Evaluation of regional environmental and health hazards by applying synthetic measures

Large geographical areas, urban and rural regions of 49 voivodships in Poland, were evaluated from the point of view of existing environmental and health hazards caused by chemical contamination of the environment. Using routine sources of information, we selected four health-related environmental indicators and eight environmental-related health indicators. All indicator values were normalized and then aggregated to synthetic measures of environmental and health hazards, using the taxonometric method. The synthetic measures characterized the urban and rural regions of the entire country and were used for their ranking for remedial purposes. A consistency of environmental and health synthetic measures was found in urban regions (correlation coefficient r = 0.58). The spatial distribution of environmental and health hazards was determined using geo-graphical information system (GIS) methods. The application of kriging and the interpolation of data improved the interpretation of the results. The worst situation was found in the southwest regions of Poland, which are heavily industrialized with a high population density.