Keywords

air quality, health impact assessment, atmospheric dispersion modelling, population exposure

Location

Session A5: Environmental Modelling of Human and Ecosystem Health Effects From Global to Local Scale

Start Date

11-7-2016 9:50 AM

End Date

11-7-2016 10:10 AM

Abstract

The effects of air pollution on human health in Italy have been recently estimated in two different projects with complete national coverage, VIIAS and EU LIFE+ MED HISS. The projects share the methodological approach of the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and the combined use of dispersion models and monitoring networks data, but differ on the exposure assessment and the overall objectives. VIIAS, using sub-municipal census data of population projected on the dispersion model grid, has estimated health outcomes on baseline years (2005 and 2010) and on three scenarios for 2020, in order to evaluate trends and effects of alternative policies. MED HISS involves 4 European countries and aims to assess the feasibility of a low-cost approach to surveillance of long-term health effects, based on linking resources such as air pollution prediction models, mortality and hospital admissions registries and National Health Interview Surveys. As the health data are available only at municipality level, exposure in MED HISS is calculated on municipalities. Here, we show and discuss the final outcomes of VIIAS, together with some preliminary results of MED HISS and we provide a first comparison of the two approaches.

COinS
 
Jul 11th, 9:50 AM Jul 11th, 10:10 AM

Health impact of air pollution on Italy: main findings of VIIAS and MED HISS projects

Session A5: Environmental Modelling of Human and Ecosystem Health Effects From Global to Local Scale

The effects of air pollution on human health in Italy have been recently estimated in two different projects with complete national coverage, VIIAS and EU LIFE+ MED HISS. The projects share the methodological approach of the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and the combined use of dispersion models and monitoring networks data, but differ on the exposure assessment and the overall objectives. VIIAS, using sub-municipal census data of population projected on the dispersion model grid, has estimated health outcomes on baseline years (2005 and 2010) and on three scenarios for 2020, in order to evaluate trends and effects of alternative policies. MED HISS involves 4 European countries and aims to assess the feasibility of a low-cost approach to surveillance of long-term health effects, based on linking resources such as air pollution prediction models, mortality and hospital admissions registries and National Health Interview Surveys. As the health data are available only at municipality level, exposure in MED HISS is calculated on municipalities. Here, we show and discuss the final outcomes of VIIAS, together with some preliminary results of MED HISS and we provide a first comparison of the two approaches.