title: Contributions of national health conferences to the definition of public environmental and health information policy.
abstract: The relationship between health and the environment has been the object of increased interest from researchers in recent decades with information being the phenomenon that makes it possible to construct a tessitura between the 2 areas. The goal of this article is to examine how the recommendations of the National Health Conferences treat the issue of the environment and information and how they link these two areas with health. The present study is a documentary investigation of a qualitative nature. The documents that comprise the research's corpus are the official reports of the Conferences, from the 1st (1943) to the 14th (2011). The results show that environmental issues have always been present, especially since the 8th Conference in 1986, after which there is an increasing amplification of discussions about the theme. The themes of "health" and "the environment" discussed in the 12th and 13th Conferences demonstrate clear progress toward defining their relationship with quality of life. "Health Information" is referenced as fundamental in almost all the Conferences, achieving the status of priority axis in the 11th Conference. The inclusion of several propositions presented and discussed in the Conferences seems to influence the establishment of public policies in the areas of the environment and information.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, RS, Brasil, nilvarech.s@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nilva Lúcia Rech
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Stedile
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Cristina Soares
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.
authors.forename: Alcindo Antonio
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ferla
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brasil.
authors.forename: Rafaela Cordeiro
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Freire
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D004782:Environmental Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D011640:Public Policy; D011788:Quality of Life