Research project Air pollution causes around 350,000 premature deaths annually in the EU and contributes to chronic health problems and reduces the quality of life of many people. Around 200 million people in the EU depend on surface water for drinking water, which can be contaminated by nitrates used in fertilisers and lead to serious health risks.
The MARCHES project aims to improve methods for assessing the health costs of environmental stressors, with a focus on air and water pollution. It is an EU-funded project bringing together a consortium of 11 organisations across Europe and led by Aarhus University.
The MARCHES project as a whole aims to promote methodological rigor and consistency in the accounting of the welfare economic health costs of air pollution, nitrate in drinking water and other environmental aspects. This is based on systematic reviews of health effects, and by expanding consensus on established methods for premature mortality, health burden and poor well-being in relation to the environment. Among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Good Health and Well-being, Clean Water and Sanitation for All, Reduced Inequality, Sustainable Cities and Communities and Combating Climate Change are important goals of MARCHES.
The focus at the Department of Psychology is to investigate the prevalence of physical and mental ill health, co- and multimorbidity, as well as moderating and mediating factors that underlie poor mental well-being, physical symptoms and diagnoses related to environmental exposure and environmental sensitivity in four European regions (Estonia, Oresund, Catalonia and Kosovo).
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