2010 Environmental Health Summit Recommendations Highlight Health Impact Assessment

The 2010 North Carolina Environmental Health Summit convened more than 100 environmental and health experts as well as others from diverse backgrounds to discuss ways to increase the attention to environmental impacts on health in the ongoing debates over healthcare reform.

Health Impact Project manager Kara Vonasek participated, and the final recommendations highlighted health impact assessment as a potential tool to estimate the unintended consequences for public health of proposed projects, plans, or policies.

The group suggested health impact assessment as a viable framework for analyzing environmental impacts on health, based on this broader definition [of “environment” to include the entire landscape in which populations operate, rather than just the specific concentrations of pollutants in air, water, or soil]. (page 9)