Periodicum biologorum, Vol. 111 No. 1, 2009.
Review article
Environmental health in Croatia – current status and perspectives
KRUNOSLAV CAPAK
; Environmental Health Service, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Rockefellerova 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
GORANKA PETROVIĆ
; Environmental Health Service, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Rockefellerova 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The existing environmental health system in Croatia is based on the
Andrija Štampar’s principles of public health and on additional changes and improvements occurred as a part of the EU accession process. However, in in-depth analysis of the environmental health situation in Croatia, it is important to evaluate not only the essential policies and transposed EU legislation, but also all other management instruments important for appropriate functions of the system. Due to the lack of appropriate horizontal collaboration of different ministries, there are »vertical« laws and bylaws generating duplication and overlapping of responsibilities, as well as the lack of the appropriate capacities for law enforcement and implementation. Existing network of County Institutes of Public Health headed by the Croatian
National Institute of Public Health, as well as other institutions and
organizations specifically involved in environmental and health issues
should engage more intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach involving other sectors from society, as one of the main preconditions for successful implementation of National Environmental Health Action Plan. One of the priorities is to establish environment health information system, as well as to establish an independent environmental health professional association, so a sustainable inter-sectoral environmental health system could be built
up. There are many other supporting programmes that may help Croatia in accomplishing this task, such as EU pre-accession programme and various bilateral programmes from different EU Member States.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
35953
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2009.
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