ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INDICATORS: EXPERIENCES IN HUNGARY Tibor Málnási, É. Vaskövi, G. Nádor, A. Páldy “József Fodor” National Center for Public Health,

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INDICATORS:

EXPERIENCES IN HUNGARY

Tibor Málnási, É. Vaskövi, G. Nádor,

A. Páldy “József Fodor” National Center for Public Health,

National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary

• Hungary has been involved in the WHO/ECEH project “Environmental Health Indicators for the WHO European Region” since the beginning.

• After the evaluation of the feasibility study, the data collection started.

• The software tool for the date collection and management (EuroIndy) was developed by the help of the National Institute of Environmental Health, in Hungary

• During the data collection and the assessment several difficulties were discovered:

• some data are not available in Hungary,

• others are not available according to the requirements,

• it was difficult to identify the data holders and the cooperation between the different institutes was not sufficient.

• The “Exposure to urban ambient air pollutants” is a key indicator, summarizing important environmental and health information. Several difficulties emerged in Hungary during the data collection and the computation of this indicator.

• One key element is the identification of the population that is relevant to the measured pollutant concentration.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

fra

cti

on

of

po

pu

lati

on

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

TSP, μg/m3

0-5days

0 days

TSP annualmean

Exposure of population to daily average TSP concentrationabove 230 μg/m3 in Budapest

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

frac

tio

n o

f p

op

ula

tio

n

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

TSP, µg/m3

71-90days

51-70days

31-50days

11-30days

0-10days

0 days

TSP annualmean

Exposure of population to daily average TSP concentrationabove national standard (100 μg/m3) in Budapest

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

frac

tio

n o

f p

op

ula

tio

n

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

SO2, µg/m3

>9days

4-9days

0-3days

0 days

SO2annualmean

Exposure of population to daily average SO2 concentration

above 125 μg/m3 in Budapest

Population weighted exposure to NO2 exceeding

40 μg/m3 annual mean in Budapest

0

2

4

6

8

10

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

µg

/m3 x

ye

ar

0

20

40

60

80

100

NO2, µg/m3

41-60µg/m3

61-80µg/m3

81-100µg/m3

NO2 annualmean

• A GIS method was used • in a selected city (Budapest), • for a selected pollutant (NO2), • to identify the relevant population for the

concentration measured by a passive monitoring.

• For the characterization of the exposure, concentration categories were used.

Assessment of EHI by WHO

exposure

population

concentration

Limit value

EXPy = ( Pi/P) * (Cyi – RV y )

NO2, SO2, O3

PM10, TSP, BS,

Air pollution exposure assessment

• Location Budapest

• Component NO2

• Timeframe 2001 - 2002 / quarter of a year

• Duration of exposure 1 week• No of sampling points 80 (10% traffic)• Methods

– sampling: passive monitoring– analyzis: photometry

Population categories

• 0 - 14 year

• 15 - 64 year

• > 65 year

Categories of air pollution (µgm3)

17/2001 (VIII.3.) directive of MinEnv

NO2

Lower threshold < 26

Upper threshold 26 – 32

Limit value 32 – 40

1,5 * LV 40 – 60

2 *LV 60 – 80

> 2 *LV > 80

LV

NO2 pollution (µgm3) by sampling points

Spatial distribution of NO2 pollution (µgm3)

2001-2002

40-60

32-40

26-32

<26

60-80

Yearly mean pollution of NO2 by age groups (1)

79

21

82

18

80

20

72

28

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

összeslakosság

lakossá g(10-14)

lakosság (14-65év )

lakosság (>65év)

>LV

<LV

Yearly mean pollution of NO2 by age groups (2)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

<26 26-32 32-40 40-60 60-80 >80 µg/m3

>65 y

14-65 y

0-14 y

NO2 indicator

0

1

2

3

4

5

súlyozott

konc.,µg/m3

20 40 konc.,µg/m3

összes lakosság lakosság (0-14) lakosság (14-65) lakosság (>65év)

Summary I.

• The fraction of population exposed to TSP and SO2 concentration exceeding the RV showed a decreasing tendency

• The population weighted exposure to NO2 incerased during the first 3 years, later decreased

Summary II.• The results of GIS analysis of the spatial distribution of NO2 exposure showed:• Highest exposed area: downtown• Highest exposed group of population:

– > 65 y

• >Percentage of exposed population to NO2 over the limit value: 28%