From Seveso to Santiago: territorial surveillance for environmental justice
Keywords:
Seveso, environmental justice, community participation, primary health care, epidemiological monitoring, air pollutionAbstract
Fifty years after the Seveso accident, its legacy extends beyond industrial safety regulation. The experience demonstrated the value of long-term surveillance integrating epidemiology, clinical practice, communication, and participation. This article reinterprets those lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean through the Santiago de Chile Declaration. It argues that citizen empowerment should guide territorial surveillance and that primary healthcare teams can detect early signals, listen, inform, and connect communities with institutions. An operational cycle is proposed, based on community listening, recording, epidemiological assessment, feedback, institutional action, and accountability.
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