Center for Coastal Environmental and Human Health, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, United States.
Front Public Health. 2023 Sep 14;11:1202118. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1202118. eCollection 2023.
Coastal areas have long been attractive places to live, work, and recreate and remain so even in the face of growing threats from global environmental change. At any moment, a significant portion of the human population is exposed to both positive and negative health effects associated with coastal locations. Some locations may be "hotspots" of concern for human health due to ongoing climatic and other changes, accentuating the need for better understanding of coastal environment-human health linkages. This paper describes how environmental and health data could be combined to create a coastal environmental and human health observing system. While largely based on information from the US and Europe, the concept should be relevant to almost any coastal area. If implemented, a coastal health observing system would connect a variety of human health data and environmental observations for individuals and communities, and where possible cohorts. Health data would be derived from questionnaires and other personal sources, clinical examinations, electronic health records, wearable devices, and syndromic surveillance, plus information on vulnerability and health-relevant community characteristics, and social media observations. Environmental data sources would include weather and climate, beach and coastal conditions, sentinel species, occurrences of harmful organisms and substances, seafood safety advisories, and distribution, proximity, and characteristics of health-promoting green and blue spaces. Where available, information on supporting resources could be added. Establishment of a linked network of coastal health observatories could provide powerful tools for understanding the positive and negative health effects of coastal living, lead to better health protections and enhanced wellbeing, and provide significant benefits to coastal residents, including the historically disadvantaged, as well as the military, hospitals and emergency departments, academic medical, public health, and environmental health programs, and others. Early networks could provide best practices and lessons learned to assist later entries.
沿海地区一直以来都是人们居住、工作和娱乐的理想场所，即使在面对全球环境变化带来的日益增长的威胁时，它们仍然具有吸引力。在任何时候，都有相当一部分人口会受到与沿海地区相关的积极和消极的健康影响。由于持续的气候和其他变化，一些地区可能成为人类健康的“热点”，这更加凸显了人们需要更好地了解沿海环境与人类健康之间的联系。本文描述了如何将环境和健康数据结合起来，创建一个沿海环境和人类健康观测系统。虽然这主要基于美国和欧洲的信息，但这一概念应该与几乎所有的沿海地区都相关。如果实施，沿海健康观测系统将把各种人类健康数据和环境观测结果联系起来，包括个人和社区，以及可能的队列。健康数据将来自问卷调查和其他个人来源、临床检查、电子健康记录、可穿戴设备和综合征监测，以及关于脆弱性和与健康相关的社区特征的信息，以及社交媒体观察。环境数据源包括天气和气候、海滩和沿海条件、哨兵物种、有害生物和物质的发生情况、海鲜安全建议以及促进健康的绿色和蓝色空间的分布、接近程度和特征。在有可用信息的情况下，还可以添加有关支持资源的信息。建立一个沿海健康观测站的互联网络，可以为了解沿海生活的积极和消极健康影响提供强大的工具，从而实现更好的健康保护和增强幸福感，并为沿海居民带来重大利益，包括历史上处于不利地位的人群、军队、医院和急诊部门、学术医学、公共卫生和环境卫生计划等。早期的网络可以提供最佳实践和经验教训，以帮助后来者。
