The National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) yesterday announced that it would launch nationwide health surveys to better understand the environmental causes of certain diseases.
To protect the environment, ecology and people’s health, several nations have invested huge amounts of money in monitoring chemical substances in the environment and human exposure to them, the NHRI said, adding that it is to collaborate with 11 hospitals to establish the Taiwan Precision Environmental Medicine Alliance to assess environmental health risks in local communities.
Largee human biomonitoring projects assessing environment-related risks and impacts, and generating knowledge about human exposure to chemicals, have been launched worldwide, including the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative in the EU, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US, the German Experimental Seismic System in Germany and the Korean National Environmental Health Survey in South Korea, it said.
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Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
NHRI National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Director and distinguished investigator Chen Pau-Chung (陳保中) said environmental medical studies used to be conducted with universities, but the alliance has been established to enhance the clinical applications of the findings, combining the resources of regional healthcare facilities to conduct human biomonitoring surveys according to major environmental issues in each area, assess the health risks of local residents, and offer corresponding healthcare services and practical policy suggestions.
The alliance this month started the first phase of a biomonitoring survey, collecting random blood and urine samples in 40 townships, which would be tested for lead, plasticizers and other toxic heavy metals, he said, adding that the alliance plans to publish annual reports on its findings and analysis.
Chen said it also hopes to answer some of the public’s questions, such as whether levels of lead in the blood have dropped, or how many plasticizers are still detected in the body a decade after the discovery of the illegal use of plasticizers in food additives in 2011, and if new plasticizers are detected.
National Taiwan University (NTU) Cancer Center superintendent James Yang (楊志新) said most cancer patients when they are first diagnosed ask: “Why did I get cancer?”
Aside from individual health conditions, sometimes environmental factors might have contributed to their risk of developing cancer, he said.
Air pollution is associated with the development of lung cancer, radiation exposure is associated with leukemia and thyroid cancer, and a few recent studies have suggested that exposure to excessive amounts of plasticizers might increase the risk of women developing breast cancer, he added.
The alliance is led by the NHRI in collaboration with NTU Hospital, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, the NTU Cancer Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital and six other hospitals.
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