Science Inventory

Incorporating Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) into the Regional Environmental Health Data Visualization Interface (REHD-VI) for Use in Decision Making

Citation:

Hall, E. Incorporating Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) into the Regional Environmental Health Data Visualization Interface (REHD-VI) for Use in Decision Making. ISES, Chicago, IL, August 27 - 31, 2023. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.23786418

Impact/Purpose:

N/A

Description:

Environmental Justice (EJ) impact assessments and analyses are needed which combine software, databases, and environmental health indicators and population exposure considerations at the community level, to aid decision-makers in addressing cumulative impacts for permitting actions, non-regulatory actions, community-level, and regional planning activities. These should include Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) promote sustainable and healthy communities by assessing how a proposed program, project, policy or plan impacts the health and well-being of a community (Bourcier et al., 2015). HIAs consider whether there will be disproportionate impacts and inform decision-makers of potential outcomes before decisions are made. HIA Case Studies are available for review (https://www.epa.gov/healthresearch/epa-health-impact-assessment-case-studies). The Regional Environmental Health Data Visualization Interface (REHD-VI) is a readily available software application (app) that allows the user to select health data and relate them with known chemical and non-chemical stressors (https://edap.epa.gov/public/extensions/EHD_public/EHD_public.html). REHD-VI allows users to visualize tabular data and relationships, local ‘hotspots’, and provides insights into spatial interactions between health and exposure variables. REHD-VI allows the user to see relationships between data over many years, and can be displayed at the county and US census block group levels. Incorporating the HIA framework into REHD-VI will assist the US EPA in conducting consistent cumulative impact assessments that integrate EJ analysis and health impacts, while ensuring use of the most current information. The combined the HIA framework and REHD-VI can provide focus on specific pollution burdens, like PM2.5 and blood lead levels, and can have a real impact on reducing environmental exposure at the local community level.