Abstract
Background: Environmental Health Indicators (EHIs) are the most im-portant criteria for evaluation of effi¬ciency and effectiveness of the activi¬ties of the health sector. The operations and situation of the health sys¬tem can be analyzed through surveying the indicators and comparing them during different times. The present study aimed to study the EHIs of Ta¬briz, using the common environmental health processes and national EHIs of the Ministry of Health.
Method: The required information for determination of EHIs was col¬lected from different sources, including mainly the Environmental Health De-partment of the Health Center of East Azerbaijan Province, Iran and other organizations.
Results: We found some important desirable and undesirable EHIs in Ta¬briz, including high percentage of households with access to safe and reliable drinking water, high safety in microbiological and chemical quality of drink-ing water, acceptable level of BOD5 and COD in the effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WTP), lack of complete municipal wastewa¬ter collection and treatment, relatively poor sanitation and health of food markets and public places, undesirable collection, transportation and dis¬posal of munici-pal solid waste, low EHIs of some school classrooms, un¬acceptable disposal of medical waste in some hospitals, and finally high level of noise pollution in the city.
Conclusion: Considering the poor condition of some EHIs of Tabriz, im-plementing proper actions for pro¬motion of the indicators especially devel-opment of municipal wastewater collection, improvement of solid waste management, environmental health of some schools and mosques, and fi¬nally the noise pollution level of the city is recommended.