Environmental sustainability and health indicators in the Legal Amazonia, Brazil

One of the challenges for public health is to build systems of indicators that allow monitoring current conditions and trends in environmental and health sustainability. This article focuses on the Legal Amazonia macro-region, which has undergone profound socioeconomic, environmental, and health changes since the mid-20(th) century. The conceptual framework adopted here was the model entitled Driving Forces, Pressures, State, Exposure, Effects, and Action (DPSEEA) proposed by the World Health Organization and adopted for environmental health surveillance by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The results show that numerous motor forces and pressures have contributed to the growth of the economy and the population, as well as to improvements in some traditional health indicators (a reduction in infant mortality and an increase in life expectancy), alongside major social and economic inequalities and heterogeneity in environmental health impacts. This same process has been accompanied by environmental changes that indicate an unsustainable development model for present and future generations, demanding comprehensive action by public health and environmental institutions.