aVLOZ0241c: Public health - practice
Environmental Health
Doc. MUDr. Jan Šimůnek, CSc., assiciate profesor
Mgr. Aleš Peřina, Ph. D., assistant profesor
Department of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University
Environmental Health - definition
• Broad discipline that focuses on environmental
factors that causes or influences health:
– Air
– Water
– Soil
– Food.
• Why food?
• Correct answer: Food is produced in particular environment. Food
is a medium of a "remote environment" that someone's health is
going to influence everyday.
Public Health
• A set of activities and actions contributing to
– the prevention of major health disorders
– the prevention of spread of infectious diseases
– the creation and protection of healthy living and working conditions.
• Institutions in the Czech republic:
– The Regional Public Health authorities: state executives
• for example: http://www.khsova.cz,web in in english
– The National Institute of Public Health, Prague (http://www.szu.cz, in
english)
– Tip: try to search on the web a public health authorities and public
health institutions in your country!
• The Law on Protection of Public Health, health aspects of
other laws
Other institutions
• World Health Organization(http://www.who.int)
–Health topics: Environmental health
• U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://
www.epa.gov)
–agency of the U.S. federal government which was
created for the purpose of protecting human
health and the environment
–"Top star" in methodology of Public Health
Role of clinicians in environmental health
• A clinician should have been…
–a resource of information
–a risk communicator for patients
Has a patient an adverse effect?KEY QESTIONS
1. A clinician should…
1. identify a hazardous / harmful environmental
agent
2. determine the size of adverse effect...
3. ... on the base of the exposure assesment
Examples and Illustrations
• Risk Bites - Youtube channel by Andrew
Maynard, Director of the Risk Innovation Lab,
Arizona State University
–How much pee could you end up swallowing while
swimming? URL: https://youtu.be/GIU8Qwf6Snk
–Don't panic! URL: https://youtu.be/MQUB_awofM
Exercise!
• Fill-in the form:
Create your risk
sentence!
–example: Too
loud music
listening is a
risk for
hearing
disorders.
Key issues of the environmental health
• Particulate matters (PM) = sulphates + nitrates
+ ammonia + sodium chloride + black carbon +
mineral dust + water + other minor
components
–Coarse type of PM: aerodynamic diameter 10
micrometres; PM10
–Fine type of PM: aerodynamic diameter 2,5
micrometres; PM2,5
Size range of Particulate Matters (WHO, 2005)
Discover the Czech republic
Red
areas
Brown
areas
Yellow
areas
Green
areas
Discover the Czech republic
• The red areas on the map: Moravian-Silesian Region, the
most agglomeration Ostrava-Karvina, the region is extensively
burned by Industry where crucial emissions stem from large
industrial sources.
– the most popular places for Oil Gobblers in nowadays :-)
• The brown areas on the map („brown fields“ in urban
planning): Prague - Capital city, Brno, North Bohemia region
etc. are polluted in relation to traffic and its associated
processes (corrosion, abrasion etc.) mostly. Long-term
comparisons clearly illustrate the relationship between
measured concentrations of PM and traffic intensity!
Discover the Czech republic
• The yellow areas on the map: rural or agricultural
background - grasslands, forests, uncultivated and cultivated
grounds, water areas etc. Local sources of the air pollution
are associated with traffic (transit motorways) and domestic
heating.
• The green areas on the map: national parks, rest areas
situated mostly in mountains, minimum of the air pollution,
special land use.
Based on a the monitoring of the selected quality indicators.
Concentrations of airborne pollutants have been obtained from
a network of the measuring stations operated by the National
Institue of Public Health, Prague.
Oil Gobblers (mocumentary, 1988): afew
notes
• Environment of the Northern Bohemia was really so
horrible at that time
• These are not tricks of film studios
• The filmmakers could show better landscape if they
wanted...
–yet they have been able to find places with
practically toxic concentrations of pollutants
–yet they have been find localities suitable to shoot
some next movies showing the devasted
environment
Conclussions
• The source of the environmental health data in the
Czech republic is the National Institute of Public
Health
–some differences might be in Your country :-)
• After all, environmental pollution in the Czech
republic has non-point character and have clear
association with traffic intensity.
• We can identify some regions extensively burdened
by heavy industry where the impacts in public health
are not-negligible.