Environment and health EEA assessment perspectives

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Environment and health EEA assessment
perspectives

• Ingvar Andersson
• European Environment Agency

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Outline

• EEA tasks
• Assessment and reporting frameworks
• The shift from uni-causality to multi-causality
• Conclusions
• Some sources

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The EEA mission
The European Environment Agency is the EU body
dedicated to providing sound, independent
information on the environment We are a main
information source for those involved in
developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating
environmental policy, and also the general
public  
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What is our mandate?

• To help the Community and member countries make
  informed decisions about improving the
  environment, integrating environmental
  considerations into economic policies and moving
  towards sustainability
• To coordinate the European environment
  information and observation network (Eionet)

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The EEA is...

• An independent information provider
• An analyst and assessor
• Building bridges between science and policy
• Dependent upon strong networks to carry out its
  work
• ...to support policy processes and inform the
  public

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How does the EEA reach its objectives?

• By providing a wide range of information and
  assessments of
• The state of the environment and trends
• Pressures on the environment and the driving
  forces behind them
• Policies and their effectiveness
• Outlooks/scenarios

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Who are EEAs clients?

• Institutions and governments
• European Commission, Parliament, Council, EEA
  member countries
• Influencers
• NGOs, business, media, advisory groups,
  scientists, debaters
• General public

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What are our products?

• EEA 5-year state and outlook reports
• EEA Signals
• EEA Reports
• EEA Briefings
• EEA Technical reports
• EEA Fact sheets
• EEA Multimedia publications
• Information services on the internet
• Platform for meetings in the interfaces
  EIONET/scientific networks/policy networks

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Assessment and reporting frameworks
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The DPSIR assessment framework
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.
Effectiveness of responses
D
R

Costs and benefits of action/in-action
Poverty Lifestyle Nutrition
I
P

• Exposure/effect relationships
• Biomarkers

S
Exposure routes Fate
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The OECD Pressure-State-Response Model
(e.g. OECD, 1985)
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The WHO DPSEEA framework
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Source Briggs (2003).
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Knowledge
Evidence
Health
Action
Exposure assessment
Multi- causality
Exposure

Chemical body burden
Public perception
Cancer
Legislation
Combined exposures
Vulnerability
Lung diseases
Exposure routes
Nutrition
State-of- the-art
Risk management
Asthma
Timing
Lifestyle
Neuro-toxicity
Psychology
Endocrinedisorders
Information

Prevention
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The shift from uni-causality to multi-causality
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• The two perspectives
• Pollution perspective
• Public health perspective

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Pollution management perspective
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Public health
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Management of public health and pollution
main differences
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Some challenges

• Evidence public perception State of the art -
  early warning
• Multi-stakeholder perspective (together with the
  the full chain approach)
• Combined exposures
• Multi-causality - look at more stressors and
  combinations
• Early exposure late effects
• Expand the causal chain, including driving forces
  and effectiveness of policies
• Integrated risk assessment how to combine
  epidemiology, toxicology and eco-toxicology
• Europe in a global context and Europes impact on
  developing countries

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Burden of disease in 2000 due to selected health
determinants for Western Europe, Europe and
worldwide, as a percentage of total burden of
disease (Guus de Hollander 2007, adapted from
Ezzati et al., 2002).
.
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EEA needs links to EEA products services

• Science-based assessments, indicator development,
  reporting and communication
• Environmental burden of disease, development of
  quantitative estimates of health impacts
• Spatial EH information
• Bio-monitoring for follow up of interventions and
  early warning

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Conclusions

• EEA SOER EH assessment a combination of DPSEEA
  with different focus
• Be flexible - use framework depending on purpose
  and target group
• Scientist have to respond to these user needs,
  EEA has to rely upon scientific networks

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Some sources

• EEA state of the Environment reporting 1995-2005
  http//www.eea.europa.eu
• EEA and Joint Research Centre, 2005 Environment
  and health. EEA Report No 10/2005. ISSN 1725-9177
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems
  and Human Well-being Synthesis. Island Press,
  Washington, DC.
• OECD, 2005 Childrens environment and health
  indicators, A survey ENV/EPOC/WPNEP 16 FINAL
• David J.Rapport Ashbindu Singh An EcoHealth
  based framework for State of Environment
  Reporting. Ecological indicators 6(2006) 409-428