1. INTRODUCTION

The System of monitoring the environmental impact on population health (Monitoring System) was implemented according to Decree No. 369/1991 of the Government of the Czech Republic (CZ). The year 1999 is to be considered as the period of the sixth year of the standard operation of monitoring activities, as the individual subsystems have been run routinely since 1994. The Monitoring System is expected to undergo further development in agreement with the latest findings in the fields of pollutant indicators, data processing methods and presentation of the results obtained.

In the course of 1998, a detailed analysis of all monitoring activities was performed and an amendment of the subsystems of the Monitoring System was gradually elaborated. The amendment was approved by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic and by the Specialist Advisory Committee at the close of 1998, and came into force in 1999. The objectives of the amendment are to utilize the experience acquired in the preceding years of monitoring, to react to technical developments in the individual fields of interest, and to optimize the activities of the monitoring network. The results presented in this report have already reflected the implementation of this amendment.

The Summary Report of 1999 is the sixth in the series of this kind and its objective is to continue in the establishment of information and gradually to ensure an objective study of time series of the parameters selected for monitoring and their evaluation. The results are presented in an already established manner so as to ensure the easy orientation of the reader in each of the annual reports. This allows easy comparison of all of the information published. The Summary Report of 1999 continues in trends evaluation of the development of quality of the environmental and health parameters monitored.

The Summary Report of the System of monitoring the environmental impact on population health presents the results obtained within the individual subsystems in 1999 with comparison to previous years and the aggregated results. It is intended for national and district administrations, the Public Health Service, co-operating departments and institutions, as well as the interested public. The results are shown, just as in every preceding year, in detail in the Special Reports of the individual subsystems that are parts of this Summary Report. In addition, since 1997, the Summary Report has been available through the Internet at the address of the National Institute of Public Health (www.szu.cz) and since this year, also on a special compact disc, together with Special Reports and other information on the Monitoring System.

In previous years, together with this Summary Report, there was also published a Report on Special Monitoring of the Health of the Population in the Ostrava-Karviná Region in Relation to the Environment. For technical reasons, the latter will be published separately by the Regional Public Health Center in Ostrava.

Note: The terms and abbreviations used in the text, figures and tables are listed in Chapter 11.


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