Meeting mulls health impact assessments

Five local case studies, including changes brought on by the Lamphun Industrial Estate, the Ping River water management and the Wat Ket conservation versus Chiang Mai City Planing scheme will be tabled at the 2008 Asia and Pacific Regional Conference on Health Impact Assessment, which runs until Friday.

Thailand's National Health Commission (NHC) is hosting the forum for representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhuthan, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Switzerland, Vietnam and Thailand to exchange ideas.

Dr Wiput Phoolcharoen, president of the HIA commission board, said the assessment allowed everyone to learn and evaluate possible health impacts as well as make recommendations with regard to development projects or public policies.

World Health Organisation representative, Dr Maureen Birmingham, said that expected changes would be environmental and social determinants of health. "Health safeguards and mitigating measures are cost-effective compared to the remedial measures needed afterwards, and they help to avoid the transfer of hidden costs to the health sector," she said.

HIA, which was requested by the public instead of being a state requirement for construction like the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), also helps project owners to better plan their investment, avoid costly risks and get acceptance from communities, Wiput said.

This forum also aims to promote HIA to ensure sustainable social and economic developments as is reflected in its motto: "Empowering People Ensuring Health".Prachern Khontes, a member of the "We Love Tha Chin" Group, said the government should clearly state the ratio of local wisdom an HIA-making committee, area health assembly, related provincial agencies, local academics and other civil societies need and should provide funding for making HIA possible. He said most EIA reports were done by hired academics and used very little community participation.

Although HIA is a relatively new concept, Thailand initiated it in 2000, leading to HIA stipulations in the 2007 Constitution's Article 67 and the 2007 National Health Act's Article 11. Authorities reportedly plan to soon include HIA in EIA soon.