Epidemiological Evaluation of Notifications of Environmental Events in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Increasing urbanization across the globe, combined with an increased use of chemicals in various regions, contributes to several environmental events that influence environmental health. Measures that identify environmental factors and events should be introduced to facilitate epidemiological investigations by health services. The Brazilian Ministry of Health published a new list of notifiable diseases on 25 January 2011 and introduced environmental events as a new category of notifiable occurrences. The Center for Epidemiologic Surveillance in State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, created an online notification system that highlights “environmental events”, such as exposure to chemical contaminants, drinking water with contaminants outside of the recommended range, contaminated air, and natural or anthropogenic disasters. This paper analyzed 300 notifications received between May 2011 and May 2012. It reports the number of notifications with event classifications and analyzes the events relating to accidents with chemical substances. This paper describes the characteristics of the accidents that involved chemical substances, methods used, types of substances, exposed population, and measures adopted. The online notification of environmental events increases the analysis of the main events associated with diseases related to environmental chemicals; thus, it facilitates the adoption of public policies to prevent environmental health problems.