Abstract

For the planned expansion of Schiphol airport an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was legally required. As part of this EIA an assessment was made of the effects on public health caused by environmental pollution originating from airport activities. In this report the feasibility of current health databases for the assessment of the public health status around Schiphol Airport is evaluated. Databases which register data on the following health effects are studied: cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, birth-weight, psychological effects, sleep disturbance and medication use. The results show that only few existing health databases are feasible for the health status assessment. The Dutch Information System for Hospital Care and Day Nursing can be used to study the incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases respectively. The Netherlands Cancer Registry can be used to study cancer incidence. The Dutch Obstetrics Registration is feasible for a study on birth-weight and pharmacy records can be used to study medication use. Data on sleep disturbance are not ruitinely registered. Also general practitioners can be an important source of information of data on relevant health effects. The feasibility of these data, however, has to be studied. To use data from general practice to study the public health effects of environmental pollution related to Schiphol airport, a special data base has to be develloped.