information system to identify hazards, set planning priorities, measure progress, and changes in the environmental quality and health status …to facilitate international comparisons and evaluation of policies Council of the European Union, 2007
EEA cooperation and partnership in E&H work • WHO Europe – EHIS process • DG JRC • DG Environment • DG Sanco • DG Research • DG Infso • other European agencies, e.g. ECDC, ECHA, EFSA …
Environment and Health in EEA reporting –recent examples • Environment and Health EEA/JRC, 2005 • Europe’s Environment: the fourth assessment report (Belgrade report), 2007 • indicator based report • complemented by sub-regional assessments, where information is limited or gaps exist, and by case studies
Environment and Health in the Belgrade report Policy responses to environment and health challenges in Europe are improving Initiatives to address environment and health issues are growing at regional, national, and local levels For many health hazards actions lag behind policies
Loss of statistical life expectancy (months) due to anthropogenic PM2.5 emitted in 2000 Loss of statistical life expectancy (months) due to anthropogenic PM2.5 -projected emission levels for 2020 Projected emission reductions in WCE and SEE will reduce significantly impacts on public health and ecosystems Environment and Health – Air quality Particulate matter and ozone caused 380,000 premature deaths in Europe in 2000 Small particles remain main health threat in EECCA and SEE EEA, 2007
WHO ENHIS report WHO, 2007
Environment and Health – Air quality Work at ETC/ACC (European Topic Centre) on urban population exposure to PM10 and ozone continued – data and maps for the year 2005 available Quantification of health impacts – premature death - by country – attributable to long term exposure to PM10, and to ozone exposure Uncertainty analysis included ETC ACC, 2007
Environment and Health – Inland Waters More than 100 million people in the region lack access to safe drinking water The quality of water supply and sanitation services has deteriorated over the past 15 years in EECCA and SEE One-third of the pan-European population lives in countries where water resources are under substantial pressure
WHO, ENHIS Public water supply and access to safe water Wastewater treatment and access to improved sanitation Bathing water quality Outbreaks of waterborne diseases EEA Core Set Use of freshwater resources Urban wastewater treatment Bathing water quality Chlorophyll in transitional, coastal and marine waters Nutrients in freshwater Nutrients in transitional, coastal and marine waters Oxygen consuming substances in rivers
Environment and Health – Inland Waters EEA, 2007
Outbreaks of waterborne diseases • The indicator shows that in seven European countries surveyed there were 75 outbreaks of waterborne diseases related to drinking-water resulting in over 12 000 episodes of illness between 2000 and 2005 • The data must be interpreted cautiously, as differences between countries are likely to reflect the efficiency of surveillance systems rather differences in outbreaks, and data were only available for a few countries. • This underlines the need for more widespread and effective surveillance systems. WHO, 2007
Wastewater treatment coverage and bathing water quality WHO, 2007
Environment and Health – Hazardous chemicals Concern is growing about impacts of exposure to low levels of chemicals, in complex mixtures, for long time Relevant data and information are lacking to assess whether serious threats from chemicals to human health and the environment have been reduced New agreements and legislation are in place that address the safer handling and management of chemicals to protect both human health and the environment
Belgrade report WHO ENHIS • Exposure of children to chemical hazards in food • POPs in human milk • Blood lead in children EEA, 2007
Chemicals and human health – what indicators? • Human biomonitoring initiatives under the EU Environment and Health Action Plan • Use of human and environmental biomonitoring data • Other ….
E&H related indicator initiatives in Europe • EEA – health relevant subset of CSI • WHO – E&H indicators (EHIS process) • DG Sanco - ECHI process • Eurostat – SDI – subset of public health indicators • OECD health indicators • EDEN project - Emerging Diseases in a Changing European Environment • other indicators projects (e.g. urban health…)
Are these indicator initiatives complementary? • Are they sufficient for comprehensive E&H assessments? • Are they sustainable? • How can they be linked to SEIS?
financially supported by the DG "Public Health and Consumer Protection" (DG Sanco) of the European Commission • a clear and coherent picture of the health status of the European population and related time-trends and determinants • EEA and JRC - main contributors to the chapter ‘Environmental determinants and settings’
Environmental determinants and settings -Contributions from EEA, JRC and WHO • Introduction (EEA/RIVM) • Air pollution (EEA/JRC) • Drinking and recreational water (RIVM/JRC/EEA) • Soil contamination and waste (EEA) • Selected chemical contaminants (EEA) • Use of pesticides (EFSA) • Food safety (EFSA) • Physical stressors – noise, radon, UV (EEA/JRC) • Human settlements (WHO) • Extreme weather events and health (WHO)
Challenges ahead for E&H information / indicator development – to address complex environmental issues • Climate change impacts and adaptation • Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Climate Change and Health Source: A. McMichael et al, The Lancet 2006; 367: 859-869.
Climate change impacts and adaptation – E&H relevant activities at EEA • ‘Climate change impacts in Europe’ - EEA/JRC/WHO report (due Sept 2008), including human health indicators • Further cooperation with WHO on health indicators in the context of EEA work on climate change adaptation
Climate change impacts and adaptation – E&H relevant activities at EEA • Expanding partnership – cooperation with the ECDC, Stockholm • Joint workshop ECDC/WHO/JRC/EEA on Environmental Change and Infectious Disease, March 2007 • Technical workshop EEA/ECDC on networking, information exchange, March 2008 • Initiated cooperation on climate change / environmental change and infectious diseases – linking environmental and epidemiological data
Biodiversity and ecosystem services – EEA activities the Belgrade report Biodiversity decline and the loss of ecosystem services continue to be a major concern in the pan-European region. The target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010 will not be achieved without additional efforts. The main pressures on biodiversity continue to be urban sprawl, infrastructure development, acidification, eutrophication, desertification, overexploitation, intensification of agriculture and land abandonment.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services – current EEA activities The European biodiversity indicators (SEBI 2010) The EURECA project – the European ecosystem assessment for selected ecosystems (in 2012) – with the improved and expanded status and trend monitoring of biodiversity to support a wider assessment of ecosystem services and socio-economic impacts
Biodiversity and ecosystem services – Environment and health aspects Availability of studies on biodiversity and human health, including economic valuation Possible impacts of biodiversity loss on human health and wellbeing mechanisms health endpoints scale of assessment Positive impacts on human wellbeing of maintaining biodiversity / ecosystem services
Council Conclusions on Environment and Health, Dec 2007 - to gather information on environmental determinants with positive health impacts, such as biodiverse environments, non-motorized means of transport and housing conditions
Communicating environment (and health) information – responding to public interest/concerns
The link between environmental concerns and lack of information on environmental topics Eurobarometer, March 2008 Attitudes of European citizens towards the environment
Three main sources ofinformation about the environment Eurobarometer, March 2008 Attitudes of European citizens towards the environment
Responsibility for protecting the environment Eurobarometer, March 2008 Attitudes of European citizens towards the environment
Environment and health indicator As proposed by Corvalán et al. (1997), an environmental health indicator may be defined as “An expression of the link between the environment and human health, targeted at an issue of specific policy or management concern and presented in a form which facilitates interpretation for effective decision-making”. An environment and health indicator has two major characteristics: embody a link between environment and health; the element that turns a simple environmental or health indicator into an environment and health indicator is the knowledge of the relationship between exposure to environment factors and health effects. Any environment and health indicator must therefore be based on a clear and firm relationship between the environmental hazard and the health effect. The further removed the indicator is from the health effect, the weaker this link is liable to be. be associated with policy - to be effective and useful to decision makers, an indicator should relate to aspects of environment-related health which are of high relevance to decision makers, understandable by concerned people and amenable to control. An environment and health indicator should be expressed in terms of the health risk associated with a specific environmental hazard. Indicators should tend to provide a better early warning, both of impending environmental problems and of the effects of intervention. The main objective of environment and health indicators is to support the decision-making process in environmental health: for highlighting problems, identifying trends, tracking of policy progress. OECD, 2004