[The practitioner's role in surveillance and information on environmental risks]

Abstract

Health scares have entailed an increasing concern about environmental risks for populations. Authorities' response was to set up a system for the analysis, surveillance and management of environmental risks. Practitioners have an important role to play in this system, as primary actors of surveillance and as a close source of information about the environmental risks for the population. Three examples are developed. Children's lead poisoning still exists and entails irreversible neuropsychic deficits. Its diagnosis rests upon the recognition of risk factors and the prescription of a test of blood lead level. Carbon monoxide poisoning is the first cause of mortality by acute poisoning in France and it causes several thousand hospitalizations every year. Notification of the cases of lead and carbon monoxide poisonings is indispensable to remove their causes. Links between cancer and environment are an important social concern and a public health issue. Practitioners have a key role to play not only in the communication on this subject, but also to notify disturbing sanitary events and participate in the local investigations.