Environmental health surveillance in Brazil: inheritance and challenges

Abstract

This article presents some points of the debate on the field of environmental health, especially on the rising of environmental health surveillance within the public health policies of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS). For its construction, a theoretical review and an analysis of some normative instruments which regulate this area of surveillance were performed. The text is structured in four parts: first we will highlight the importance of understanding environmental health as an interdisciplinary field; the second topic refers to a brief history of the relationship between health and environment; in the third section we highlight a debate on the categories of promotion and surveillance of health, when we discuss their inheritances and challenges; finally, we discuss the issue of environmental health surveillance, presenting its organization as an integrating part of SUS, its theoretical and institutional frameworks. We concluded that the area of environmental health surveillance in Brazil presents some important advances and is in the process of maturation, given the constant changes in its regulatory structure, but we also think the incorporation of environmental issues in the field of public health policies is slow.