2.4 Exercise to prioritize indicators

2.4 Exercise to prioritize indicators

To determine the final list of prioritized indicators, we organized a selection exercise with nine specialists from the NIEH, China CDC; UNICEF, China; UNICEF, East Asia and Pacific Regional Office; Vital Strategies; and the PRCEE, MEE (for the full list of 57 indicators ranked in this exercise, see Annex I). The specialists scored each environmental exposure and health outcome indicator based on their expertise and additional information provided for each indicator, namely: • Results from the systematic literature review • Disease burden for Chinese children • Prevalence of the exposure • Concern about the indicator on the part of stakeholders and the Chinese public • The precautionary principlei We totaled the specialists’ scores to calculate a final score for each indicator and then deleted indicators with perceived overlap and the lowest scores (for the criteria used for scoring, see Annex J). The result was 47 top-ranked indicators. The 22 highest-ranking indicators have been further pulled out as the “core children’s environmental health indicators (CEHI)” for China. The remaining 25 indicators are referred to as secondary indicators. More information about these indicators is in the next chapter.

i In an environmental context, the precautionary principle urges: “When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” (Raffensperger C, Tickner J, editors. Protecting Public Health and the Environment. Washington: Island Press, 1999.)