Health impact assessment
Health impact assessment (HIA) provides decision makers with information about how any policy, programme or project may affect the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.
At IOM, our HIA work involves prediction of health impacts associated with air pollution, industrial emissions, transport projects, waste management and other activities that impact on the environment. We have a particular interests in how HIA feeds in to cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of those policies. We also use HIA to predict likely impacts on health following accidental exposures to hazardous substances such as asbestos. Our work includes the development of new tools and resources for HIA and application of these tools to specific situations.
Currently IOM leads the evaluation of health effects of air pollution for the EU's Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) Programme, the umbrella programme for future EU policy on reducing outdoor air pollution. We have also prepared HIA's for the World Bank for projects including, for example, the development of a petrochemical refinery in China. Closer to home we carried out an HIA for the Scottish Executive to assess the health burden of air pollution in central Scotland. We have also produced assessments for several proposed open cast coal mines, incinerators, landfills and new road schemes and defended our work at Public Inquiry.
Our results provide an evidence base on which Regulators and Government at local and national level can make informed policy decisions. HIA also benefits industry in its negotiations with Regulators, its understanding of the operational implications of new legislation and in assisting in long term planning with respect to pollution control and product safety.