2.P. Scientific session: Improving health impact assessment in the context of EU policy cycle
Authors:   Organised by: JRC – European Commission, DG SANTE European Commission, EUPHA-HIA, -EPI, -PHPP, -ENV, -ECO, -FS,   Chair persons: Piedad Martin-Olmedo (EUPHA-HIA), Stefania Boccia (EUPHA-EPI)
Published: October 2024

The European Commission (EC) is responsible for planning, preparing and proposing better and simpler new policies, avoiding unnecessary burdens, and involving citizens and any interested stakeholders in the decision-making process. The EC is also responsible for evaluating existing European laws and proposing improvements where necessary. In achieving these goals, the EC has defined its “Better regulation” (BR) policy, governed by a set of common principles and established procedures, including the assessment of the most significant impacts on the economic, environmental, and social domains, among others. These assessments should be based on the best available evidence, which refers to multiple sources of data, information and knowledge, including quantitative (e.g. statistics and measurements) and qualitative data (e.g. opinions, stakeholder input, scientific and expert advice). BR’s principles and procedures also ensure the implementation of more effective, coherent, relevant and efficient initiatives, improving the transparency, participation, learning and accountability. With this approach, the EC also seeks to guarantee that all legislative proposals contribute to the 2030 sustainable development agenda, and to better planetary health. As stated in the EU Treaty (Article 168 TFEU), “a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities”. Therefore, assessment of any potential health impacts should be addressed during the policy cycle. Health gains and health losses can be direct or indirect, and particular attention should be given to specific population groups that may be disproportionally affected by the intervention (e.g., children, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, the elderly, low-income groups). The design and improvement of healthy public policies was precisely the ultimate goal for which the WHO proposed in 1999 the Health impact assessment (HIA) approach. HIA practice is grounded in the WHO’s health definition, which encompasses physical, mental and social health and well-being, and it is closely linked to the social determinants of health framework and to Health in All Policy strategy. Several quantitative methods are available to estimate health impacts within HIA applied to policies. The environmental burden of disease (EBD) is one of them aiming at quantifying the impact of a health problem as measured by avoidable mortality/morbidity, financial cost, or other indicators attributed to environmental factors (e.g. exposure to chemicals). EBD approach allows policy actions to be based on estimated health gains, rather than on “safe environmental levels” of the risk factor alone. The main aim of this session will be to analyses different quantitative approaches and provide some recommendations and good practice on how epidemiological evidence can support the policy cycle, improving data collection, evaluation and reporting suitable to such context.

Key messages

• Refining epidemiologic data recording and reporting, especially uncertainty characterisation, is necessary to improve weight-of-evidence evaluations for a better regulation process.

• Environmental burden of disease, as a tool for quantifying health impacts, provides crucial information to policy makers on how to regulate for better protecting population health.