12. CONCLUSIONS

Results of the Environmental Health Monitoring System in the Czech Republic for the year 2002 represent a standard data series that has been obtained through a stabilized system of monitoring activities in its nineth year of operation. It represents important material for the control and management of health risks for the national and regional authorities, and valuable information for the 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 of Europe and in the world. It documents the degree of contamination of the environmental components and the health of our population.

The results obtained regularly for each season from the localities under monitoring serve as a cornerstone for creating long-term series on population health and on environmental pollution. Evaluation of the data series thus formed will facilitate a responsible assessment of trends and correlations be they of a lasting or seasonal character, from which there may originate eventual recommendations and drafts of measures to be taken.

The following facts can be presented as the most significant positive as well as negative findings acquired by the Environmental Health Monitoring System in the year 2002:

Over the period of existence of the Monitoring System, there were relatively frequently exceeded the limit or recommended concentration values in certain airborne pollutants, especially in strongly 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 (including drinking water) to chemical substances under follow-up, 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 generally, in view of their no-threshold effect, it is not possible to determine any safe concentration, or exposure limit. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce or keep the population exposure on an as low level as is reasonably possible. In order to apply such a strategy of focusing efforts where it is really most needed, systematic monitoring of 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 a gradual reaching of exposure levels to contaminants, as well as of parameters of health comparable with those in the EU countries, and the ensuring of conditions for sustainable life.


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