About: health and environment

Biomonitoring in health & environment policy-making

Biomonitoring involves taking samples of blood, tissue, urine or hair to detect the presence of certain substances in the human body. The process is today used by environmental campaigners, lobbyists and the EU Commission as a tool to assess human exposure to pollution as part of health and environmental policy-making. However, the lack of scientific knowledge on the paths taken by the pollutants and their actual risk for human health is making biomonitoring a controversial issue.

Health Inequalities

With the eastern enlargement of the EU, more attention is being drawn to the fact that the citizens of the less wealthy Central and Eastern European countries have poorer health and shorter life expectancy than those in Western Europe. In addition to the east-west gap in health, differences in health between socioeconomic groups have increased in many countries as socio-economic determinants such as education, employment and life-style affect the health.