As officially defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), "health is the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." As shown through international research work this status is endangered by environmental influences. This includes direct pathologic effect from chemicals, radiation and certain biological organism as well as indirect effects of physical, psycho-social and aesthetic factors such as housing, urban development, spatial planning and traffic onto health and well-being.

In particular "health implications of chronic exposures" and "interactions of different pollutants" are very complex and not well understood. However, there is some evidence that "even low level exposure (…) to a complex cocktail of pollutants in air, water, food, consumer products and buildings can have a significant effect on the health status. Although cause and effect relationships are hard to establish, there appear to be a number of associations between outdoor and indoor air pollution, water and soil contamination, hazardous chemicals and noise and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, asthma, allergies, as well as disorders of reproductive and neuro-developmental systems. It has been estimated that some 20% of the burden of disease in industrialised countries would be attributable to environmental factors".

(Source: A European Environment and Health Strategy (2003))

→ Thus research and investigations in health impacts of environmental stressors is an important task to do.

Our activities in the field of health are related in particular to the following topics: