Iranian Journal of

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Shamsipour M, Kashani H, Yunesian M, Naddafi K, Hassanvand M S, Saeedi R, et al . Assessment of environmental health status of Iran according to the environmental performance index report in 2018. ijhe 2020; 13 (2) :183-208
URL: http://ijhe.tums.ac.ir/article-1-6427-en.html

Background and Objective: In this study, we aimed to assess Iran’s position and trends for environmental health status among the countries of “Iran’s perspective document in 1404” according to the indicators used in Environmental Performance Index (EPI) report in 2018.
Materials and Methods: The score of indicators in environmental health area; air quality (including household solid fuels, exposure to PM_2.5, and PM_2.5 exceedance), water and sanitation (including drinking water and sanitation) and heavy metals (including lead) were extracted for all studied countries as well as for the last and baseline (generally ten years prior to last report) years from EPI 2018 database. According to EPI scores, the performance of the studied countries in each indicator was ranked. The percent change in the score of each indicator from baseline to current year was calculated and compared with the mean percent change for all studied countries.
Results: Iran ranked 7^th regarding air quality in 2016. Also, it ranked 6^th, 8^th, and 9^th in terms of household solid fuels, exposure to PM_2.5, and PM_2.5 exceedance, respectively. The EPI score for Iran regarding water and sanitation was 54.4 in 2005 and 58.74 in 2016 (percent change=7.98%). Iran ranked 21^st in 2005 regarding lead exposure index. Although this index showed a growth of 100% in 2016, which is very desirable compared to the average growth of all countries (34.47%), but only leads to one step up in the ranking of Iran and was ranked 20^th in comparison with other countries.
Conclusion: Totally, according to EPI 2018, Iran ranked 6^th in the field of environmental health issues among 23 countries of “Iran’s perspective document in 1404”. However, there is uncertainty in the accuracy of the EPI raw data used for calculating index scores. Hence, caution should be exercised in their interpretation.