CURRENT ISSUES OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH IN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES. LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

EU countries have accumulated a considerable amount of scientific research demonstrating the influence of a number of environmental factors on human health. The paper reviews European research on the relation between the environment and human health. The authors present a review of normative and non-governmental initiatives in the field of environmental control and human health in the European region, major environmental causes of human health deterioration and initiatives aiming at preventing ecology-dependant health issues. In 1989 World Health Organisation (WHO) held the First Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health that kickstarted the process uniting the healthcare field and the field of environmental protection. The main objective of the “Environment and Health” Process is to mitigate major environmental risks for human health. The objective is to be achieved through regular Ministerial Conferences held every five years by the World Health Organisation Regional Office. According to the policy stated in “Health-2020”, ecology is an important factor for maintaining good human health and establishment of sustainable communities and favorable environment should be prioritized in the European region of WHO. According to the research presented by WHO, major environmental causes of increased disease rate are atmospheric pollutants, accumulation of heavy metal leads and other harmful chemicals in the environment, climate change, noise pollution, low quality of drinking water and poor hygienic conditions. The review presents a consideration of recommendations given in “Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement”, Scopus, Web of Science, eLIBRARY.RU, CyberLeninka, and other scientific databases were used for this review.