Background: Environmental risk factors can have a substantial impact on population health. With the environmental burden of disease (EBD) approach, the health losses attributable to environmental risk factors can be quantified using disability-adjusted life years (DALY).
Objectives: The aim of this article is to present and discuss available EBD estimates with a focus on Germany.
Materials: Using current EBD studies, the share of the burden of disease attributable to environmental risk factors globally and DALYs for Germany are presented. Ambient particulate matter (PM), water-related risks and environmental noise are used as examples to emphasize the importance of availability and quality of input data for burden of disease assessments.
Results: The share of the global burden of disease attributable to environmental risk factors varies according to the available studies and lies between 13 and 22%. For Germany, EBD estimates are available for 12 environmental risk factors. Most estimates are available for particulate matter in ambient air, however, the estimated burden differs greatly. Nonetheless, according to current knowledge, particulate matter pollution is the environmental risk factor with the highest burden of disease in Germany.
Conclusions: Differences in the estimated burden of disease for the considered risk factors are due to varying underlying assumptions, e. g. for life expectancy or counterfactual value and the input data used.
Keywords: DALY; Disability-adjusted life year; Environment; Environmental burden of disease; Health.