Public health is affected by a whole range of environmental factors: airborne pollutants – causing namely respiratory diseases, allergies and cancer; unsafe environments – which can be responsible for accidents, injuries and reluctance to be physically active; and other factors – like planning decisions, noise, etc.
The European Commission developed its Environment and Health Strategy, due to be implemented through several cycles, the first being the 2004-2010 Environmental and Health Action Plan, focusing on the causal links between environmental risk factors and priority diseases.
Cycling has many positive impacts on health and the environment. These impacts are of different types, affecting one’s physical activity, safety, air quality and noise, and the climate; and these impacts occur at different level: individuals as well as local and global populations are positively impacted.