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Regional Authority of Public Health in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

The Regional Authority of Public Health (RAPH) in Banská Bystrica operates under the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. The authority was created in 1953 and belongs to the network of regional authorities in the country. The position of the authority, the tasks and connections with other regional authorities, local authorities, the state health officers and other state administrators are defined in Public Health Act (before the Human Health Protection Act). The authority has been responsible for the public health policy implementation on the local, district and regional levels predominantly in Central Slovakia. The activities are aimed for the benefit of the public, the goal is to protect and improve the health of the population.

The authority employs about 150 employees – 10 percents are medical doctors, 30 per cent are university-graduated specialists (mainly public health specialists, engineers, and chemists), and the rest are lawyers, registered assistants of hygiene, epidemiology, laboratory workers, nurses, and other personnel.

The main areas of activities are hygiene, epidemiology, microbiology, health education and health statistics.

International activities

The important position of the authority is thanks to participation in international projects namely PHARE EC/HEA-18/91 “Study of the Health Impact of Environmental Pollution – Nováky areas” (successfully finished in 1995), WHO program called NIPEH (National Integrated Program on Environment and Health), where the authority has realized studies in polluted areas of Žiar nad Hronom and Ružomberok in comparison to the area of Banská Bystrica. The authority has been involved in the EC study CESAR “Research Project on the Relationship between Air Quality and Health” (CEC Contract No. 94-0472.01) performed in the years 1994 – 1997. The authority has been appointed by the chief hygienist of the Ministry of Health a consulting centre for the WHO CINDI (Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Diseases Intervention) Program in the Slovak Republic, the authority has also performed this program since 1991 in the district of Banská Bystrica, which is a demonstration district for this program for the Slovak Republic. The authority has been chosen as a centre for the WHO GEENET (Global Environmental Epidemiology Network in Europe) in the Slovak Republic by WHO in 1994. The authority is the centre for the Inco-Copernicus study “Occupation, environment and lung cancer”.

Most recent international projects are Occupation, environment, lifestyle and lung cancer, cancer of the oral Cavity and larynx, and oesophageal cancer performed in cooperation with I.A.R.C. / WHO, Lyon as multicentric studies. The cancer epidemiology studies are of great interest in our institute and some other studies had been completed e.g. Chromosomal aberrations and cancer; Diesel exhaust exposure and cancer risk (feasibility study), Follow-up study of the cancer epidemiological studies, etc.

Eleonóra Fabiánová, Head of the National Reference Center for Personal Exposure and Health Risk Assessment at RAPH BB, is a preventive medicine physician with a specialization in occupational medicine working in the field of preventive occupational medicine and in management positions in the public health sector. Her research focuses on health promotion and prevention; the cancer epidemic; causes of occupational disease; health and safety at work during the COVID-19 pandemic (the EU-funded ORCHESTRA project); toxicology and human biomonitoring (HBM). She has been involved in the development of assessment strategies and guidelines in the field of occupational medicine and hygiene at the national and EU level. She is Work Package 4 Principal Investigator in the CPW project.

Eleonóra Fabiánová, MD, PhD, assoc. prof.

Zuzana Klöslova is a highly experienced Regulatory Toxicologist and regulatory affairs consultant with expertise in human health risk assessment. Her educational background has covered public health, regulatory aspects of (eco) Toxicology, Biostatistics, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology as well as Organic Chemistry. She has implemented main EU chemicals management policies (REACH, EU Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010, Council Directive 98/24/EC on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work, Council Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens).

RNDr. Zuzana Klöslova PhD.

Jana Oravec Bérešová, Epidemiologist and Biostatistician at RAPH BB, is a graduate of the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava and the Department of Public Health at the University of St. Elizabeth in Bratislava. She is currently doing her PhD. at the Faculty of Public Health of the Slovak Health University in Bratislava. At RAPH BB, she works in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Mgr. Ing. Jana Oravec Bérešová

Ing. Radovan Lapuník, MBA, Head of the finance department at RAPH BB. Has worked as a project manager at the Ministry of Construction and Regional Development of SR, project and finance manager at the Self-governing region of Banska Bystrica, Head of the finance and operational services at RAPH Banska Bystrica, works as the Bursar at Matej Bel University.

Ing. Radovan Lapuník, MBA

Zora Kľocová Adamčáková is a regional hygienist and Secretary General of Office at RAPH BB. She has broad experience in clinical medicine, where she started as a secondary doctor in geriatrics. At RAPH BB, previously she worked in the department of nutrition hygiene, environmental hygiene and health, and in the department of health promotion and health education, which she has successfully developed.

MUDr. Zora Kľocová Adamčáková, PhD.

Jarmila Beláková, M.D. is Head of the Department of Preventive Occupational Medicine which focuses on the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations by preventing departures from health, controlling risks and the adaptation of work to people, and people to their jobs. (ILO / WHO 1950).

MUDr. Jarmila Beláková