Suchergebnisse

Despite low per capita emissions, with over a billion population, India is pivotal for climate change mitigation globally, ranking as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. We linked a previously published multidimensional population projection with emission projections from an integrated assessment model to quantify the localised (i.e. state-level) health benefits from reduced ambient fine particulate matter in India under global climate change mitigation scenarios in line with the Paris Agreement targets and national scenarios for maximum feasible air quality control. We incorporated assumptions about future demographic, urbanisation and epidemiological trends and accounted for model feedbacks. Our results indicate that compared to a business-as-usual scenario, pursuit of aspirational climate change mitigation targets can avert up to 8.0 million premature deaths and add up to 0.7 years to life expectancy (LE) at birth due to cleaner air by 2050. Combining aggressive climate change mitigation efforts with maximum feasible air quality control can add 1.6 years to LE. Holding demographic change constant, we find that climate change mitigation and air quality control will contribute slightly more to increases in LE in urban areas than in rural areas and in states with lower socio-economic development. ; We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback. A D acknowledges W Schöpp for providing gridded urban and rural population data. Part of the research was developed in the Young Scientists Summer Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg (Austria). The development of the scenarios presented in this work has been supported through a project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 642147 (CD-LINKS) and No 821471 (ENGAGE).

Quantitative evidence of health and environmental tradeoffs between individuals' drinking water choices is needed to inform decision-making. We evaluated health and environmental impacts of drinking water choices using health impact and life cycle assessment (HIA, LCA) methodologies applied to data from Barcelona, Spain. We estimated the health and environmental impacts of four drinking water scenarios for the Barcelona population: 1) currently observed drinking water sources; a complete shift to 2) tap water; 3) bottled water; or 4) filtered tap water. We estimated the local bladder cancer incidence attributable to trihalomethane (THM) exposure, based on survey data on drinking water sources, THM levels, published exposure-response functions, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from the Global Burden of Disease 2017. We estimated the environmental impacts (species lost/year, and resources use) from waste generation and disposal, use of electricity, chemicals, and plastic to produce tap or bottled drinking water using LCA. The scenario where the entire population consumed tap water yielded the lowest environmental impact on ecosystems and resources, while the scenario where the entire population drank bottled water yielded the highest impacts (1400 and 3500 times higher for species lost and resource use, respectively). Meeting drinking water needs using bottled or filtered tap water led to the lowest bladder cancer DALYs (respectively, 140 and 9 times lower than using tap water) in the Barcelona population. Our study provides the first attempt to integrate HIA and LCA to compare health and environmental impacts of individual water consumption choices. Our results suggest that the sustainability gain from consuming water from public supply relative to bottled water may exceed the reduced risk of bladder cancer due to THM exposure from consuming bottled water in Barcelona. Our analysis highlights several critical data gaps and methodological challenges in quantifying integrated health and environmental impacts of drinking water choices. ; We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019–2023" Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. We are grateful to the Government of Catalonia (Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 1029). MG (RYC-2016-20059) and CT (RYC-2015-17402) acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Authors are also thankful to Andrea Arias and María Teresa Moreira (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) for their contribution, to Iro Evlampidou for contributing to the conceptualization of the analysis, to Anna Gómez and Xavier Bartoll (Barcelona Public Health Agency, ASPB) for contributing with data on water quality water consumption from the Barcelona Health Survey 2016, and to Manolis Kogevinas and Natalie Mueller (ISGlobal) for their comments on the concept and analysis. ; Peer Reviewed ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::6 - Aigua Neta i Sanejament ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum Responsables ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar ; Postprint (published version)

Background: South Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change and is projected to experience some of the highest increases in average annual temperatures throughout the century. Although the adverse impacts of ambient temperature on human health have been extensively documented in the literature, only a limited number of studies have focused on populations in this region. Objectives: Our aim was to systematically review the current state and quality of available evidence on the direct relationship between ambient temperature and heat waves and all-cause mortality in South Asia. Methods: The databases Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and Embase were searched from 1990 to 2020 for relevant observational quantitative studies. We applied the Navigation Guide methodology to assess the strength of the evidence and performed a meta-analysis based on a novel approach that allows for combining nonlinear exposure-response associations without access to data from individual studies. Results: From the 6,759 screened papers, 27 were included in the qualitative synthesis and five in a meta-analysis. Studies reported an association of all-cause mortality with heat wave episodes and both high and low daily temperatures. The meta-analysis showed a U-shaped pattern, with increasing mortality for both high and low temperatures, but a statistically significant association was found only at higher temperatures - above 31° C for lag 0-1 days and above 34° C for lag 0-13 days. Effects were found to vary with cause of death, age, sex, location (urban vs. rural), level of education and socio-economic status, but the profile of vulnerabilities was somewhat inconsistent and based on a limited number of studies. Overall, the strength of the evidence for ambient temperature as a risk factor for all-cause mortality was judged as limited and for heat wave episodes as inadequate. Conclusions: The evidence base on temperature impacts on mortality in South Asia is limited due to the small number of studies, their skewed geographical distribution and methodological weaknesses. Understanding the main determinants of the temperature-mortality association as well as how these may evolve in the future in a dynamic region such as South Asia will be an important area for future research. Studies on viable adaptation options to high temperatures for a region that is a hotspot for climate vulnerability, urbanisation and population growth are also needed. ; VI gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730,004 (project PUCS). JB gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 865,564 (European Research Council Consolidator Grant EARLY-ADAPT), 727,852 (project Blue-Action) and 730,004 (project PUCS). CT was funded through a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2015–17402) awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Background: The epidemiological evidence on green spaces and obesity is inconsistent. Objectives: To study the association of access to green spaces and surrounding greenness with obesity in Spain. Methods: We enrolled 2354 individuals 20-85 years from urban areas of seven provinces of Spain between 2008-13. Subjects were randomly selected population controls of the MCC-Spain case-control study. We geocoded current residences and defined exposures in a buffer of 300 m around them: i) access to green space, identified using Urban Atlas, and ii) levels of surrounding greenness, measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. We examined excess weight/obesity as binary outcomes based on body mass index and waist-hip ratio. We examined effect modification by genetic factors, sex and individual socio-economic status and mediation by physical activity and concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2. To assess potential effect modification by genetic factors, we used a polygenic risk score based on obesity polymorphisms detected in genome-wide association studies. We used logistic mixed-effects models with a random effect for catchment area adjusted for potential confounders. Results: Access to green space was associated with a reduced risk of excess weight/obesity after adjusting for confounders [excess weight: OR (95%CI) = 0.82 (0.63, 1.07), p-value = 0.143; abdominal obesity: OR (95%CI) = 0.68 (0.45, 1.01), p-value = 0.057]. In the stratified analysis, this association was only observed in women. Associations between surrounding greenness and excess weight/obesity were null or modest based on a 1 IQR increase in NDVI [excess weight: OR (95%CI) = 0.99 (0.88, 1.11), p-value = 0.875; abdominal obesity: OR (95%CI) = 0.91 (0.79, 1.05), p-value = 0.186]. The observed associations were not mediated by physical activity or air pollution. Discussion: Access to green space may be associated with decreased risk of excess weight/obesity among women in Spain. Mechanisms explaining this association remain unclear. ; The study was conducted with the Support of Department of Health, Catalan Government grant SLT002/16/00223. The study was partially funded by the "Acción Transversal del Cáncer", approved on the Spanish Ministry Council on the 11th October 2007, by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI08/1770, PI08/0533, PI08/1359, PS09/00773-Cantabria, PS09/01903-Valencia, PI11/01403, PI11/01889-FEDER, PI11/01810, PI12/00488, PI12/00265, PI12/01270, PI12/00715, PI14/01219, PI14/0613, PI15/00069), by the Fundación Marqués de Valdecilla (API 10/09), by the ICGC International Cancer Genome Consortium CLL (The ICGC CLL-Genome Project is funded by Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and Red Temática de Investigación del Cáncer (RTICC) del ISCIII (RD12/0036/0036), by the Junta de Castilla y León (LE22A10-2), by the Consejería de Salud of the Junta de Andalucía (PI-0571-2009, PI-0306-2011, salud201200057018tra), by the Conselleria de Sanitat of the Generalitat Valenciana (AP_061/10), by the Recercaixa (2010ACUP 00310), by the Regional Government of the Basque Country, by the Consejería de Sanidad de la Región de Murcia, by the European Commission grants FOOD-CT-2006-036224-HIWATE, by the Catalan Government- Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) grants 2017SGR723 and 2014SGR850, by the Fundación Caja de Ahorros de Asturias and by the University of Oviedo. ISGlobal is a member of the CERCA Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. Biological samples were stored at the biobanks supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III- FEDER: Parc de Salut MAR Biobank (MARBiobanc) (RD09/0076/00036), "Biobanco La Fe" (RD 09 0076/00021) and FISABIO Biobank (RD09 0076/00058)

BACKGROUND: Road traffic is the main source of environmental noise in European cities and one of the main environmental risks to health and wellbeing. In this study we aimed to provide an in-depth assessment of available road traffic noise data and to estimate population exposure and health impacts for cities in Europe. METHODS: We conducted the analysis for 724 cities and 25 greater cities in 25 European countries. We retrieved road traffic strategic noise maps delivered under the Environmental Noise Directive (END) or available from local sources. We assessed noise exposure using the 24 h day-evening-night noise level indicator (Lden) starting at exposure levels of 55 dB Lden - based on data availability - for the adult population aged 20 and over (n = 123,966,346). For the adults exposed to noise levels above 55 dB Lden we estimated the health impacts of compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 53 dB Lden. Two primary health outcomes were assessed: high noise annoyance and Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD), using mortality from IHD causes as indicator. Exposure Response Functions (ERFs) relating road traffic noise exposure to annoyance and IHD mortality were retrieved from the literature. Uncertainties in input parameters were propagated using Monte Carlo simulations to obtain point estimates and empirical 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). Lastly, the noise maps were categorized as high, moderate and low quality following a qualitative approach. RESULTS: Strategic noise map data was delivered in three distinct formats (i.e. raster, polygon or polyline) and had distinct noise ranges and levels of categorization. The majority of noise maps (i.e. 83.2%) were considered of moderate or low quality. Based on the data provided, almost 60 million adults were exposed to road traffic noise levels above 55 dB Lden, equating to a median of 42% (Interquartile Range (IQR): 31.8-64.8) of the adult population across the analysed cities. We estimated that approximately 11 million adults were highly annoyed by road traffic noise and that 3608 deaths from IHD (95% CI: 843-6266) could be prevented annually with compliance of the WHO recommendation. The proportion of highly annoyed adults by city had a median value of 7.6% (IQR: 5.6-11.8) across the analysed cities, while the number preventable deaths had a median of 2.2 deaths per 100,000 population (IQR: 1.4-3.1). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the provided strategic noise maps a considerable number of adults in European cities are exposed to road traffic noise levels harmful for health. Efforts to standardize the strategic noise maps and to increase noise and disease data availability at the city level are needed. These would allow for a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of the health impacts and further help local governments to address the adverse health effects of road traffic noise.

Background: Road traffic is the main source of environmental noise in European cities and one of the main environmental risks to health and wellbeing. In this study we aimed to provide an in-depth assessment of available road traffic noise data and to estimate population exposure and health impacts for cities in Europe. Methods: We conducted the analysis for 724 cities and 25 greater cities in 25 European countries. We retrieved road traffic strategic noise maps delivered under the Environmental Noise Directive (END) or available from local sources. We assessed noise exposure using the 24 h day-evening-night noise level indicator (Lden) starting at exposure levels of 55 dB Lden - based on data availability - for the adult population aged 20 and over (n = 123,966,346). For the adults exposed to noise levels above 55 dB Lden we estimated the health impacts of compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 53 dB Lden. Two primary health outcomes were assessed: high noise annoyance and Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD), using mortality from IHD causes as indicator. Exposure Response Functions (ERFs) relating road traffic noise exposure to annoyance and IHD mortality were retrieved from the literature. Uncertainties in input parameters were propagated using Monte Carlo simulations to obtain point estimates and empirical 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). Lastly, the noise maps were categorized as high, moderate and low quality following a qualitative approach. Results: Strategic noise map data was delivered in three distinct formats (i.e. raster, polygon or polyline) and had distinct noise ranges and levels of categorization. The majority of noise maps (i.e. 83.2%) were considered of moderate or low quality. Based on the data provided, almost 60 million adults were exposed to road traffic noise levels above 55 dB Lden, equating to a median of 42% (Interquartile Range (IQR): 31.8-64.8) of the adult population across the analysed cities. We estimated that approximately 11 million adults were highly annoyed by road traffic noise and that 3608 deaths from IHD (95% CI: 843-6266) could be prevented annually with compliance of the WHO recommendation. The proportion of highly annoyed adults by city had a median value of 7.6% (IQR: 5.6-11.8) across the analysed cities, while the number preventable deaths had a median of 2.2 deaths per 100,000 population (IQR: 1.4-3.1). Conclusions: Based on the provided strategic noise maps a considerable number of adults in European cities are exposed to road traffic noise levels harmful for health. Efforts to standardize the strategic noise maps and to increase noise and disease data availability at the city level are needed. These would allow for a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of the health impacts and further help local governments to address the adverse health effects of road traffic noise.

By 2030, more than 80% of Europe's population will live in an urban environment. The urban exposome, consisting of factors such as where we live and work, where and what we eat, our social network, and what chemical and physical hazards we are exposed to, provides important targets to improve population health. The EXPANSE (EXposome Powered tools for healthy living in urbAN SEttings) project will study the impact of the urban exposome on the major contributors to Europe's burden of disease: Cardio-Metabolic and Pulmonary Disease. EXPANSE will address one of the most pertinent questions for urban planners, policy makers, and European citizens: "How to maximize one's health in a modern urban environment?" EXPANSE will take the next step in exposome research by (1) bringing together exposome and health data of more than 55 million adult Europeans and OMICS information for more than 2 million Europeans; (2) perform personalized exposome assessment for 5,000 individuals in five urban regions; (3) applying ultra-high-resolution mass-spectrometry to screen for chemicals in 10,000 blood samples; (4) evaluating the evolution of the exposome and health through the life course; and (5) evaluating the impact of changes in the urban exposome on the burden of cardiometabolic and pulmonary disease. EXPANSE will translate its insights and innovations into research and dissemination tools that will be openly accessible via the EXPANSE toolbox. By applying innovative ethics-by-design throughout the project, the social and ethical acceptability of these tools will be safeguarded. EXPANSE is part of the European Human Exposome Network.

Background: Car-dependent city planning has resulted in high levels of environmental pollution, sedentary lifestyles and increased vulnerability to the effects of climate change. The Barcelona Superblock model is an innovative urban and transport planning strategy that aims to reclaim public space for people, reduce motorized transport, promote sustainable mobility and active lifestyles, provide urban greening and mitigate effects of climate change. We estimated the health impacts of implementing this urban model across Barcelona. Methods: We carried out a quantitative health impact assessment (HIA) study for Barcelona residents ≥20 years (N = 1,301,827) on the projected Superblock area level (N = 503), following the comparative risk assessment methodology. We 1) estimated expected changes in (a) transport-related physical activity (PA), (b) air pollution (NO2), (c) road traffic noise, (d) green space, and (e) reduction of the urban heat island (UHI) effect through heat reductions; 2) scaled available risk estimates; and 3) calculated attributable health impact fractions. Estimated endpoints were preventable premature mortality, changes in life expectancy and economic impacts. Results: We estimated that 667 premature deaths (95% CI: 235-1,098) could be prevented annually through implementing the 503 Superblocks. The greatest number of preventable deaths could be attributed to reductions in NO2 (291, 95% PI: 0-838), followed by noise (163, 95% CI: 83-246), heat (117, 95% CI: 101-137), and green space development (60, 95% CI: 0-119). Increased PA for an estimated 65,000 persons shifting car/motorcycle trips to public and active transport resulted in 36 preventable deaths (95% CI: 26-50). The Superblocks were estimated to result in an average increase in life expectancy for the Barcelona adult population of almost 200 days (95% CI: 99-297), and result in an annual economic impact of 1.7 billion EUR (95% CI: 0.6-2.8). Discussion: The Barcelona Superblocks were estimated to help reduce harmful environmental exposures (i.e. air pollution, noise, and heat) while simultaneously increase PA levels and access to green space, and thereby provide substantial health benefits. For an equitable distribution of health benefits, the Superblocks should be implemented consistently across the entire city. Similar health benefits are expected for other cities that face similar challenges of environmental pollution, climate change vulnerability and low PA levels, by adopting the Barcelona Superblock model. ; We would like to thank Maria Foraster for helpful advice on the noise analyses and Glòria Carrasco for taking the pictures of the Sant Antoni Superblock. JB gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 727852 (project Blue-Action), 730004 (project PUCS) and 737480 (Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship ACCLIM). The climate-fit. city is developed as part of the PUCS project, which has received funding from the European Union's H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 73004.

INTRODUCTION: Until now, estimates of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) have mainly been produced on national or regional levels. These general estimates, however, are less useful for city governments who have to take decisions on local scales. To address this gap, we focused on the city-level burden of disease (BD) due to exposures affected by urban and transport planning. We conducted a BD assessment using the Urban and Transport Planning Health Impact Assessment (UTOPHIA) tool to estimate annual preventable morbidity and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) under compliance with international exposure recommendations for physical activity (PA), exposure to air pollution, noise, heat, and access to green spaces in Barcelona, Spain. METHODS: Exposure estimates and morbidity data were available for 1,357,361 Barcelona residents ≥20years (2012). We compared recommended with current exposure levels to estimate the associated BD. We quantified associations between exposures and morbidities and calculated population attributable fractions to estimate the number of attributable cases. We calculated DALYs using GBD Study 2015 background DALY estimates for Spain, which were scaled to Barcelona considering differences in population size, age and sex structures. We also estimated annual health costs that could be avoided under compliance with exposure recommendations. RESULTS: Not complying with recommended levels for PA, air pollution, noise, heat and access to green spaces was estimated to generate a large morbidity burden and resulted in 52,001 DALYs (95% CI: 42,866-61,136) in Barcelona each year (13% of all annual DALYs). From this BD 36% (i.e. 18,951 DALYs) was due to traffic noise with sleep disturbance and annoyance contributing largely (i.e. 10,548 DALYs). Non-compliance was estimated to result in direct health costs of 20.10 million € (95% CI: 15.36-24.83) annually. CONCLUSIONS: Non-compliance of international exposure recommendations was estimated to result in a considerable BD and in substantial economic expenditure each year in Barcelona. Our findings suggest that (1) the reduction of motor traffic together with the promotion of active transport and (2) the provision of green infrastructure would result in a considerable BD avoided and substantial savings to the public health care system, as these measures can provide mitigation of noise, air pollution and heat as well as opportunities for PA promotion. ; This study was supported by internal ISGlobal funding. Margarita Triguero-Mas is funded by a grant from the Catalan Government (AGAUR FI-DGR-2013). Payam Dadvand is funded by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2012-10995) awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance.

International audience ; The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.

International audience ; The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.

International audience ; The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.

International audience ; The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.

International audience ; The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.