13. CONCLUSIONS

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:

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.


Main page

CONTENTS