Quantifying the health, social and economic impacts of environmental factors, families of factors, events and policies.
Health impact assessment is the ultimate and often overlooked step of environmental health research. Health impact assessment studies are at the interface between science and decision making and it is a crucial step to help society decide if and how to make use of scientific knowledge in this area. Very often, the economic costs of a regulation on a given sector are used as a reason not to regulate, while the health benefits of the regulation are not properly estimated. A more systematic quantification of the relationship between human disease and the environment (the environmental burden of disease, EBD), allowing a ranking of exposures in terms of population impact as well as cost-benefit analysis would pave the way for more efficient and transparent public health policies and budget allocation. In this context, we would move towards a harmonized methodology in health impact assessment that would enable the comprehensive consideration of environmental factors and the societal and economic impacts thereof.
RG 4.1 A unified European approach on quality of life and burden of disease
Develop a unified European approach on quality of life and on the burden of disease
RG 4.2 Integrative impact indicators
Develop more integrative impact indicators to measure the progress of society
RG 4.3 Assessment of risks associated with climate change
Develop a methodology and data generating framework
RG 4.4 Filling the data gaps
Fill the data gaps related to the availability of representative biomonitoring, environmental modelling, disease incidence
RG 4.5 Systematize implementation studies
Systematize intervention studies
RG 4.6 Develop tools and methodologies
Capture the health impacts of complex exposures
Identification of the most relevant approaches to assess exposures
Exploration of the most relevant population health and quality of life indicators
Assimilating approaches of risk assessment
Proper consideration of the effect of risk perception
Proposing a formal approach to the quantitative handling of the weight of evidence