We’ve written about why we love the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Line (CCLRT) between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. It will reduce auto dependence, revitalize the business sector, and provide residents easier access to health care, food, education, and—hopefully—jobs.

However, the area’s large Hmong, Somali, and African American communities worry that the spike in rent rates along the CCLRT could force many families to relocate. History warrants their suspicion: The Corridor’s African American Rondo neighborhood was devastated when I-94 literally divided the community. One example to the damage transportation projects around the country wreak every year on resident minorities who lack access to the planning process.

When again faced with a City Council rezoning plan that focused solely on transit-oriented development while ignoring health and equity implications, PolicyLink teamed up with TakeAction Minnesota and ISAIAH to begin the Healthy Corridor for All Health Impact Assessment (HIA). The HIA built relationships between technical advisors and the Corridor’s many ethnic groups while encouraging community leadership in science-based policy proposals for equitable land-use decisions.

They found much higher poverty and unemployment rates in the Central Corridor than in St. Paul and Ramsey County as a whole. Residents often lack access to local jobs because they do not meet the education requirements, and the jobs they do receive provide consistently lower-than-average incomes. The education gap will only increase with light rail, as the projected development creates more jobs with high education barriers while edging out manufacturing positions, which pay well and require fewer years of education.

After 55% of the Corridor’s industrial land has been rezoned to encourage high density residential and retail development, industrial businesses will likely sell and relocate to take advantage of the rising property values. While the several hundred manufacturing jobs at risk for relocation represent a small portion of the area’s total jobs, their loss only hurts the chances for residents with less education to secure a middle class income.

Ideally, workers at every education level would have access to jobs that pay enough to provide their families with food, health care, and other opportunities. Light rail does not counteract this goal; the investment it attracts could be used to create high-paying jobs for Corridor residents if we acknowledge the effects of current policy and look for options to offset the negative aspects of rezoning. The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative actively promotes one such option by providing grants to projects that support the local economy and communities—including a plan to create manufacturing jobs along the CCLRT.

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The St. Paul City Commission passed the rezoning plan last April—without the [Community Steering Committee]’s proposals. True, it authorized feasibility studies on targeted inclusionary zoning and the density bonus program, and true, it created a workgroup to research and recommend strategies for the provision of affordable housing in the Corridor. However, the rezoning proposal should specifically acknowledge the city’s responsibility to protect existing communities.

The Healthy Corridor for All (HIA) reveals the effects of transportation improvements and the empowerment in cohesion and civic engagement when vulnerable communities are included in the policy debate. While the projected boom in public and private investment provides a wonderful opportunity for the Central Corridor’s diverse and low-income populations, we must continue to monitor light rail policies to ensure an equitable distribution of benefits.

From the Abstract:

"The committee also recommends a Health in All Policies approach, with Health Impact Assessments, as a promising practice to be piloted and evaluated for a set of major federal legislation, regulations, and policies for its impact on health, health-related quality of life and functional status for individuals with chronic illness, and relevant efficiencies."

Read the full report

The Kentucky Environmental Foundation, based in Berea, released a 44-page "health-impact assessment" on coal and sent copies to Gov. Steve Beshear and the General Assembly.

The statement cites published, peer-reviewed scientific studies from recent years that document health risks associated with coal. They include air and water pollution from mountaintop-removal mining, mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, and toxic metals, including arsenic and cadmium, that are found in coal-waste storage ponds. Burning coal also releases heat-trapping gases that contribute to climate change, the statement says.

Just as state government can require an environmental-impact statement before it undertakes a public construction project, it should require a health-impact statement before it passes laws or regulations concerning coal, said Elizabeth Crowe, executive director of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation.

"Unfortunately, many of Kentucky's elected officials seem concerned about protecting the image and profits of the coal industry with little if any time donated to consideration about the impact on public health," Crowe said. "After all, this is the state in which legislators last year proposed a bill that would make Kentucky a 'sanctuary state' for the coal industry."

Read the full article

Make no mistake: Kentucky is a coal state. Legislators have lined up time and again in support of the industry. The state’s governor famously told the EPA last year to “get off our backs” about the environmental impacts of coal.

But a report released this morning indicates that the winds of change may be blowing. The Health Impact Assessment on Coal and Clean Energy Options in Kentucky, prepared by the Kentucky Environmental Foundation collates all the available peer-reviewed reports on the health impacts of both coal production and various types of renewable energy production, in an attempt to encourage legislators who have historically ignored the environmental impact of coal to take a look at the health impacts associated with various energy production decisions.

The use of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is somewhat novel–the idea has been taken from Europe and applied with some success in the United States, in so far as it provides a human health-focused version of the environmental impact assessments now required for most major building and development projects. But most of the information contained within this particular assessment has been available to legislators for some time and not swayed them to take a second look at coal and renewables.

What might encourage that shift, however, is the fact that the economic realities of coal for those living in a coal state have shifted. Kentucky currently has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the country, a fact attributed largely to the state’s polluted air and water. Still, many average Kentuckyians, especially those in the eastern part of the state, where coal has reigned king for decades, have not been swayed by mounting healthcare costs. More important has been the recent spike in utility bills.

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Read the full article

Interview by Steve Heilig

How does where we live impact our health? It's a big and complex question, but Richard Jackson, MD, MPH is leading the way towards answers -- and interventions.

Jackson is a longtime leading figure in public health circles. Trained in pediatrics at UCSF and public health at UC Berkeley, he is currently professor and chairman of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA's School of Public Health. Prior to that he has been California's State Health Officer and Director of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health.

Over the past decade much of Jackson's focus has been on the "built environment" -- our homes, cities, streets, institutions -- affect our health. He has served on the board of directors of the American Institute of Architects and has written and spoken extensively in this arena. He has both recent books and a new television series titled Designing Health Communities, which premieres on PBS in February and is available on DVD. Episodes in the 4-part series include "Retrofitting Suburbia", "Rebuilding Places of the Heart," "Social Policy in Concrete," and "Searching for Shangri-La." Such titles might lead one to suspect Dr. Jackson is a man with his head in the clouds, but he remains a pragmatist who is able to retain lofty goals in terms of healthy futures.

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Can you give some examples of improvement in recent years?

Yes, and some are from San Francisco, in fact. The built environment is where we spend 99% of our time, and we can construct things to encourage physical activity and socialization, such as the bandshell or the bike trails and walkways in Golden Gate Park, or we can isolate people in places like the Hilton in the Tenderloin or in schools that are built like fortresses, places that are only reached by cars and where only processed food is available. The Octavia flyway coming down and turning into something better is another improvement. For another example, think of the Embarcadero in the 1980s - walking there was loud, dark, dirty and scary; nobody wanted to go there. Thanks to public will, plus some help from the 1989 earthquake, we now have a wonderful place, that is actually irresistible!

Back to clinical settings; what do you tell medical colleagues in your talks in this arena?

I learned much from Marty Gerschman MD, a leading pediatrician in San Francisco for many years; he once told me he was worried most about how stressed his patients' families were over nonmedical issues like paying bills, not feeling safe to let their kids play and exercise outdoors, and such. My pediatric and internal medicine colleagues often tell me they are at their wits' end about their many overweight, sedentary, pre-diabetic, depressed patients; I tell them the system is rigged against those patients and the doctors. The best treatment is often good nutrition and more exercise, but that requires more than just us telling patients to eat better and get out more, when they too often cannot easily do that.

Obviously, the average physician is not going to redesign the main streets in Fresno, but we can speak out with patients and parents and politicians and say we need more accessible healthy food, no junk food in schools, more parks, more farmer's markets, more parks, bike routes in town, and so on. And this is also where must doctors come in as advocates. Who else is better qualified to speak to the well-being of the people of our state?

Again, these are huge projects where changing things seems daunting....

True, we're talking about reversing two or three generations worth of building decisions. It is a major task, no denying that. There are growing pains as we learn to re-do it right. But it is happening in more and more places; New York City has great new bikeways, Copenhagen has become much more livable in just a generation. We have to start by looking at how we build and rebuild with a view towards health, and towards what is best for our children and their children. This is about the future. Really it's re-framing goals from what turns the most profit or is most economical in the short term, and towards a longer view, because when you build you're really building for 3 or 4 generations or more, not the next five years. This is why the recent National Academy of Sciences panel I served on regarding Health Impact Assessment strongly recommends its use: every major plan or project has a health impact, and we need to be go into big decisions thinking about health, not just environment. [emphasis added]

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Read the full article

Read the National Research Council report Improving Health in the United States:The Role of Health Impact Assessment

Read Health Impact Project director and National Research Council committee member Aaron Wernham's comments on the report

Eating healthier is one of Mayor Karl Dean’s 2012 resolutions. So far, so good, he says. Though, he admits, it’s becoming more difficult as we move deeper into January.

Maintaining momentum is key to achieving any resolution, and just as Dean commits to sustaining his personal goals, he resolves to put continued emphasis on healthy living throughout Nashville this year.

He, along with other city officials, is calling for Nashvillians to do the same during NashVitality Week. The inaugural affair, which began Sunday and continues through Saturday, challenges all of Nashville to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

The week will feature three key events: the third annual Healthy Eating/Active Living (HEAL) Summit, a Youth Serving Organizations Workshop and a trio of Health Impact Assessment Workshops. Each event will include active discussion from city officials and community leaders about how to make Nashville a healthier place in 2012.

“The main thing is to keep the public galvanized and having the ambition to move Nashville and the state of Tennessee out of the bottom of the obesity rankings,” Dean says.

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The final piece of NashVitality Week is a series of health impact assessment workshops. The first takes place today; another will take place Friday and the third on Jan. 25.

The idea behind the workshops is to teach people how to analyze potential health effects of policies, plans or projects that are developed without a specific focus on health.

For example, the Health Department recently performed a health impact assessment on its Easy Ride program, which lets workers at participating employers swipe their ID card to pay a fare, and the transit authority then bills the employer. “It sounds like a healthy thing,” Paul says, but the assessment helps indicate whether the program actually does cause less air pollution or encourage activity through people walking to the bus stop.

The NashVitality workshops will expose community members to both the idea of a health impact assessment and the methods involved. It’s “technical assistance, training and teaching,” [Dr. Bill] Paul [director of the Metro Public Health Department] says.

“It’s a formal way of trying to make sure the decisions we make and the projects we pursue and build are adding to health, or are at least not inadvertently negative to people’s health.”

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Read the full article

Read the summary report

An HIA is a study that helps policy makers identify the likely health impacts of a decision in a field outside of health—in this case, the assessment is informing the rezoning process for a billion-dollar light rail line connecting the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The HIA has been successful in incorporating health issues into the policy discussion, and helping policy makers and community members see how issues like employment and access to transit affect health.

“The health impact assessment of the light rail line in the Twin Cities shows the value of planning ahead. The HIA identifies benefits as well as unintended consequences, like the risk of displacing low-income residents along the corridor while there is still time to do something about them,” said Aaron Wernham, M.D., director of the Health Impact Project. “For a decision like this, HIA can serve as a road map for decision makers who have to balance issues such as health and affordable housing with economic opportunities that come with transit and land-use planning.”  

The HIA highlighted the health benefits the light rail offers through increased access to transit, which connects people to grocery stores, doctors’ offices, and other services. It would also facilitate access to jobs and bring customers to the many small and minority-owned businesses that line the corridor. Employment benefits health by allowing people to afford food, safe housing, and medical care. This HIA offered practical recommendations, such as making additional parking available during construction to help small businesses attract and retain shoppers.

Read the full report

The HIA also identified that when redevelopment occurs in the corridor, housing costs would likely rise and lead to health risks if lower-income residents struggle to afford necessities such as rent, food, heat, and medicine. The transit line passes through some of the region’s most diverse and lowest-income communities.

If people moved because of rising prices, the cultural and social aspects of the communities would change dramatically. Research shows that when people are more actively engaged in a community, they are more likely to walk and shop in the neighborhood, to know their neighbors, and to look out for one another. These benefits translate into lower crime and violence, and better health outcomes.

The HIA study identified affordable housing as a community priority, and as a result of the report’s recommendation, the St. Paul city council created a work group to identify ways to preserve and enhance access to housing for low-income residents. The council also commissioned feasibility analyses on two proposals prioritized by a community steering committee representing a wide range of organizations and interests. One program would expand the incentives to developers who provide affordable housing in new residential and mixed-use development projects and a pilot that would help cover the cost of reserving some of the housing close to proposed light rail stations for lower-income households.

Download this release as a PDF

Although all HIAs include a stakeholder engagement portion to guide the study, this project’s level of engagement, particularly with low-income people and communities of color, was unprecedented in the city of St. Paul, according to the report. The project created a community steering committee of more than 20 organizations representing diverse constituents and interests, including labor, faith, housing, and neighborhood groups.

Health impact assessment is a fast-growing field in the United States. Transportation projects and planning are frequent HIA subjects, with at least two dozen HIAs conducted to inform decisions in that sector in the U.S.  Other HIAs informing transit-oriented development include projects in Houston, in Pittsburg, CA, and in Los Angeles.

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is a leading national initiative dedicated to promoting the use of health impact assessments in the United States. Learn more and see a searchable map of ongoing and completed HIAs in the United States at www.healthimpactproject.org.

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The draft Wind Energy Health Impact Assessment is a tool to help community members, elected officials and ODOE understand and respond to health-related questions about wind energy developments in Oregon.

This initial HIA on wind energy is not focused on a specific facility or community. Rather, it focuses more broadly on what is currently known about the health impacts from wind farms, and the policies and standards used to site wind facilities in Oregon.  

All comments must be received by 5 PM on March 30, 2012.

For more information or contact information, please see the Oregon Health Authority Web site

A study done by St. Louis County, called a Health Impact Assessment, shows 16,000 of those traveling on Sixth Avenue E. each day, are in cars.

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The study was done after concerns over pedestrian safety on Sixth Avenue E. prompted an even earlier redesign study. It lists dozens of recommendations for improving the road.

One proposes providing crosswalks for school children and designating a school crossing zone. Another suggests the road should be redeveloped to promote mixed uses, like physical activity.

[Sharon] Murphy said she's proud of the study. It gives her more confidence change is coming. "We hope that it will make a difference for our community," she said.

Watch the report

Read more about this HIA

County commissioners will consider a proposal Thursday morning asking the Oregon Health Authority for $15,000 to study the impact of TriMet’s bus/train transfer times.

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Anyone buying a ticket to ride a TriMet train or bus has an hour to transfer between buses or trains on weekdays, and two hours on weekends. OPAL members have asked the regional agency to extend that transfer time to three hours on weekdays and make transfers issued after 7 p.m. good for the entire evening.

Read the full article

The Racine Wastewater Utility has a project due Jan. 27 for the hauling, storage and land spreading/disposal of about 12,000 tons of wastewater Class B biosolids on an annual basis.

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…A proposed biosolids storage building/biosolid spreading on agricultural lands in Greenville…was cancelled soon after a Rapid Health Impact Assessment report (PDF) was released in late October.

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The World Health Organization defines HIA as a “combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.”

The purpose of the Health Impact Assessment for the proposed Greenville facility is to discuss the health impacts of a biosolids storage facility being proposed and to identify ways to decrease any adverse health impacts of the proposed biosolids storage facility.

The HIA prepared for Greenville was limited to looking at health issues most frequently cited in citizen forums (pathogens, chemicals, odor and groundwater contamination) due to the short time Outagamie County had to produce the report. Greenville homeowners expressed concerns about pathogens, toxic chemicals, decreased property values, smell and truck traffic, among other things.

If you live near the area of this proposed project, it may do you well to take a good look at the Greenville HIA and it may be an idea to request the same of Racine County if such a report for the proposed facility and area involved doesn’t already exist.

Read the full article

The paper, “Health Impact Assessments Are Needed In Decision Making About Environmental And Land-Use Policy,” was authored by Health Impact Project director Aaron Wernham and selected based on research and popularity as revealed by the number of visits each article collected since published to the RWJF website.

Popular vote determines the top five papers. Please consider voting, and sharing.

Voting ends December 23. This year’s winners will be announced in the next issue of Evidence Matters to be released in early 2012.

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In a press release, Clark County Public Health announced it received ALR’s 2012 Translating Research to Policy Award for its Health Impact Assessment (PDF) of the Clark County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. The annual award, given to one organization each year, recognizes exceptional use of research in making policies affecting youth physical activity levels, according to ALR Research Coordinator Chad Spoon.

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Efforts to address childhood obesity locally are needed, according to Melnick. "Twenty-three percent of Clark County tenth-graders are overweight or obese," he said, referencing a 2008 study.

Clark County Planner Laurie Lebowski, who serves as the county's bike and pedestrian coordinator, hailed Public Health’s assessment as an example of government synergy. "It’s a great example of how different agencies can collaborate and do great work," she said. The review was far from a token gesture of approval, according to Lebowski.

"Public Health’s assessment of the bike plan’s polices were given to the Board of Commissioner at critical points during the decision making process in a very innovative way to show the impact each policy would have on the health of Clark County," she said.

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Read the full post

Read about the Clark County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan HIA

Also note Clark County Public Health was recently selected as a mentor in the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Mentorship Project; they will be working with Spokane Regional Health District to examine the potential impacts of the redevelopment of a section of Highway 2 that runs through the heart of downtown Spokane.

• Institute for Public Health Innovation (DC metropolitan region)
• Florida Public Health Institute
• Illinois Public Health Institute
• Kansas Health Institute
• Health Resources in Action (MA)
• Michigan Public Health Institute
• North Carolina Institute of Public Health
• Public Health Management Corporation (PA)
• South Carolina Institute for Medicine and Public Health
• University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute

As part of the joint effort, the Health Impact Project and NNPHI will fund two additional HIA demonstration projects from amongst the selected PHIs.

The collaboration also selected Oregon Public Health Institute and Georgia Health Policy Center to serve as two new HIA training centers. Both states are leaders in the fast-growing field of HIA and are finding opportunities to make health an everyday part of public decision-making through the application of HIA, using a model that best suits their capacity and needs.

In Oregon, a robust network of experienced HIA practitioners has arisen among government, state and local health departments, and nonprofit organizations. The Oregon Public Health Institute has worked on HIAs including Portland to Lake Oswego Transit Project, the SE 122nd Ave Pilot Project/East Portland, and the Transportation Policy Recommendations in the Eugene Climate and Energy Action Plan.

In Georgia many educational institutions have become forerunners in conducting HIAs in the state. The Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at Georgia Tech University has conducted several HIAs including an HIA of the Atlanta Regional Plan 2040 and an HIA of Aerotropolis Atlanta. Health Impact Project and NNPHI awardee, The Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University, completed an HIA on Fort McPherson Interim Zoning. Learn more about HIA activity in Georgia

The training centers established at these institutions will fill a gap in the field by training leaders at public health institutes and organizations all throughout the country, as well as increasing the availability and geographic diversity of HIAs.

We are part of a group of physicians and scientists with expertise in public health, engineering and environmental risk assessment and a keen interest in hydrofracking. We have come together as Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (http://www.psehealthyenergy.org). From the many problems with the environmental impact statement -- both with what it contains, and what is left out -- there clearly is need for far greater study before the state begins issuing permits that can affect the long-term health and well-being of New Yorkers.

We are frankly stunned by the absence of any serious health impact assessment in the SGEIS. The state rejected a call by the federal Environmental Protection Agency that the Health Department be named a co-lead agency to ensure that human health implications of hydrofracking get their proper attention. It is not encouraging that Health Department officials told members of a special state advisory committee they had not performed specific public health impact analyses, and did not plan to do so until hydrofracking began.

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Robert Howarth is the David R. Atkinson professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University. Dr. Larysa Dyrszka is a pediatrician.

Read the full article

The Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Mentorship Project has selected four local health departments and mentor organizations to participate in a joint effort to complete an HIA. The Mentorship Program came about through the combined efforts of the Health Impact Project and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The project was announced in August and will help make HIA a more routine part of local health departments' work. Four agencies new to HIA have been matched with those that have experience in the field, giving them peer-to-peer assistance and technical support. The project will broaden the field of HIA by increasing the geographic diversity of HIA practitioners and help health departments in areas with little experience in HIA to begin using this powerful tool, as well as augmenting the capacity of public health institutions to conduct HIAs. The diversity of topics that will be addressed in these projects exemplifies the potential for HIA to meaningfully impact a wide range of non-health policies:

Complete Streets Project, Missouri

The City of Independence Health Department, along with their mentor from the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, will conduct an HIA on their city’s Complete Streets Plan and help determine which bike lanes to build first, by examining the impacts on issues important to health, such as opportunities for physical activity, access to services, and the risk of accidents and injuries.  

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation previously completed an HIA on the Baltimore Red Line.

Transportation for Livable Communities, Ohio

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health will work with their expert mentor in from Ingham County (MI) Health Department to study a planning project for key intersections along a four mile stretch of road that runs through the downtown corridor of Euclid, OH. They plan to examine various ways to promote physical activity through increased biking and walking by looking at the best design options and tradeoffs between exercise, air pollution and injury risk, as well as provide guidance for development in the corridor that puts people in close proximity to goods and services to support health, fosters community, and strengthens the local economy. 

The Ingham County Health Department has developed a checklist-based HIA tool and regularly uses it, in collaboration with the planning department and private developers, to evaluate proposed development projects.

South Billings Master Plan, Montana

RiverStone Health, with their mentor from Deschutes County (OR) Health Department, will conduct an HIA of the South Billings Master Plan. Through the process, they plan to identify and recommend neighborhood investment strategies that promote health through optimizing affordable housing, commercial opportunities, and strong neighborhood connections where residents and business intersect.

The Deschutes County Health Department has previously conducted an HIA to examine the health implications of policies contained within a proposed community plan for Tumalo, Oregon.

Highway 2 Redevelopment, Washington

Spokane Regional Health District will work with an expert mentor in transportation from Clark County (WA) Public Health to examine the potential impacts of the redevelopment of a section of Highway 2 that runs through the heart of downtown Spokane.

Clark County Public Health has conducted HIAs including the Vancouver Comprehensive Plan Revision, the Clark County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, and the Clark County Highway 99 Sub-Area Plan.

New funding will give city and county officials a chance to better understand how policy decisions might affect residents’ health in areas including public transportation and access to healthy foods.

A new community partnership received $300,000 in grant funding last week to develop a process for determining those effects. Ian Thomas, director of the PedNet Coalition, and Darin Preis, director of Central Missouri Community Action, told Columbia City Council members last night about the idea of health impact assessments that show connections between government policies and public health.

The use of such assessments to guide decisions about land development, public transportation and other issues already is popular in Europe and other parts of the world.

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 “When the city council is voting on some of these very big issues that affect the community, they don’t get any information about the health impact of the decisions they make,” Thomas said. Health impact assessments will “make sure they are aware of the public health consequences — positive or negative — of the decisions they make.”

Read the full article

The Health Impact Project’s work to promote the use of HIAs around the country augments The Kresge Foundation’s efforts to advance safe and healthy housing that addresses the toxins and unhealthful conditions that harm children and families, particularly those in underserved communities.

An HIA is a study that helps policy makers identify the likely health impacts of a decision in another field, such as building a major roadway, planning a city’s growth, or developing agricultural policy. HIAs can assist decision makers in identifying unintended risks, reducing unnecessary costs, finding practical solutions, and leveraging opportunities to improve the wellness of the community.

“The most urgent health problems facing our nation, such as obesity, asthma, diabetes and injuries, are shaped by the places we live and work. This funding will help two more U.S. communities incorporate human health into the policies that shape those places,” said Aaron Wernham, M.D., director of the Health Impact Project. “This collaboration will allow the project to support a broader range of health impact assessments and enable the Kresge Foundation to advance its goal of promoting safe and healthy housing in underserved communities.”

HIAs have been successfully used to inform decisions in the housing sector. An assessment of the Jack London Gateway Senior Housing project in Oakland, Calif., determined the development, as planned, posed several health risks. The assessment revealed a risk of asthma and other health problems related to vehicle emissions and noise pollution because of the building’s close proximity to two major highways and the Port of Oakland. The HIA offered recommendations to mitigate these risks, such as installing a central air filtration system and redesigning windows facing the freeway to improve air quality and reduce noise levels in the building. The development firm incorporated several changes to the project’s design.

The funding from The Kresge Foundation will support two grants, each up to $150,000, which will allow government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations to conduct an HIA. Selected applicants submitted full proposals in September, and the Health Impact Project will make final funding decisions by the end of the year.

This brings to 14, the total number of HIA grants to be awarded for the Health Impact Project’s call for proposals.  In addition to the two funded by Kresge and the eight originally planned under the call for proposals, the project will support up to two HIAs in California through contributions from The California Endowment, and up to two in Minnesota through funding from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation.

The Health Impact Project has made investments of over $1.5 million to date, including funding of demonstration grants that address the effects of a wide range of policy decisions, including a Farm to School bill in Oregon, a pilot project for smart meter electric utility technology in Illinois, and a plan to redevelop an old automobile factory site in Atlanta.

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is a leading national initiative exclusively dedicated to promoting the use of health impact assessments in the United States. Learn more and see a searchable map of ongoing and completed HIAs in the United States at www.healthimpactproject.org.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.1 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expression, increasing college achievement, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for addressing climate change. For more information, visit The Foundation’s Web site at www.kresge.org.

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by Nancy DeVille

The Tennessean

Bus riders get a boost in physical activity just by walking to and from stops, suggests a new Metro Public Health Department study, whose findings are in line with national research.

Nearly a third of Americans who use public transportation get 30 or more minutes of moderate physical activity — the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — just from walking to and from their transit stops.

That finding prompted the health department to partner with the Metro Transit Authority for a study of EasyRide customers. EasyRide allows workers at participating employers to swipe their ID card in lieu of paying a fare, and MTA then bills the employer. The study’s goal is getting more employers to sign up and take advantage of evidence-based health benefits.

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“If we can promote it better, and get 25 to 40 percent of people doing it, then that’s a lot of individuals who are getting more physical activity,” said Jimmy Dills, health impact assessment coordinator for Metro Public Health. “The employer gets the tax benefit, but long term they will get reduced health-care costs along with the benefit of having a healthier and more productive workforce.”

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The study also proposes that riding transit can decrease the risk of roadway injuries, improve air quality and reduce stress.

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Read the full article in The Tennessean

Read more about HIA activity in Nashville from the NashVitality

“Practical Steps for Completing a Health Impact Assessment in Your Community”—an HIA training session. 

This session will give participants an understanding of tools, methods and skills necessary to conduct a Health Impact Assessment (HIA), and a sense of how HIA findings and recommendations can be effectively applied to local, state or federal policy decisions.

With Kim Gilhuly, MPH, of Human Impact Partners, Aaron will begin with an introduction to the practice of Health Impact Assessment, including presentations of different types of HIA projects that have been completed to date, including projects that have been funded by the Health Impact Project. Methodologies to conduct assessment within HIA, discussions regarding the collaborative nature of HIA, communication strategies (including how to use HIA to influence decision-making), and the resources needed to complete a successful HIA will also be presented. Attendees will work together in small groups to engage in hands-on exercises and discussions that will help to build their understanding about the process of conducting the different steps of HIA. The session will conclude with a discussion about the opportunities and challenges to engaging in HIA work, and an opportunity for participants to identify, and consider next steps towards initiating potential HIA projects in their local communities.

Health Impact Assessment: A tool for implementing health in all policies

New mandates to involve other sectors in efforts to improve the public's health—such as those found in Healthy People 2020, the National Prevention Strategy and California's executive order on Health in All Policies—raise a basic question: practically speaking, how can these mandates be implemented?... Through case examples, this session will explore how health impact assessment (HIA) is being used by cities, states and community-based organizations to address these challenges, identify and address the health risks and benefits of decisions made outside the health sector, and build effective interagency collaborations.

Guidelines for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in the U.S.: Results from the National Academies Committee to develop a framework and guidance for HIA

Health impact assessment (HIA) has shown promise as a means to factor health into a wide range of decisions that do not normally focus on health, such as transportation and land use planning, permitting of natural resource development and energy production projects (such as power plants and mines), housing projects and policies, and a range of social policies and programs (such as living wage and paid sick days legislation, energy assistance, and rental voucher programs). The use of health impact assessment (HIA) is increasing in the United States. Tracking by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Impact Project have identified over 130 HIAs have been completed or are in progress. Development of this field, however, has been limited by the lack of generally accepted definitions and practice standards. To address this problem, the National Academies convened a committee to develop a framework, terminology, and guidance for conducting HIA at federal, state, tribal, and local levels, including the private sector. This presentation will outline the committee's findings, including a proposed definition, critical elements of an HIA, how to select appropriate applications, methodological questions, and challenges and impediments to more widespread use of HIA.

Does where you live influence your health? Yes, and maybe even more dramatically than you might expect.

When a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offered a program in the 1990s to move families out of poor neighborhoods, it created a unique opportunity not only to improve people's day-to-day lives, but also to study how a change in environment might impact their health over the long term. Now, more than a decade later, the researchers have found that families who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods had lower levels of obesity and diabetes than those who stayed behind. What's more, the improvements in health were as significant as those that typically result from targeted diet and exercise interventions or the use of medications to treat diabetes.

"The results suggest that over the long term, investments in improving neighborhood environments might be an important complement to medical care when it comes to preventing obesity and diabetes," says study author Jens Ludwig, a professor of public policy at University of Chicago.

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ALBANY, N.Y. — More than 250 doctors and other health care professionals have signed a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeking a comprehensive human health study of the state's proposal to permit new deep drilling for natural gas across the Marcellus Shale region of upstate New York.

The Department of Environmental Conservation's draft analysis of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas omits that critical issue, according to the letter dated Wednesday and released to reporters. It also said the state health department has declined to do that requested assessment on grounds it wouldn't provide significant new information that is not already being covered.

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An HIA is a study that helps policy makers identify the likely health impacts of a decision in another field, such as building a major roadway, planning a city’s growth or developing agricultural policy. HIAs can assist decision makers in identifying unintended risks, reduce unnecessary costs, find practical solutions and leverage opportunities to improve the wellness of the community.

“Our health depends on the conditions in the places where we live, work and play. This funding will help two more California communities build health into the policies that shape those places,” said Aaron Wernham, M.D., director of the Project. “The support from The California Endowment will allow the Health Impact Project to expand our portfolio of health impact assessments and enable The Endowment to advance its goal of building communities with environments that support health instead of promote disease.”

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Two grants, each up to $125,000, will allow government agencies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations to conduct an HIA. There now will be up to 12 HIAs funded through the project: eight under previous funding, plus two additional grants in California through The Endowment’s funding and two in Minnesota through the support of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, as announced in May. Selected applicants submitted full proposals by September 16, and the Health Impact Project will make final funding decisions by the end of the year. 

The Health Impact Project has made investments of over $1.5 million to date, including demonstration grants addressing the effects of a wide range of policy decisions, including a Farm to School bill in Oregon, a pilot project for smart meter electric utility technology in Illinois, and a plan to re-develop an old automobile factory site in Atlanta.

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is a leading national initiative exclusively dedicated to promoting the use of health impact assessments in the United States. Learn more at www.healthimpactproject.org.

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment challenges the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people's health. The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention. For more information, visit The Endowment’s Web site at www.calendow.org.

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DAVIDSON – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded Davidson a $350,000 grant to study healthy community initiatives over the next three years, Planning Manager Lauren Blackburn announced in Roosevelt Wilson Park on Friday, Sept. 9.

The “Health Impact Assessment to Foster Community Design Grant,” was awarded to six organizations nationwide. Davidson: Design for Life must complete at least three health impact assessments per year for the next three years with this funding. These assessments will provide information to help the town continue to further the values of healthy life and diverse, connected neighborhoods in Davidson, Blackburn said.

Health Impact Assessments consist of screenings to identify areas in which information could be useful, scoping to select health effects to consider, risk-benefit assessments, developing recommendations, reporting results to decision-makers and evaluating the new information’s effect on policy decisions, according to the Center for Disease Control’s website.
“The citizens have expressed their desire for connected, walk-able neighborhoods,” commissioner Margo Williams said. “Lucky for us, the CDC listened.”

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