REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH INFORMATION UNDER THE EU E&H ACTION PLAN Work on ambient air APHEIS Network Meeting Ispra 6-7 June 2006 Scott Brockett, DG ENV

Background 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 Work with policy units and their technical support Cross-cutting issues assessed once groundwork clear Review document pulls conclusions together (scheduled for adoption as Staff Working Document, end June 2006)

Work on ambient air Document ‘Issues for ambient air’ prepared and on website: Analysis of key issues prepared with JRC, APHEIS, EEA and Unit ENV.C.3 Recommendations for action on: Exposure assessment Source-related exposure Health-related data Epidemiology Toxicology and Health Impact Assessment Research infrastructures and research Three highest priorities identified are included in Review: research infrastructure, epidemiology on long-term effects, and improving data on health status Will certainly implement others also, if resources allow.

Improve infrastructure (superstations and superregions) Proposal Set up 6-9 superregions covering European differences in climate, population, socio-economic situations. Each superregion should enable detailed studies related (e.g.) to exposure, personal exposure, health status, short and long-term epidemiology Should also include other stressors where possible (noise, indoor air) APHEA and PAMCHAR are precedents Estimate costs Costs for set-up and running of superstations for 7 years estimated at €100m Funding options Tried to use FP7 Research Infrastructure budget line, but limited support Some scope for funding under Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives (but only for providing access to existing infrastructures) Keen to examine potential to build on existing networks. Possible for second tranche of Research Infrastructures

Epidemiology: study on long-term effects of air pollution Workshop held in Bilthoven 20 January to identify needs: Proposal Studies in a series of locations across Europe covering: Several exposure parameters (e.g. mass or number concentration of PM) Potentially vulnerable population groups (e.g. young children and the elderly) Several health end points (e.g. respiratory and cardiovascular) Aim: to identify long-term effect of European pollution mixtures on health, and their regional differences Should also consider joint effects of noise and air pollution on cardiovascular system Should consider whether other exposures (e.g drinking water) can be efficiently studied in the same populations Estimated costs Budget of comparable initiatives €30-50 million Funding options FP7 Environment theme Key priority in draft Specific Programme Supported at stakeholder meeting on 22 May Final decision on inclusion, and funding, yet to be determined

Health status data Improve and harmonise health frequency data across Europe Define relevant endpoints (mortality and morbidity) and classification into three classes (must be monitored, should be monitored, and explorative monitoring) Define spatial and temporal needs for the data Identify monitoring methods (e.g. surveys, hospital admissions) Identify research needs and policy evaluation tools Identify concrete measures to address the delay to access health status data A first review in the EURAQUEM project (including also APHEIS conclusions) Estimated costs Study for developing options €200k, 1 year Funding options Public Health Programme LIFE+

Exposure assessment Develop and implement integrated QA/QC procedures for submission of data to Airbase Pursue implementation of Structural Indicators Integrate information from ongoing studies on: Assess representativeness of measurement sites Improve criteria for site selection and description Provide for links to other databases such as (sub) population density Enable assessment of hot-spot contribution to exposure Further develop models for required spatial and temporal resolution in 1-2 pilot studies – 2 regions where all different approaches are conducted in field conditions, results compared and sensitivities on input data assessed. Estimated costs Pilot studies €2-400k (2 studies recommended) Funding options LIFE+

Source-related exposure Enhance knowledge on source-related exposure so as to enable relevant sources to be identified: Review current source-receptor relations for gaseous and particulate pollutants Develop measurement and data interpretation strategies to allow for source-group and source region identification Strategies should allow for differentiation of natural and anthropogenic sources Assess use of dispersion models to assess source contributions, for different geographical scales Develop source-related health-effect studies Estimated costs For first three: one-year study of c €200k For fourth: Study summarising available results €50k, actual model runs extra Fifth should be linked to superregions Funding options LIFE+

Toxicology and health impact assessment Conduct mechanistic studies with various types of PM (source-related, size-fractionated, etc) in molecular, cellular and animal models For Health Impact Assessment: Identify any additional missing information (or poor-quality info resulting in high uncertainty) Validate model assumptions Estimated costs For toxicology – to be determined in context of FP7 For health impact assessment: possible establishment and running costs of co-ordination team (€50-100k per year) plus specific studies (€200k per year) Funding options FP7, LIFE+

Conclusions If concerns on definition of main three priorities, need to know urgently (ISC about to begin) Any comments on other tasks, or proposals for additional tasks, are welcome Final funding availability still to be determined (in FP7 and operational budget under LIFE+) Proposals from APHEIS for involvement in any of the tasks welcome