WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Bilthoven Division, A. van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Oct;108(10):997-1002. doi: 10.1289/ehp.00108997.
Environmental health risk assessment is increasingly being used in the development of environmental health policies, public health decision making, the establishment of environmental regulations, and research planning. The credibility of risk assessment depends, to a large extent, on the strength of the scientific evidence on which it is based. It is, therefore, imperative that the processes and methods used to evaluate the evidence and estimate health risks are clear, explicit, and based on valid epidemiological theory and practice. Epidemiological Evidence for Environmental Health Risk Assessment is a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline document. The primary target audiences of the guidelines are expert review groups that WHO (or other organizations) might convene in the future to evaluate epidemiological evidence on the health effects of environmental factors. These guidelines identify a set of processes and general approaches to assess available epidemiological information in a clear, consistent, and explicit manner. The guidelines should also help in the evaluation of epidemiological studies with respect to their ability to support risk assessment and, consequently, risk management. Conducting expert reviews according to such explicit guidelines would make health risk assessment and subsequent risk management and risk communication processes more readily understood and likely to be accepted by policymakers and the public. It would also make the conclusions reached by reviews more readily acceptable as a basis for future WHO guidelines and other recommendations, and would provide a more rational basis for setting priorities for future research.
环境健康风险评估越来越多地应用于环境健康政策制定、公共卫生决策、环境法规制定以及研究规划。风险评估的可信度在很大程度上取决于其所依据的科学证据的力度。因此，至关重要的是，用于评估证据和估计健康风险的过程及方法要清晰、明确，且基于有效的流行病学理论与实践。《环境健康风险评估的流行病学证据》是世界卫生组织（WHO）的一份指南文件。该指南的主要目标受众是WHO（或其他组织）未来可能召集的专家审查小组，以评估关于环境因素对健康影响的流行病学证据。这些指南确定了一套以清晰、一致且明确的方式评估现有流行病学信息的过程和一般方法。这些指南还应有助于评估流行病学研究支持风险评估以及进而支持风险管理的能力。按照此类明确的指南进行专家审查将使健康风险评估以及随后的风险管理和风险沟通过程更容易被政策制定者和公众理解并可能被接受。这也将使审查得出的结论作为WHO未来指南和其他建议的基础更容易被接受，并为确定未来研究的优先事项提供更合理的依据。
