ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH INFORMATION E&H Consultative Forum 19 October 2005 Process Content 1: Ambient Air Quality

Process Series of meetings focusing on four main exposure routes, plus two other issues –Ambient air –Indoor air –Drinking water/bathing water –Food –Physical stressors (noise, EMF, UV, ionising radiation, others) –E&H tracking systems Objectives –To work with the policy leads and their technical contacts –To analyse the existing information framework and develop actions to improve it for the short, medium and long term –To focus on actions on information, analysis and presentation –To identify cross-cutting issues

Technical preparation Outcome –Detailed Implementation Plan for E&H Information System (by early 2006) Support: two contracts –Technical support : about to be awarded: will run until April 2006 –Scientific Support for Policy: in fifth call, to be published late 2005

Technical preparation Integration with ENHIS and ENHIS 2 –Principal contact with WP 5 –Ambient Air Quality and DW conclusions reflected in Content 1 and 3 –Indoor air and noise will be reflected in Content 4 and 5 respectively –Development of information system using currently available information will proceed in parallel

First output on ambient air quality –Draft document 23 September. on drinking water/bathing water on exposure through food –Drafts 11 October. Written comments welcome –By 11 November.

Next steps in technical preparation Second public drafts plus further meetings if necessary –ambient air –DW/BW –food Mid December 2005 First meetings and first public drafts –indoor air –physical stressors (noise, EMF, radiation) –E&H Tracking Mid December 2005 Written comments by mid/end January

Next steps in technical preparation AFSSE workshop on E&H Information systems –5-6 December 2005 Final reports for all six subjects Integration into an Implementation Plan –February/March 2006 Consultation meeting end Feb/beginning March

Financial preparation Need to identify tasks precisely and match with suitable funding from FP7, LIFE+, Public Health programme –Environmental monitoring under LIFE+ –Infrastructure-related elements possibly under Research Infrastructure budget line of FP7 –Support under the Environment theme of FP7 –Health endpoint information under Public Health and Consumer Protection Programme. Possible scope for use of E budget lines of DG INFSO, for presentation aspect More clarity on funding possibilities as information needs become clearer

Deadlines 11/11: Written comments on first three issues 16/12: Revised documents on first three issues First documents on second three issues »Indoor air »Noise »Environmental Public Health Tracking 24/1/06:Deadline for written comments 22/2/06:Final drafts of all six reports. First draft of Implementation Plan. 3/06:Consultation and final draft of IP.

Content 1: Air Quality Priority substances and emerging issues Exposure –Monitoring –Modelling –Personal exposure monitoring –Biomonitoring Health effects monitoring Epidemiology Source-receptor relations Toxicology

Concentration monitoring Hemispheric (isolated stations) Regional Urban background (twin stations) Hot-spots Ambient air monitoring network Speciation monitoring Superstations Modelling Dispersion Sources Reduction scenarios at regional, urban, hot-spot scales Exposure: population distribution of concentrations at regional, urban, hot- spot scales Time-activity patterns Exposure response relations Health effect monitoring network Mortality and morbidity for COPD, lung cancer, childhood respiratory disease, etc. at regional, urban, hot-spot scales Assessment of health impacts of ambient air on regional, urban and hot-spot scales Economic assessment Components of health impact assessment Ambient Air

Priorities and emerging issues Which substances should we focus on? Particulate matter Gaseous pollutants (ozone etc) New/emerging ambient air pollutants (RTD NORMAN project)

Exposure Maps of concentrations across Europe Maps of population densities across Europe Population distributions of concentrations Monitoring Improve monitoring used to develop concentration maps at all geographical scales (hemispheric, regional, urban background, hotspot)

Exposure Modelling Calibrate major models against monitoring results. Develop guidance on using models for concentration mapping Encourage adoption of new techniques (such as ‘adjoint’ techniques). Monitoring of personal exposure Not really useful for adapting the exposure metric itself Validation of concentration metric For time series, the necessary work has largely been done. For spatial contrasts, work is underway but more is still needed.

Exposure: biomonitoring Evidence that the current state of biomarkers for PM, NO2 insufficiently developed for policy use The emphasis for that reason has been on other approaches such as personal monitoring to validate exposure models, as discussed above. Identify extent to which biomarkers can be used for policy purposes in ambient air.

Health effects monitoring Mortality –International Classification of Disease coding is improving comparability. –The main outstanding problem is the long delay required in some countries to get the most recent data. –Concrete measures to address this delay?

Health effects monitoring Morbidity: For broad categories (respiratory, cardiovascular admissions etc.) ICD codes ensure comparability For more detailed categories data is less comparable. Develop survey of health impacts? –European Community Respiratory Health Survey –US experience (NHANES) –Collection of health statistics on a solid legal footing, including the European Health Interview and Health Examination Surveys.

Epidemiology Develop infrastructure for epidemiological studies at EU level –supersites/superstations to allow very detailed time resolution and speciation of pollutants –programme of combined health/air quality studies. –operational management of the stations should be considered. Long-term studies a major priority –At least a decade of consistent funding –How to provide a basis for funding stretching across a number of research funding cycles.

Source-receptor relations For particulate matter: Exposure efficiency – proportion of a given exposure that ends up in the body (>> for transport than energy, for instance) Need research into source-resolved size distributions. For gaseous pollutants: Current approach (emission inventories and modelling) works well for most common pollutants. But reassessment may be needed for some specific compounds ( dioxins, HMs, POPs).

Toxicology Mechanistic studies to identify exactly what is happening in the body. Predictive toxicology to assess which of the various new technologies offers the most promise in reducing toxic emissions. Studies combining epidemiology and toxicology (HEPMEAP, Health Effects Institute (HEI) research agenda).

Next steps Many actions are already underway and have responsibilities and resources allocated. Where not, identify the actors and resources required. Integrate with work on other exposure routes, principally indoor air.