Environmental monitoring program area: Health-related environmental monitoring (HÄMI)
The program area for health-related environmental monitoring conducts long-term studies of environmental pollutants that can affect human health.
The monitoring consists of:
- Estimating the human exposure to hazardous substances from the surrounding environment.
- Follow indicators of human exposure by measuring environmental pollutants in human matrices.
- Performing studies that link environmental exposure to health effects.
Through these activities the program can provide statistics for the evaluation of the environmental quality objectives like A Non-Toxic Environment, show trends in human exposure and evaluate if measures taken to limit exposure reach their desired effect.
The program area has conducted measurements for more than 25 years
Studies about the relation between outside environmental factors and human health began in 1993. Environmental factors that can affect people’s health are also studied within other program areas for environmental monitoring and by other government agencies like the Geological Survey of Sweden, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and the Public Health Agency of Sweden.
Data from HÄMI
Data and reports prepared for HÄMI are available at The Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) at Karolinska Institutet:
Health-related environmental monitoring program Swedish (HÄMI) (external website)
European collaboration on biomonitoring
Human biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) was a project between 28 countries aiming to harmonize biomonitoring methods within Europe. The goal was to generate comparable data between countries, increase our understanding of the relationship between chemical exposure and adverse health effects and to strengthen the link between chemical regulation and human biomonitoring. The Swedish EPA is the national program owner of this collaboration. The project was co-funded under Horizon 2020 and ended in 2022. The collaboration on human biomonitoring now continues through a new partnership program within EU, PARC
Workshops on health and environmental monitoring
Every second year a seminar is arranged by the Swedish EPA to discuss and present the current level of knowledge on environmental monitoring in connection to health outcomes.
Reference group
Reference groups are used to cooperate and exchange information with other stakeholders in the monitoring area, often relevant governmental agencies and and County Administrative Boards. This program area has an active reference group.
Revisions
The program was last revised in 2015-2016.