About
Reference information about the State Institution «Marzieiev Institute for Public Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» as of March 01, 2025.
The State Institution «Marzieiev Institute for Public Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» (formerly the Research Institute of General and Municipal Hygiene of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine) was founded in 1931. The creation and development of the Institute is a personal merit of Olexander Marzieiev, who headed it for 25 years. Since 1967, the Institute has been named after a prominent hygienist.
In addition to O.M. Marzieiev (1931-1956), the Institute was headed by a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) of Ukraine D.M. Kalyuzhnyi (1956-1971), Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences M.G. Shandala (1971-1990). From 1990 to 2022, the Institute was continuously headed by Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Professor A.M. Serdyuk. From December 19, 2022, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Professor N.S. Polka was Acting Director (appointed to the position of Director on May 30, 2023). On December 17, 2024, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Igor Shkrobanets was appointed Acting Director of the Institute.
From the very beginning, research was aimed at studying the state of environmental pollution, its impact on the health and living conditions of the population, as well as improving the methodology of hygienic regulation and developing scientifically based hygienic recommendations for environmental improvement and preventing the development of adverse effects of scientific and technological progress. In addition to municipal hygiene, considerable attention was paid to the problems of children and adolescents’ hygiene, sanitary microbiology, and radiation hygiene.
In 1959, the Institute established the Department of Health Care Organization, which researched social hygiene and health care organization, and the history of medicine. Later, in 1989, it became the basis for creating the Kyiv Research Institute of Social Hygiene and Health Care Management of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
In the USSR, since 1970, the Institute has been leading the development of two major issues – «Environmental Hygiene» and «Hygiene of Physical Factors». Based on the Institute, the Board of the Scientific Society of Hygienists of Ukraine was established, which still unites scientists and sanitary doctors of the country.
For the first time in the world, our specialists developed the scientific basis for hygienic regulation of chemical carcinogens, carried out large-scale comprehensive studies on many aspects of hygiene in regional planning and urban development, and assessed the sanitary condition of large and small rivers in Ukraine. Based on the results obtained, a strategy for sanitary cleaning of populated areas was substantiated.
For more than 17 years (1972-1990), the Institute’s scientists worked in one of the three scientific programs of Soviet-American cooperation in medicine, which testifies to their high scientific level.
From the first days of the Chornobyl accident, the Institute’s team participated in eliminating its consequences. As a result of the research, we characterized the radiation contamination of the environment and its impact on public health and calculated effective equivalent doses of external and internal exposure of residents of the strict control zone. Several practical recommendations have been prepared to ensure the safety of the public and people working in the Chornobyl zone. For the first time in Ukraine, the concept of creating an integrated control system for the safe operation of nuclear power plants and the concept of counteracting radiation accidents were developed on a medical-scientific basis.
The Institute’s specialists were directly involved in the response to such emergencies as cholera outbreaks in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions and floods in Zakarpattia region. They assessed and predicted the course of sanitary and hygienic situations that developed as a result of the morbidity of children in Chernivtsi, the incidence of hepatitis A in the city of Sukhodolsk of Luhansk Oblast, infectious diseases, and deterioration of drinking water quality in Kremenchuk of Poltava Oblast, etc.
In 1989, the Republican Scientific Hygiene Center (since 1992, the Ukrainian Scientific Hygiene Center) was organized based on the Kyiv Research Institute of General and Municipal Hygiene. It also included the Research Institute of Nutrition Hygiene and the Ukrainian Scientific Center for Medical Genetics. The latter later withdrew from the center.
On October 13, 2000, by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Center was renamed the O.M. Marzieiev Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology and subordinated to the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (IHME).
The experience of the Institute’s scientists and the data of the international legislative documents they summarized were taken into account when drafting the current legislation of independent Ukraine: the Laws «On Ensuring Sanitary and Epidemic Welfare of the Population,» «On Protection of Atmospheric Air,» «On Planning and Development of Territories,» «Water Code». IHME experts provide information support to legislative initiatives in the Parliament of Ukraine. They are co-authors of the documents of the Cabinet of Ministers, ministries, and departments on many issues of medicine, hygiene, and environmental protection.
A significant scientific achievement of the hygienists of the IHME was the carrying out of research on the standardization of harmful factors in environmental objects (atmospheric air, water, and soil). Over the past 30 years, about 400 sanitary rules and regulations, state standards, about 300 hygiene standards, and more than 700 scientific and methodological materials have been developed.
The development of the public health system in Ukraine has made changes to the scientific activities of the Institute. To provide scientific support for the development of the public health service and to strengthen the priority of the preventive direction in the field of health care, the Presidium of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, by its resolution of April 29, 2015, renamed the State Institution «O.M. Marzieiev Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» into the State Institution «Marzieiev Institute for Public Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine.» Not only the name of the institution has changed, but also its structural transformation and modernization of activities have taken place.
Today, by the current Statute of 03.07.2024, the main research areas of the Institute are:
– improving the principles of preventive medicine in promoting health and preventing the development of diseases following international public health legislation;
– development and improvement of legislative, regulatory, methodological, and organizational documents following European requirements to preserve and promote public health, prevent chronic diseases, improve living conditions, and prevent the impact of harmful factors on the human body in emergencies and climate change;
– carrying out research and developing legislative, regulatory, methodological, and organizational documents aimed at protecting the population from the consequences of military aggression and determining public health damage related to air, soil, and water pollution;
– developing a methodological framework for identifying harmful environmental factors (physical, chemical, biological) and establishing health risks from their impact on the population to address health and environmental quality management issues;
– development and improvement of methods for determining toxic elements, including heavy metals, in liquid and solid phases;
– carrying out a scientific assessment of the compliance of urban planning documentation with health and safety regulations;
– updating the regulation principles of chemicals in the air, soil, water, waste, food, and raw materials obtained in the war-affected areas;
– improving methods and systems for monitoring the state of public health and the physical, chemical, and biological factors that affect it;
– studying the role of lifestyle, organization of the educational process, living conditions, and other factors that shape the health of children and youth;
– improving health assessment and quality control of food, drinking water, medicines and cosmetics;
– scientific substantiation of quality assurance of dietary supplements and medicines;
– improvement and scientific substantiation of quality assurance of dietary supplements and medicines;
– scientific substantiation of methods for assessing the effectiveness of medical devices and disinfectants in preventing diseases;
– establishing the cost-effectiveness of preventive measures in public health and medical ecology (determining the benefits, harms, and losses to health).
Currently, the State Institution «Marzieiev Institute for Public Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» has 20 scientific units – 16 research laboratories and a clinic for experimental animals, 3 departments (Coordination of Research Department, Department of the Support of State Programs and International Relations, and Department of Educational Scientific Activity), and a scientific and technical library. In 2024, the Laboratory of Surface Water Safety was established.
The Department of Educational Scientific Activity (until 2023, the Department of Postgraduate Studies and Internships) was established in October 2018 to organize and optimize educational and scientific activities in higher education at the third (educational and scientific) level. The creation of the department is based on the decisions of the Licensing Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science – the Institute received licenses to carry out educational activities in the field of higher education at the third (educational and scientific) level in the field of knowledge 22 «Health Care» in the following specialties 222 «Medicine» (specialization «Hygiene and Occupational Pathology») with a license capacity of 3 persons and 229 «Public Health» with a license capacity of 3 persons (Order of the Ministry of Education and Science No. 192-l of 13.09.2017). As of January 01, 2025, 4 postgraduate students are studying.
The Institute currently employs 223 specialists, including 115 research and teaching staff – 26 Doctors of Sciences, 48 Candidates of Sciences (PhDs), and 1 Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. Three employees have the title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine.
As of January 01, 2025, the Institute is the owner of 4 valid intellectual property rights. Hundreds of thousands of expert studies have been carried out, and more than 230 monographs, manuals, and reference books have been published. About 100 scientific papers are published annually in domestic and foreign scientific journals.
The Institute is the founder and has established traditions of publishing its scientific journal on medical ecology, hygiene, health care, and environmental safety «Environment and Health» (published since 1996; http://www.dovkil-zdorov.kiev.ua/), collections of scientific papers «Hygiene of populated areas,» which was founded in 1956, and «Current Issues of Public Health and Environmental Safety of Ukraine,» which contains materials of the traditional Marzieiev readings.
The Institute is accredited by the State Enterprise «Committee on Hygienic Regulation of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine» for the right to carry out hygienic regulation of potentially hazardous factors of chemical, biological, and physical origin (Certificate No. 6 of 10.11.2021).
The Institute’s specialists are experts of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in the areas of «General Hygiene. Toxicology. Occupational pathology» and «Organization and management of health care» (Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine of 28.10.2020 № 2455) and members of the Interagency Working Group of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on reducing the level of public exposure to radon and its decay products, minimizing long-term risks from the spread of radon in residential and non-residential buildings, workplaces (Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine of 14.09.2020 № 2095).
Under the Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated 09.02.2024 № 223 «On Approval of the List of Commissions on Health Regulation of the State Enterprise «Committee on Hygienic Regulation of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine,» commissions have been established and are working based on the Institute:
1. The Commission for the Establishment of State Health Standards, State Health Rules, and Permissible Parameters of Exposure to Chemicals and Biological Agents in the Air, Water, and Soil;
2. Commission for the Establishment of State Medical and Health Standards, State Medical and Health Rules, Permissible Parameters of Exposure to the Human Body to Chemicals and Biological Agents in the Air of the Work Area;
3. Commission on Comprehensive Medical and Health Regulation of Hazardous Factors in Dietary Supplements, Food Products, and Food Raw Materials;
4. Commission for the Establishment of State Medical and Health Standards, State Medical and Health Rules, Permissible Parameters of Exposure to Physical Factors on the Human Body;
5. Commission for the Establishment of State Medical and Health Standards, State Medical and Health Rules, Permissible Parameters of Exposure to Radioactive Substances and Radiation Factors;
6. Commission on Comprehensive Medical and Sanitary Regulation and Expertise of Registration Materials for Disinfectants;
7. Commission on Comprehensive Medical and Sanitary Regulation in the Field of Hygiene of Children and Adolescents.
The National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine has certified the competence of four Institute’s laboratories by the requirements of DSTU ISO/IES 17025:2017:
– State Research Laboratory for Quality Control of Medicinal Products (certificate No. 20905 valid until 02.09.2029),
– Laboratories of Sanitary Microbiology and Disinfection (certificate No. 201480 valid until 10.07.2028),
– Testing Laboratory of Food Products (certificate No. 20932 valid until 11/28/2029),
– Testing Laboratory for Quality Control and Safety of Drinking Water (certificate No. 20948 valid until December 01, 2024).