Environmental health surveillance system in urban areas near incinerators and industrial premises
The operation “Enhance health: Environmental health surveillance system in urban areas near incinerators and industrial premises” is based on environmental and health concerns in relation to air pollution produced by industrial premises and waste incinerators in urban areas. The simultaneous presence of industrial and urban settlements and waste incinerators in urban areas and the related problem of the impact of such polluting settlements on the population’s health is quite common in a highly industrialised Europe. However, this situation often leaves citizens in the affected areas without any certainty regarding the effects that continued exposure might have. As a consequence, many conflicts are likely to arise between different stakeholders over a given territory's use. The partnership wants to jointly analyse and exchange experience on the effects that pollutants from waste incineration can have on human health and on the space dispersion of these pollutants. The partners want to exchange experience and further develop know-how on how to deal with this issue. They are also planning to elaborate tools for the definition of common sustainable territorial policies taking into account environmental and health aspects. Guidelines and Good Practices will be defined on the basis of pilot projects that will have been previously carried out in the territories of three different partners (Italy, Hungary and Poland). The operation will define a common methodology to be used in environmental and health monitoring in the participating areas in order to verify the effects on human health of selected pollutants, monitor the level of risk perception and prepare a long-term risk communication strategy to prevent social conflicts and improve risk communication to local populations improving their knowledge about environmental and health policy in their territories. It will jointly establish an environmental-health surveillance system and create a transferable model to be used by other interested local and regional authorities in Europe.