Environmental Health In Algeria, Between Realities And Public Policies La Santé Environnementale En Algérie, Entre Réalités Et Politiques Publiques Engagées

Résumé: Air, soil, water, food, work are all environments of exposure to chemical and microbiological contaminants, as well as physical agents that we continue to discover, and try to minimize effects on human health. Environmental health, formerly known as spaces hygiene, covers a wide range of disciplines, knowledge, practices and research that is absolutely no question to master in its entirety. This papertakes a side to describe the environment-health relationship through public policies relating to the protection of the environment, aimed the improvement of the living environment and the population health state. Environmental public policies cancontribute to reduce or even eliminate the negative effects of development by helping to contain the most appropriate mitigation measures. Many measures destinated to the environmental protection will indeed reduce the negative effects of projects on human health, which certainly leads saving and elevation of well-being. At the local scale, for example air and water pollution control strategies, which are widely used in industrialized countries, make sure that the concentration of contaminants meet health and safety standards of environmental quality. On the other hand, many developing countries are industrializing without evaluation neither environmental regulation, which puts pressure on public health and occupational health budgets. It is in this state of mind that the first Algerian report on the state and future of the environment was published in 2000 (NRE 2000). This document is the result of a broad intersectoral dialogue associating ministerial departments, environmental agencies, universities and research centers, companies and research departments, and ecological associations. It allowed to identify the physical vulnerabilities of the territory, institutional and legal dysfunctions and policy deficiencies. The objective of this contribution is to review the various environmental policies initiated by the public authorities, aiming the improvement of the health status of the population, by confronting them with the teachings of the literature on environmental health. On the one hand, and on the other, by analyzing some elements considered as contributing factors to the improvement of health, as defined in the NSE-DD. The analysis shows that, despite public awareness and efforts made, the quality of the environment has not improved and environmental damage persists. Efforts are expected to be intensified and coordinated at the central and local levels, in order to catch up for the delay of Algeria in this area and improve the living environment of the population

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