Quantifying environmental health impacts

WHO Photocontest 2007

The environmental burden of disease quantifies the amount of disease caused by environmental risks.

Disease burden can be expressed in deaths, incidence or in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY). The latter measure combines the burden due to death and disability in a single index. Using such an index permits the comparison of the burden due to various environmental risk factors with other risk factors or diseases.

Additional information required for the rational development of policies by the health sector and activities of other sectors which directly manage or influence the determinants of health includes:

• the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions
• the availability of resources
• the type of policy environment

WHO's activities and products

• Summary of methods and products
  pdf, 200kb
• Country profiles of environmental burden of disease
  
• Global estimates of burden of disease caused by the environment and occupational risks
  
• Practical guidance for assessment of disease burden at national and local levels
  
• Methods for quantifying environmental health impacts
  
• Cost-effectiveness of interventions