How informative is the environmental rating of the regions of the Russian Federation

Introduction. All-Russian public organization "Green patrol" has developed a method of expert evaluation of environmental well-being. Since 2008 this method is used to calculate the environmental rating of regions of Russia. The ideology of rating takes into account the principles of sustainable development, in accordance with the Declaration of the UN Conference on environment and development. The consolidated environmental index includes three basic indices characterizing the state of the ecosphere, technosphere, and society.

The purpose of article is to assess the relevance of environmental rating of regions of Russia and its basic components to population health indices and therefore to assess the opportunities to use this rating for the prediction the environmental risks to human health.

Material and methods. We used data from the Federal State statistics service on morbidity, mortality and life expectancy in regions of Russia in 2008-2016, as well as environmental monitoring data for the same period, published by the "Green patrol". To evaluate the relationships between indicуs we used Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

Results. None of the indeces of the population health showed a correlation with consolidated environmental index with significance level p < 0.05. The environmental index, which reflects the basic pollution levels of the environment, naturally had negative correlation coefficients with indeces of morbidity and mortality. Socio-economic and industrial-economic indices have identified a number of paradoxical correlations with health indices. This result is probably because the structure of these indices includes indicators reflecting the intensity of efforts to minimize industrial pollution and improve the quality of life of the population. This intensity is obviously higher the higher the need for it, so these indices indirectly reflect environmental disadvantage.

Conclusion. The results of the analysis showed a lack of informative value of the environmental rating of Russia's regions in terms of population health.