ABSTRACT
To understand the health impact represented by exposure to current atmospheric pollution in China, an environmental health indicators (EHIs) system of atmospheric pollution was established. The EHIs were based on comprehensive consideration of environment, population, economy and diseases associated with atmospheric pollution. An EHIs evaluation system of atmospheric pollution, based on corresponding EHIs data collection and weighting coefficients determined using principal component analysis, was applied to major provinces and regions in China to evaluate the environmental health status. Results showed that the EHIs of atmospheric pollution in Central and East China were low, indicating a serious environmental health condition. Prevention and management of atmospheric pollution in these regions should be strengthened and protective measures taken to improve human health. Compared with other methods, the EHIs evaluation system was more intuitive, which facilitated users to identify the environmental health status and provided support for health management and pollution prevention.
Subject(s)
Environmental Health , Environmental Pollution , China , Environmental Monitoring , HumansABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Environmental health monitoring and its effects on health are very important in health systems. Relationship between environment and health can be done by simplifying data in understandable indicators for people and policy-makers. The present study presents the general framework for formulating environmental health quality index for Iran. METHODS: This study was implemented through expert panel at two levels: indicator domain determination and domain specific variables selection. Domain specific variables were selected based on the Driving force-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action (DPSEEA) framework from the list of national and international variables. RESULTS: Seven environmental health issues [air quality, drinking water, sewage disposal, food, radiation management and housing and human settlements] were determined, and three variables were selected for air quality, 8 variables for water quality, 5 variables for sanitation, 1 variable for food quality, 3 variables for housing and human settlements, 4 variables for solid waste management and 3 variables for radiation management. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental health indicators determination based on the causal effect model leads to a better understanding of the relationship between the environment and health by simplifying data in an understandable format for public and improves prioritization of policy-making in the environmental health. In this study, environmental health indicators for Iran were proposed.
ABSTRACT
RESUMO O Indicador de Salubridade Ambiental (ISA) foi criado, em 1999, pelo Conselho Estadual de Saneamento (Conesan) do Estado de São Paulo. Embora tenha sido formado com o objetivo de medir o nível de salubridade ambiental dos municípios paulistas, o ISA tem sido utilizado em diversas Regiões do Brasil. Além disso, ao longo desses 17 anos, o ISA vem sendo alterado em sua formulação original, de acordo com as características do local a ser avaliado, como é sugerido pelo manual que o originou. Diante disso, o objetivo deste artigo foi avaliar o estado da arte da utilização do ISA no Brasil, identificando avanços, lacunas e desafios de seu uso. Para isso, realizou-se amplo levantamento bibliográfico a fim de encontrar estudos disponíveis em meios eletrônicos que utilizaram o ISA. Foram identificados e analisados 60 casos. As Regiões Nordeste e Sul do país são as que possuem a maior quantidade de estudos e a maioria deles (41,6%) é resultado de dissertações de mestrado. Cada estudo utiliza, em média, seis indicadores de primeira ordem e a revisão bibliográfica é método preponderante para escolhê-los e ponderá-los. Por fim, foi mostrado que as diferenças entre os ISA na verdade são um empecilho para a utilização desse indicador. Uma vez que cada estudo possui suas peculiaridades em termos de indicadores, pesos e critérios de cálculo, só é possível fazer comparações dos resultados obtidos entre um mesmo estudo ao longo do tempo, mas essas diferenças impossibilitam a comparação entre os valores obtidos em diferentes estudos.
ABSTRACT The Environmental Health Indicator (Indicador de Salubridade Ambiental - ISA) was established in 1999 by the São Paulo's State Council of Sanitation (Conesan). Although this indicator was created to measure the level of environmental health of the municipalities in São Paulo state, Brazil, ISA has been applied in several other regions of Brazil. Moreover, throughout these 17 years, the original ISA formulation has been altered according with local characteristics, as suggested by the manual that originated it. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate ISA application state of the art in Brazil, by the identification of the progress, gaps, and challenges of its use. An extensive literature investigation was performed in order to find studies available in electronic media that used ISA. We identified and analyzed 60 cases. The Northeast and South regions are those with the greatest number of studies, and the majority of them (41.6%) are result of master's dissertations. Each study uses an average of six first order indicators, and the literature review is the predominant method for choosing and evaluating them. Finally, we showed that the differences between the ISAs are actually a drawback for this indicator use. Since each study has peculiarities in terms of indicators, weights, and criteria calculation, it is only possible to compare the results from the same study over time, but these differences preclude the comparison between the values obtained in different studies.
