Rethinking human health impact assessment

Steinemann, Anne

doi:10.1016/s0195-9255(00)00068-8

Cited by 90 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…It also points to the need for more evaluation of the other techniques from the health viewpoint. (Ahmad et al, 2008;Bendel and Owen-Smith, 2005;BMI, 1998;Douglas et al, 2007;Elliott and Francis, 2005;France, 2004;GCPH, 2007;Greig et al, 2004;Hay and Kitcher, 2004;Kemm et al, 2004;Lester and Temple, 2006;Mindell et al, 2004;PAS, 2008b;NHS London, 2008Wismar et al, 2007;YHEC, 2006) SA/SEA (Burns and Bond, 2008;Fischer et al, 2010) EIA (Sutcliffe,1995) IIA (Plant et al, 2007) EqIA (PAS,2008a) SIA (Wismar et al, 2007) NL HIA (Bekker et al, 2005;Kemm et al, 2004) SA/SEA (Fischer et al, 2010) Germany SEA (Fischer et al, 2010) HIA (Wismar et al , 2007) Denmark SEA (Kørnøv, 2009) Finland IA (Viinikainen and Kaehoe, 2007) Hungary HIA (Kosa et al, 2007) Italy HIA (Wismar et al, 2007) Sweden HIA (Wismar et al, 2007) USA HIA (Dannenberg et al, 2008;Farhang et al, 2008) IA (Bhatia and Wernham, 2008;Corburn and Bathia, 2007) EIA (Steinemann, 2000) Australia HIA (Blau and Mahoney, 2005;Gow and Dubois, 2007;Neville et al, 2005) IA (Kjellstrom et al, 2003) EIA 8 New Zealand HIA (Mathias and Harris-Roxas, 2009...…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of health into urban spatial planning through impact assessment: Identifying governance and policy barriers and facilitators

Carmichael

Barton

Gray

et al. 2012

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of health into urban spatial planning through impact assessment: Identifying governance and policy barriers and facilitators

Carmichael

Barton

Gray

et al. 2012

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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“…Although many of these decisions may have substantial health effects, as the practice of conducting environmental impact assessments has evolved, health experts and officials have rarely been involved, and health considerations have either been narrowly defined-often limited to exposures to toxic substances and the risk of cancer or traffic-related injuries-or ignored altogether. 13,16,26,27 Clearly, decisions that are guided by environmental impact assessments constitute an important opportunity to protect and improve public health that is being missed.…”

Section: Health Impact Assessment In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Health Impact Assessments Are Needed In Decision Making About Environmental And Land-Use Policy

Wernham

2011

Health Affairs

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The importance to public health of environmental decisionsincluding those about land use, transportation, power generation, agriculture, and environmental regulation-is increasingly well documented. Yet many decision makers in fields not traditionally focused on health continue to pay little if any attention to the important health effects of their work. This article examines the emerging practice of health impact assessment and offers real-world examples of its effective implementation, including studying the impact of nearby highways-a major source of air pollution-on proposed new housing for seniors. The article argues that officials at the federal, state, and local levels should consult health experts and consider using health impact assessments when their decisions on such issues as urban planning, land use, and environmental regulation have the potential to directly affect the conditions in which people live and work.E nvironmental health, urban planning, and environmental regulation have common origins in efforts to address urban crowding, infectious diseases, and industrial pollution. However, these disciplines have diverged and today generally operate in separate domains. 1,2 Yet research over the past decade has revealed connections between public health and a wide range of environmental factors such as transportation systems, land use, parks and other open space, housing, and energy production. These factors have been linked to most of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States, including obesity, diabetes, asthma, injury, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. [3][4][5] This body of research gives rise to a fundamental challenge for public health: Many important influences on health are determined by decisions made outside the jurisdiction of health agencies and, frequently, without input from public health experts. This challenge is behind an increasingly urgent call for cross-sector approaches to health promotion. 6,7 It is the underlying motivation for recent high-level policy efforts such as California's executive order to include "health in all policies," and the new US cabinet-level National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council. 6,8,9 Ultimately, however, successfully engaging government agencies-such as energy and environmental regulators, transportation and landuse planners, and housing departments-in efforts to improve public health will require practical tools for integrating health into the specific procedures that officials use to make decisions, develop regulations, and revise plans. This article focuses on the emerging field of health impact assessment-an approach that is showing early promise as a way to include health considerations in decisions that otherwise would not have taken health into account. 10

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“…First, it is more difficult to predict health outcomes than to predict emissions. Analysis of outcomes adds more links to the putative causal chains, with each link requiring more assumptions and leading to increased levels of uncertainty in predictions (Steinemann 2000). Moreover, some causal relations are simply unknown.…”

Section: Limited Consideration Of Human Health Effects In Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anne Steinemann's (2000) review of forty-two EISs found that human health effects were assessed in only seven (17 percent of them). The only health effect assessed by these seven was cancer-related mortality due to exposure to a single substance (ibid.).…”

Section: Limited Consideration Of Human Health Effects In Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Health Impact Assessment in the United States: New and Improved Environmental Impact Assessment or Something Different?

Cole¹,

Wilhelm²,

Long³

et al. 2004

Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law

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Health impact assessment (HIA) has been advanced as a means of bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers, particularly in sectors where health impacts may not otherwise be considered. This article examines lessons for HIA in the United States from the related and relatively well-developed field of environmental impact assessment (EIA). We reviewed the EIA literature and conducted twenty phone interviews with EIA professionals. Successes of EIA cited by respondents included integration of environmental goals into decision making, improved planning, and greater transparency and public involvement. Reported shortcomings included the length and complexity of EIA documents, limited and adversarial public participation, and an emphasis on procedure over substance. Presently, EIAs consider few, if any, health outcomes. Respondents differed on the prospects for HIA. Most agreed that HIA could contribute to EIA in several areas, including assessment of cumulative impacts and impacts to environmental justice. Reasons given for not incorporating HIA into EIA were uncertainties about interpreting estimated health impacts, that EIA documents would become even longer and more complicated, and that HIA would gain little from the procedural and legal emphasis in EIA. We conclude that for HIA to advance, whether as part of or separate from EIA, well-formulated methodologies need to be developed and tested in real-world situations. When possible, HIA should build on the methods that have been utilized successfully in EIA. The most fruitful avenue is demonstration projects that test, refine, and demonstrate different methods and models to maximize their utility and acceptance.Health impact assessment (HIA) has been advanced in a number of different nations and by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a means to facilitate the consideration of potential health consequences of proposed

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Rethinking human health impact assessment

Cited by 90 publications

References 13 publications

Integration of health into urban spatial planning through impact assessment: Identifying governance and policy barriers and facilitators

Integration of health into urban spatial planning through impact assessment: Identifying governance and policy barriers and facilitators

Health Impact Assessments Are Needed In Decision Making About Environmental And Land-Use Policy

Prospects for Health Impact Assessment in the United States: New and Improved Environmental Impact Assessment or Something Different?

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