Press note: While the Draghi report is concerned about the economic implications from transitioning away from PFAS in Europe, this approach is fundamentally flawed given the health costs and severe health and environmental consequences associated with these substances.
The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), and the city of Warsaw recently hosted a half-day science-to-policy consultation workshop. The workshop brought together representatives from the city of Warsaw and regional authorities, doctors, researchers, and other stakeholders to discuss how to reduce the urban disease burden in Warsaw through environmental, climate, and urban policies. This consultation workshop was the third in a series of stakeholder engagement exchanges, following dedicated events in Brussels and Zagreb.
The research project Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for Policy-making (UBDPolicy), of which HEAL is a partner, aims to estimate the health and socio-economic costs and benefits of air quality, noise, lack of urban green spaces, heat and temperature, physical activity, and inequity for nearly 1,000 European cities in the EU. The project aims to facilitate stakeholder dialogue to strengthen the uptake of health impact assessments in policy-making and city planning at all levels.
Science-to-policy consultation workshops provide researchers with an opportunity to receive input on which data is most needed for impactful current and future policy-making, as well as the evaluation of existing or planned policies.
The city of Warsaw has been chosen as one of the case study cities for which detailed health cost and benefit assessments will be developed. Other cities include Barcelona, Basel, Bradford, Brussels, Copenhagen, Manchester, Munich, Sofia, Utrecht, and Zagreb. UBDPolicy is seeking stakeholders’ expertise to provide input and co-create research scenarios that best reflect policy needs.
During the workshop, researchers and Warsaw stakeholders explored relevant current and prospective policies and strategies that will serve as the basis for calculating the health impacts and benefits of various measures, including the upcoming Warsaw Low Emission Zone, the phase-out of solid fuel heating, and urban greening initiatives.
Related Posts
