Results of the Environmental Health Monitoring System in the Czech Republic
for the year 2001 represent a standard data series that have been obtained
through a stabilized system of monitoring activities in its eighth year
of operation. They represent important material for the control and management of
health risks for the national and regional authorities, a valuable information
for the specialists community and general public, as it facilitates activities
connected with transition to active health promotion. In its complexity
it also represents documentation for the objective informing of other countries,
since it documents the degree of contamination of the environmental components
and the pollution burden of the population.
The annually obtained results from the standard localities under monitoring
serve as a headstone for creating the long-time series on the population
health and the environmental pollution. The evaluation of the data series
will facilitate a responsible assessment of trends and connections of a
lasting or seasonal character, from which there may originate eventual
recommendations and proposals of measures and changes.
13.1 Significant findings in 2001
The following can be presented as the most significant positive as well
as negative pieces of knowledge acquired by the Environmental Health Monitoring
System in the year 2001:
Results of the incidence of treated acute respiratory diseases are analogous
to those in preceding years. There is neither a decline nor increase.
Allergic diseases diagnosed by pediatricians occurred in 25 % of urban
children 5–17 years of age. The most frequent diagnosis was allergic pollen
rhinitis (pollinosis). In 2001, a statistically significant increase in
the number of allergic children was found in comparison with the year 1996.
There was also recorded an increase in all the diagnoses of the allergic
diseases under follow-up.
Urban air pollution with noxae measured in a standard way (sulphur oxide,
oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter) was of a continuous nature.
In the period 1995–2001, the levels of airborne metals in particulate
matter gradually declined (lead, arsenic) or were more or less stabilized
(cadmium, chromium) except for nickel with a markedly high variability of
concentrations. No value of the annual arithmetic mean of the metals under
follow-up, except for nickel, exceeded the valid or newly proposed values
of concentration limits.
The magnitude of the carcinogenic potential of the sum of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air differed in the cities: the greatest
was in Ostrava and Karviná, where it was three times higher that in Prague
and Plzeň, and five times higher that in Ústí n. Labem and Hradec Králové.
The dynamics of PAH levels in the past five years have neither a declining
nor an increasing trend, marked being their seasonal character with a minimum
in summer. Of the sum of PAHs, benzo[a]pyrene is the most serious contaminant
in the ambient air; the exceeding of the recommended maximum admissible
contamination has been detected in all the localities under monitoring.
The rise in mutagenic activity of airborne particulate matter observed
since 1997 continues.
Drinking water quality in the public networks of water supply under the
Monitoring System has a continuously good standard. Changes in limit values
of certain drinking water quality indicators as reflected in public health
regulations in the year 2000, had practically no response in the frequency
of exceeding limit values.
As in previous years, in 2001, the mean chronic population exposure to
organic or inorganic substances under follow-up in foodstuffs did not reach
values that are connected with an inadmissible increase in the probability
of health impairment (non-carcinogenic effect). Exposure to chemical substances
estimated according to the model of recommended foodstuff doses, signalizes
a need to follow up and study more closely the situation in children of
4 to 6 years of age.
In the nutrition of the population, according to actual consumption, there
is a relative lack of certain essential elements such as calcium, magnesium,
potassium and iron. In people over 60 years of age the food consumption
does not cover the recommended intake of certain minerals in the range
of recommended foodstuff doses.
From the regular measurement of noise in cities it is apparent from comparison
of the results with requirements of Governmental Decree No. 502/2000 Coll.
that the majority of localities did not meet the public health noise limits
in residential areas. There have been confirmed the unfavourable effects of
noise on health, namely in relation to so-called non-communicable.
Half of the population 45–54 years of age suffer long-term problems (be
they treated or not), most often of the locomotion system, that also being
the most frequent affection diagnosed by a physician.
In the urban population 45–54 years of age there are statistically significant
differences between males and females in indicators of health. Females
more often suffer long-term health problems, they are more often under long-term
follow-up and more often take medicines on a long-term basis.
Almost half of the urban population 45–54 years of age consider themselves
to be in good health, 10 % in bad health.
There has been demonstrated a connection between health and socio-economic
indicators, in the positive correlation is namely economic activity, attained
higher education, satisfactory financial situation.
People 45–54 years of age consider lasting psychical stress and the smoking
habit to be the most serious factors influencing human health, influence
of the polluted environment was in sixth place after the life style factors.
Mean life expectancy at birth is increasing in the Czech Republic, however,
in males it is permanently lower than in females. In spite of the increase,
the life expectancy at birth is still lower than in EU countries.
The relative numbers of live-born children with congenital malformations
are increasing. The most frequent developmental defect is a congenital cardiopathy.
The numbers of occupational diseases in the year 2001 have again confirmed
the declining trend in their incidence.
Over the period of the Monitoring System existence, there were relatively
frequently exceeded the standards or recommended values of levels in certain
airborne pollutants, namely in heavily burdened localities such as Prague,
Ostrava and Karviná. In drinking water, failure to meet the limit values
of contaminants hazardous to health occurred only singularly. From estimates
of dietary exposure to monitored chemical substances it can be stated that
the recommended exposure limits (for non-carcinogenic effects) are drawn
upon within the monitoring network by an “average person” to a limited
degree only. However, for carcinogenic substances, since they are with
no-threshold effect, it is not possible to determine any safe level or
exposure limit. For many chemical substances there are not known or have
not been demonstrated any effects on health, although they are suspect.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce or keep the population exposure on
as low level as is reasonably possible. In order to apply such a strategy
of focusing the efforts where it is really most needed, systematic monitoring
of the hazardous substances in the environment and of already apparent
effects on health is necessary, supplemented with estimates of probable
health risks. Monitoring of the environment and health will thus contribute
to the gradually reaching exposure levels to contaminants and parameters
of health status comparable with those in EU countries, and the ensuring
of conditions for sustainable life.