Conceptual frameworks for setting environmental standards.

Following the Second European Conference on Environment and Health, held from 20 to 22 June 1994 in Helsinki, the World Health Organization (WHO) established a National Environmental Health Action Plan pilot project. During 1995, and as part of its work for this project with the WHO European Environmental Health Committee, the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution began to seek evidence for the basis of setting environmental standards and to ask if a more consistent and robust basis can be found for establishing them. This paper explores the conceptual frameworks needed to help establish policy and address practical questions associated with different pollutants, exposures and environmental settings. It addresses sustainable development, inter-generational equity and environmental quality, the European Charter on Environment and Health, the Treaty of Maastricht, economic, educational and training issues, risk assessment, the role of environmental epidemiology, and definitions of environmental quality objectives, environmental health indicators, environmental epidemiology and environmental impact assessment.