Environmental Health in Israel | 2014

Environmental Health Indicators and Trends Indicators are important tools for highlighting problems, identifying trends, and monitoring progress, all of which contribute to effective policy formulation. A complex system for collecting health and environmental data and indicators has been in place in Israel for many years. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MoEP) published a comprehensive report on environmental indicators in 2010 and an additional report on well-being and sustainability indicators in 2013. The Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) regularly publish data on health and health- promotion indicators, including life expectancy, infant mortality, diabetes prevalence, reported smoking rate, overweight and obesity, and percentage of adults engaging in regular physical activity. In 2012, Israel was chosen by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to be the pioneer in consolidating a set of national indicators on well-being and sustainability. While extensive health and environmental indicator data are regularly collected and published in Israel, and are being further developed within the framework of the OECD indicators project, environmental health indicators have not been developed in Israel. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), environmental health indicators are needed to:  monitor trends in the state of the environment, in order to identify potential risks to health;  monitor trends in health resulting from exposure to environmental risk factors, in order to guide policy;  compare areas or countries in terms of their environmental health status, so as to target action where it is most needed or to help allocate resources;  monitor and assess the effects of policies or other interventions on environmental health;  help raise awareness about environmental health issues across different stake-holder groups; and  help investigate potential links between environment and health (e.g. as part of epidemiological studies), as a basis for informing health interventions and policy. Chapter 12 - 79 - Environmental Health Indicators and Trends