From Wednesday 5 August 2026 at 08:00 the National Heatwave Plan will no longer be active in the whole country. Naturally, KNMI and RIVM will remain alert to new periods of heat.

On Tuesday 4 August, air quality may be “poor” in the province of Flevoland and in parts of the province of Friesland. Local smog caused by ozone may also occur in the central part of the country.

After consulting the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has decided to extend the National Heatwave Plan to the entire country as of Monday.

The nutritional composition of food in supermarkets has improved slightly. This was found in RIVM’s first survey of food products, which examined items available for sale in 2025 and compared them with items from 2020. The survey shows that more work is needed in order to meet the 2030 targets for all product groups and nutrients.

E-bike use in the Netherlands is rising sharply, particularly among teenagers and young adults. This is the outcome of a study conducted by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The proportion of teenagers (aged 12 to 17) using e-bikes increased from 11 to 29 percent between 2021 and 2025, with a quarter of these young people using fatbikes.

The Netherlands currently lacks a clear picture of which chemical substances end up in people’s bodies and in what quantities. For this reason, in 2024 the Health Council of the Netherlands advised the government to monitor 100 substances in blood and urine (human biomonitoring) and to repeat this every five years in a group of 1,500 people who represent the Dutch population. RIVM has now outlined what such a monitoring programme could look like.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has examined the relationship between aircraft noise and severe annoyance or sleep disturbance for 14 airports in the Netherlands. This is referred to as the ER relationship. For most airports, the pattern is clear: the likelihood of severe annoyance or sleep disturbance increases as noise levels rise.

According to a national study, all tested breast milk samples contained PFAS. In 82 percent of the samples, the levels were below the risk limit. Below this limit, no harmful effects are expected.

The percentage of babies and pre-school children who have been vaccinated has decreased slightly again this year in comparison with last year. At the same time, the vaccination coverage among teenagers has increased. These findings are from the report by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on ‘Vaccination Coverage of the National Immunisation Programme in the Netherlands – 2026’.

Experts view dis- and misinformation and the increasing pressure on international cooperation as major new threats to public health in the Netherlands. They are also concerned about the effectiveness of international organisations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). These new threats come on top of existing threats such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This is shown by new research by RIVM.