[Development of criteria and identification of areas most hazardous for the health of the population due to chemicals present in the environment. II. Choice of health indicators and synthetic taxonomic measures].

The aim of the study was: 1. to choose health indicators related with hazards caused by chemicals in order to identify areas of the greatest health hazards, following the criteria proposed in Part I; 2. to apply different methods of variable aggregation, to evaluate their efficency and to choose a method most useful for identifying the areas most hazardous for health because of chemicals present in the environment. On the basis of the analysis performed, according to criteria proposed, and the analysis of the frequency of individual phenomena, the following health indicators were chosen to assess chemical hazards: incidence of low birth weight (under 2500), mortality of infants with low birth weight; male and female mortality from diseases of the circulatory system, and male mortality from lung and stomach neoplasm in the 30-59 age groups; mortality females above 60 years od age, and the rate of premature deaths in the 30-64 age group. For a comprehensive assessment of negative health effects three synthetic measures were applied: according to Hellwig, Strahl and Klima and Wydymus. Upon the analysis of rank concordance according to measures obtained and the sum of ranks of individual indicators based on correlation coefficient od Spearman's rank, the measure according to Strahl proved to be most accurate. This measure has been proposed for identifying areas most hazardous for the population health because of chemicals present in the environment.