Documents Bertollini, Roberto 2 results

"Injuries cause 9% of deaths and 14% of ill health in the WHO European Region. This problem is neglected; injuries are often seen as part of everyday life. However, although western Europe has good safety levels, death and disability from injury are rising in eastern Europe. People in low-to-middle-income countries in the Region are 3·6 times more likely to die from injuries than those in high-income countries. Economic and political change have led to unemployment, income inequalities, increased traffic, reduced restrictions on alcohol, and loss of social support.
Risks such as movement of vulnerable populations and transfer of lifestyles and products between countries also need attention. In many countries, the public health response has been inadequate, yet the cost is devastating to individuals and health-service budgets. More than half a million lives could be saved annually in the Region if recent knowledge could be used to prevent injuries and thus redress social injustice in this area."

"BACKGROUND: Continuous exposure to many chemicals, including through air, water, food, or other media and products results in health impacts which have been well assessed, however little is known about the total disease burden related to chemicals. This is important to know for overall policy actions and priorities. In this article the known burden related to selected chemicals or their mixtures, main data gaps, and the link to public health policy are reviewed. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature for global burden of disease estimates from chemicals was conducted. Global disease due to chemicals was estimated using standard methodology of the Global Burden of Disease. RESULTS: In total, 4.9 million deaths (8.3% of total) and 86 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (5.7% of total) were attributable to environmental exposure and management of selected chemicals in 2004. The largest contributors include indoor smoke from solid fuel use, outdoor air pollution and second-hand smoke, with 2.0, 1.2 and 0.6 million deaths annually. These are followed by occupational particulates, chemicals involved in acute poisonings, and pesticides involved in self-poisonings, with 375,000, 240,000 and 186,000 annual deaths, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The known burden due to chemicals is considerable. This information supports decision-making in programmes having a role to play in reducing human exposure to toxic chemicals. These figures present only a number of chemicals for which data are available, therefore, they are more likely an underestimate of the actual burden. Chemicals with known health effects, such as dioxins, cadmium, mercury or chronic exposure to pesticides could not be included in this article due to incomplete data and information. Effective public health interventions are known to manage chemicals and limit their public health impacts and should be implemented at national and international levels."