were used. To evaluate the exposures both short-term (hourly and daily) data and long term (yearly) data during 45 years were analysed. For health risk assessment the relationship between exposure and biological effects of pollutants published by the WHO and the US EPA were employed.Results: During the studied period annual average concentrations of PM 10 ranged from 25 to 96 µg/m 3 ; PM 2.5 from 24 to 45 µg/m 3 ; SO 2 from 3.4 to 101.5 µg/m 3 ; NO 2 from 17.76 to 51.17 µg/m 3 ; benzene from 0.24 to 9.2 µg/m 3 ; benzo[a]pyrene from 2.1 to 14 ng/m 3 ; arsenic from 1.2 to 9.5 ng/m 3 . Since the turn of the 80s and 90s of the 20th century trend of air pollutant concentrations has been decreasing until the turn of millennium, when it stopped, and it has been constant until present time. However, presented results demonstrate that the citizens of Ostrava have been exposed to relatively high concentrations of pollutants in comparison to other similar cities. The most significant pollutants contributing to health risks are airborne dust (PM 10 , PM 2.5 ), benzene and benzo[a]pyrene. The long-term average health risk of PM 10 has increased in case of postneonatal infant mortality up to 30%; prevalence of bronchitis in children up to 61%; and incidence of chronic bronchitis in adults up to 89%. The long-term average health risk of PM 2.5 increased for all-cause mortality in persons aged 30+ years up to 22%; cardiopulmonary related mortality up to 25%; and lung cancer related mortality up to 39%. The highest carcinogenic risk is observed in benzo[a]pyrene, when the range of individual lifetime carcinogenic risk is up to 1.25*10 −3 . This assessment is valid according to the strict carcinogenic risk by the WHO, while the maximum carcinogenic risk according the US EPA is 7.2*10 −5 . Conclusions: A significant reduction of the pollutants' concentrations in Ostrava in the nineties of the last century does not mean a required improvement of outdoor air quality to the desired level. Persisting episodes with a very strong short-term increase of the concentration of PM 10 and PM 2.5 , as well as long-term load of these substances on the population is very high. Health risks from such burdens are likely to lead to a higher mortality and morbidity especially from specific diseases.

Based on the results of the serological survey carried out in 2013 in the Czech Republic, it has been decided to postpone the second MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) dose to the age of 5-6 years.

SUMMARYBackground and Aim: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 2 million premature deaths and 7 million of total deaths each year can be attributed to the effects of air pollution. The contribution of air pollution to the health status of population is estimated to be about 20%. Health is largely determined by factors outside the reach of healthcare sector, including low income, unemployment, poor environment, poor education, and substandard housing. The aim of the paper was to review a current knowledge of relationships among air pollution, socioeconomic health inequalities, socio-spatial differentiation, and environmental inequity. The relationships were demonstrated on an example of the Ostrava region. Also basic approaches to health valuation were reviewed.Results: Social differences are reasons both for health inequalities and spatial patterns of unprivileged area housing. In urban environments with poor air quality there is also a large concentration of low income residents. Less affluent population groups are more often affected by inadequate housing conditions including second-hand smoking and higher environmental burden in their residential neighbourhoods. Environmental injustice is highly correlated with other factors that link poverty with poor health, including inadequate access to medical and preventive care, lack of availability of healthful food, lack of safe play spaces for children, absence of good jobs, crime, and violence.Conclusions: The theoretical background and also results of the studies brought evidence that population health is affected by both socioeconomic and environmental inequalities. Air pollution is unevenly distributed in Ostrava and is related to distribution of socially disadvantaged environment and social exclusion as well.

SUMMARY Background and Aim:The city of Ostrava and its surroundings belong to the most long-therm polluted areas in the Czech Republic and Europe. For identification of health risk, the World Health Organization recommends a theoretical estimation of increased short-term PM 10 concentrations effect on hospital admissions for cardiac complaints based on a 0.6% increase per 10 µg.m −3 PM 10 and 1.14% increase for respiratory causes. The goal of the present study is to verify the percentage increase of morbidity due to cardiovascular and respiratory causes, as per WHO recommendations for health risk assessment, in the population of Ostrava.Method: The input data include data on PM 10 air pollution, meteorologi cal data, the absolute number of hospital admissions for acute cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the period 2010-2012. To examine the association between air pollution and health outcomes the time series Poisson regression adjusted for covari ates was used.Results: A significant relationship was found between the cardiovascular hospital admissions (percentage increase of 1.24% per 10 µg.m −3 ) and values of PM 10 less than 150 μg.m −3 in the basic model, although after adjustment for other factors, this relationship was no longer significant. A significant relationship was also observed for respiratory causes of hospital admissions in the basic model. Contrary to cardiovascular hospitalization, the relationship between respiratory hospital admissions and PM 10 values below 150 μg.m −3 (percentage increase of 1.52%) remained statistically significant after adjustment for other factors.Conclusions: The observed significant relationship between hospital admissions for respiratory causes was consistent with the results of large European and American studies.

SUMMARYAim: This study is concerned with environmental health studies conducted in Ostrava (Czech Republic) and the surrounding region since the early nineties.Methods: Various databases, journals and reports, including internal or unpublished reports, were reviewed to assess the individual publications. A brief description of the studies and main results were collated.Results: The city of Ostrava and the surrounding region is an important industrial centre in the Czech Republic with a long-term heavy environmental and occupational disease burden. In spite of the theoretically assessed decline of health risks related to decreasing concentrations of compounds in the environment in recent years, it still poses a disproportionally high risk for the city residents. There are a number of studies suggesting supportive evidence, but they are highly variable in their approach to this topic resulting in a high uncertainty of observed associations and consistency of results. Most of the studies were focused on specific contexts, without any relation to environmental factors.Conclusions: A more systematic approach is needed to assess environmental health burden of diseases especially in relation to air pollution, based on the prospective cohort study, that would lead to sufficient new evidence for accurate and updated description of the environmental health burden in Ostrava.