Health and the environment. The case of the Spain Health Atlas

One of the main determining factors for the health of the population is the state of the environment. In contrast to the “classic” infectious pathology, which is highly dependent on hygiene and environmental factors, over the past 50 years, new clinical disorders have appeared and changes have taken place in the incidence of conventional diseases. During this period, and increasingly, the advent of environmental chemical pollution has originated or encouraged these changes in pathology, and in the state of the population's health. The spread of chemical agents that are harmful to health has expanded to global dimensions, and this has led the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to determine a series of agents that should be completely eliminated from the environment. These agents were originally defined by the Stockholm Agreement (2001) as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POCs), which were recently augmented by the Dakar Conference (2007). In fact, the list includes over 300 agents, given that many of the POCs are product families. All of them are halogenous organic agents (that is to say, they contain chlorine, bromine or fluorine), and which are used as pesticides, flame retardants, anti-adhesives, etc. Many more agents as harmful as POCs exist, but which have not yet been included on the POC list for financial or industrial reasons (as in the case of methylmercury, for example). Recent studies on mortality in Spain focusing on small regions and municipalities have shown that great differences exist in the risk of suffering from certain pathologies according to the different regions and their environmental health conditions. The worst conditions can basically be found in the south-west of Spain, especially in Huelva and the Algeciras region, a fact that is partly related to major industrial pollution (refineries, historic mining industries, petrochemical industries, etc). However, in the case of certain specific pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease, the highest incidence in Spain is found in Catalonia (and especially in Tarragona), followed by the Ebro Valley and stretching as far as the Basque Country and Asturias. All these areas have a long history of pollution with agents from the POC family and similar compounds.