IEHIAS building indicators: example from agriculture
- The text on this page is taken from an equivalent page of the IEHIAS-project.
As part of the EU-funded INTARESE project, which contributed to the development of this Toolbox, a case study was carried out to assess health impacts of agricultural land use change in Greece and England.
Framing of the assessment resulted in a focus on three main exposures (to pesticides,395 endotoxins and aerosols) and two main groups of health effects (respiratory illnesses and cancers). To describe these impacts, indicators were identified at four key points in the causal chain: source activity, releases, environmental concentrations and health effect. Indicators thus comprised measures of:
- farming practice (crop area, livestock density, annual pesticide usage) to represent changes in source activity;
- releases (mean annual emissions of pesticides, endotoxins and aerosols) to represent changes in inputs into the environmental system;
- concentrations (mean annual concentrations of each agent in rural areas) to represent exposures;
- health effects (attributable morbidity and mortality, and disability adjusted life years) to represent health impacts.