Volume 34, no. 10, October 2021. National Early Warning System: a project against the diffusion of New Psychoactive Substances. PASSI and PASSI d’Argento surveillance systems as data sources on health-related Sustainable Development Goals in Italy. Development of the Italian environment and health network: the RIAS project and the ISS role. - ISS (EN)

Abstracts:

National Early Warning System: a project against the diffusion of New Psychoactive Substances
The abuse of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) has been a major issue since the 1990s, due to the significant impact this phenomenon has on society and public health. The Italian legislation, in line with the European legislation, is aimed to limit the NPS use in the country through different intervention strategies. In Italy, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers has activated the National Early Warning System (NEWS) on NPS reporting, aimed at the early detection of potentially health-threatening phenomena related to the appearance of NPSs in the market. A second aim of the NEWS is the promotion of the technical-analytical expertise of laboratories for the detection of those substances.

PASSI and PASSI d’Argento surveillance systems as data sources on health-related Sustainable Development Goals in Italy
Several of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been recently defined as “health-related”, that means not only the Goal 3 explicitly addressing a good health and well-being to all people. In Italy, PASSI and PASSI d’Argento are two population-based behavioural surveillance systems, which gather data, respectively, among adults aged 18-69 and over 65 on several health-related risk factors and, then, modifiable health issues. The analysis of correspondence between health-related SDGs and indicators from PASSI and PASSI d’Argento shows a concordance on a total of nine Goals and 19 respective targets/indicators. The features of solidity and flexibility of the two systems have allowed gathering data on standard variables, as well as specific information needs over time (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic).

Development of the Italian environment and health network: the RIAS project and the ISS role
The RIAS Project "Integration, training, and health impact assessment of environmental pollution: the Italian Environment and Health Network, funded by the Ministry of Health through the CCM 2018 Program, has been implemented to support the 2014-2019 National Prevention Plan for the integration of environment and health issues. Thanks to the coordination of ISS, the project is aimed at establishing a network of structures related to environment and health threaths in Italy, overcoming the sectoral nature of assessments and training activities and the fragmentation of approaches in this domain. The description of the network structure and its activities through the Project website is essential to begin the integration process.