Development of Environmental Health Indicators for EU Countries

Within the framework of the National Environment and Health Action Plan (NEHAP), the Netherlands is working on a national environment and health information system. One of the purposes of the system is to facilitate evaluations of (environment and health) policies and for geographical comparisons in the field of environment and health. WHO is also developing an Environment and Health Information System at the European level. The pilot study described here is part of this implementation process. Environment and health indicators, covering air quality, noise, housing, traffic accidents, water and sanitation, chemical emergencies and radiation were tested on availability, quality, comparability and policy-relevance in 11 European countries, including the Netherlands. Results in the Netherlands show that reliable and complete information is available on almost all of the selected indicators. On the basis of the international results of the pilot study, indicators have been selected for which the actual data will be collected in a follow-up project. These indicators will be part of the Dutch information system.