What's New?
Find out about upcoming events and newsworthy items for Habitat and in the world of HIA. Please check back often.
January 21, 2011
Training course: Health Impact Assessment for the Extractive Industries
Marla Orenstein of Habitat and Francesca Viliani of International SOS will be co-presenting a course entitled Issues in Health Impact Assessment for Extractive Industries. This one-day training course will take place on May 30, 2011 as part of the International Association of Impact Assessment's annual conference, held this year in Puebla, Mexico.
December 14, 2010
HIA of California's proposed cap & trade regulations
Habitat recently contributed to a very complex but interesting HIA that was conducted on cap and trade regulations proposed under California’s Global Warming Solutions Act. The HIA, managed by Max Richardson of the California Department of Public Health, assessed the distribution of economic impacts, air quality changes, and consumer costs, linking these broad health determinants to a wide range of health and social outcomes. Habitat provided assessments of the potential health effects of four offset protocols related to Ozone-Depleting Substances, Methane Digesters, Urban Forestry and Forest Management. A copy of the draft HIA can be downloaded here.
November 1, 2010
Newly Released: Minimum Elements & Practice Standards for HIA
The HIA of the Americas Practice Standards subgroup is excited to release
an updated version of the “Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for
Health Impact Assessment (HIA).” Minimum Elements answer the question of
“what essential elements constitute an HIA” as distinct from Practice
Standards, which answer the question, “how to best conduct an HIA.”
Overall, the hope is to translate the values underlying HIA along with key
lessons from HIA practice into specific standards for practice for each
phase of the HIA process. Click here to download.
August 25, 2010
Teaching and training
We have been busy recently with a number of teaching and training activities. This summer, we were engaged by the Pew Charitable Trust's Health Impact Project (healthimpactproject.org) to train researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health who are conducting an HIA of a natural gas development in Colorado. In November we will be travelling to the Niagara region to present a 1-day HIA workshop with a public policy focus, and we are working with Francesca Viliani of International SOS to prepare an HIA training course to be presented at the International Association of Impact Assessment 2011 conference in Puebla, Mexico.
July 10 , 2010
Flin Flon Soils Study Released
Habitat's Dr. Murray Lee recently concluded his role as Principal Investigator for a component of the Flin Flon Soils Study, led by our associates Intrinsik Environmental Sciences. The Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company operated a fully-functional mine and base metal smelting complex in Flin Flon, Manitoba from the 1930’s until June, 2010. The mining and smelting activities gradually led to a build-up of metals in the environment. The biomonitoring study in which Murray was involved examined biomarkers of exposure to environmental contaminants among children in the area. The study found a low likelihood of health effects among residents from exposure to environmental contaminants. A summary of the study and its conclusions can be downloaded here.
March 15, 2010
Where are we going?
March and April will be busy with conferences for Habitat. Look for Marla Orenstein, Murray Lee and Ame-Lia Tamburrini at the HIA of the Americas workshop in Oakland, California on March 24 and 25, where Habitat is one of the convening organizations. Find Marla at the IAIA (International Association of Impact Assessment) 2010 conference in Geneva, Switzerland April 7-12; and look for Erica Myles at the Society of Petroleum Engineers International Conference on Health, Safety and the Environment in Rio de Janiero between April 12 and 14. We hope to see you there!
Sept. 26 , 2009
A new tool for understanding the health effects of resource development
Hot off the press is the Health Effects Assessment Tool (HEAT): an Innovative Guide for HIA in Resource Development Projects. This 27-page guide was developed collaboratively by Habitat and Tania Barron of ERM and is intended to help HIA practitioners, project proponents and other stakeholders to a) anticipate the type of community health effects commonly associated with such developments and b) to evaluate these effects in a systematic manner. This project was commissioned by the HIA Gateway and will be posted on their site soon. Please contact us if you would like a copy.
Sept. 21 , 2009
The Economic Burden of Occupational Cancer in Alberta
Habitat, in partnership with the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Cancer Bureau, has just completed a research project to identify the number and costs of occupational cancers in Alberta. The AHS hopes to make the findings public shortly. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the report, please contact Habitat or Pat Curley at the Cancer Bureau.
June 18, 2009
IFC issues guidance on Health Impact Assessment
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has significantly expanded HIA methodology for private sector industrial projects in the developing world. They have recently published an HIA "good practice" guidance do cument that supports the IFC's Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability. The guidance document can be downloaded here, or from the IFC's website.
June 3, 2009
Save the date: HIA in the Americas workshop, March 25-26, 2010
The 2nd HIA in the Americas workshop is gearing up, and we are looking for your input. Please check out the workshop announcement for details: HIA in the Americas 2010 workshop.
April 3, 2009
HIA Practice Standards published
The North American HIA Practice Standard Working Group has produced the first version of its guidelines, Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) (click to download). This group was formed at last year's HIA Americas Workshop, and Habitat is a signatory.
March 18, 2009
Our Partner, Intrinsik
Habitat has teamed up with Intrinsik Environmental Services, a Canadian leader in Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) to enhance the suite of services we can bring to clients. We are pleased to be working with Intrinsik on community health impact assessment initiatives. Please visit the Intrinsik website to learn more about this excellent company and what we can bring you as a team.
March 3, 2009
Welcome to our new clients
Habitat is pleased to be working with a number of new clients this spring, including the Alberta Cancer Board, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, and the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy.
October 1, 2008
First ever HIA Americas workshop
The first workshop for HIA practitioners in the Americas was held in Oakland, California on September 24-26, 2008. Click on these links to download the program, to download a short report about the conference or for the full conference notes (16 pages).
May 1, 2008
Olá Brasil!
We are excited to announce that in June 2008, Habitat will be presenting a 3-day course on health impact assessment with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Brasilia. Organized by Carlos Dora (WHO-European Centre for Environment and Health), the course will be taught in collaboration with Debbie Abrahams from IMPACT (International Health Impact Assessment Consortium at the University of Liverpool)
April 2, 2008
Canadian Senate mulls HIA requirement
The Canadian Senate Subcommittee on Population Health has released its third and fourth interim reports on its study of the determinants of health. The purpose of the interim report is to outline the major issues facing the development of population health policy in Canada; to present policy options to improve overall health status and reduce health disparities; and to launch a public debate on the role of the federal government in population health policy.
One of the policy options considered in the report (page 16) is establishing a federal requirement for the application of HIA to all new public policy proposals. The subcommittee states that HIA could maximize the positive and minimize the negative health effects of proposals coming forward from all sectors of government. Public input is being sought through June 30, 2008.