10. CONCLUSIONS |
The data collected in the System of monitoring the environmental impact on population health of the Czech Republic for the year 1999 represent a set of information that was obtained through a routine and stabilized system of monitoring activities that has already been in operation for six years. An ordinary part of this report is the assessment of temporal trends of development in the quality of environmental components and possibly also in that of health indicators monitored for the period of the Monitoring System, i.e. 1994 - 1999.
The results are important for health risk management and control as they assist both the national authorities and general public in implementing an active approach to health protection. In its complexity it represents the documentation for the objective informing of other European countries and the whole world from the perspective of commercial and cultural contacts. It documents the health status of our population and the pollution levels of the environmental components under monitoring.
Results that are being obtained for each year are the basis for the formation of temporal data series in the localities under monitoring on the health status and pollution of environmental components. Only gradual quantitative evaluation of such temporal data series can facilitate a responsible assessment of the trends and relations of the permanent or seasonal nature, from which possible recommendations and measures to be taken can be drawn.
Many of the facts presented below which are considered to be important, were already described in the Summary Reports for 1994 - 1998. This is indicative of relative stability of the factors under study. From the results obtained and assessment of the present situation and potential further development of the environment, it can be stated that the situation described is changing and will be changing only gradually. Therefore, the situations exist, the changes in which have to be regularly followed up and evaluated in order to be able to take countermeasures.
The following findings of positive or negative nature should be pointed
out as the most significant:
Based on evaluation of the temporal trends in the parameters monitored,
the following important changes can be pointed out:
It can be summarized that significant increases in the concentrations of pollutants have been observed in some cities but only in isolated cases. On the other hand, these concentrations did not show any continuous and systematic decrease within the Monitoring System. Since the implementation of the Monitoring System, exceeding of the limit values was reported and has been reported only sporadically in some localities and such situations are mostly considered as non-systematic changes. When assessing population exposure to the contaminants monitored, it can be concluded that the admissible exposure limits have been reached in the monitoring network only infrequently.
Nevertheless, a relatively good situation in this regard should not be overestimated. Only systematic monitoring focused on justifiable minimization of all exposures (according to the principle that exposure levels have to be kept as low as reasonably possible) can allow the Czech Republic to reach such pollutant exposure levels and health parameters which would be comparable with those of the EU countries and to create conditions for sustainable development of our society in the future.