New subject: [H+T--Friends] HIA Webinar

11 Jun 2014

Hi all.  I am the presenter of the HIA webinar being discussed.  It is hosted by IBPI
which is associated with OTREC and Portland State University - my doctoral institution. 
It is an offshoot of lessons learned from both my doctoral research and time as an HIA
practitioner.  My doctoral research takes a broad look at transportation planning, so the
webinar will not be bike/ped specific.  The webinar was initiated because OTREC provided
some doctoral support for the research and this seemed like a good avenue to distribute
practice-related findings.  This particular webinar will address the wide variation within
and between disciplines about meaning, definitions, and methods associated with concepts
such as health, equity, and engagement; this often result in conflicts between and within
professions mid-HIA due to inappropriate expectations of HIA.

Regarding the statements about social and environmental justice... While my doctoral
research does not address civil rights law directly, it is a critique of the extent to
which HIA proclaims itself participatory and thus protective of community.  HIA assumes
that there is value in stakeholder/collaborative engagement; it is an offshoot of what is
currently termed "health in all policies" approach in public health which
suggests any time you can bring public health evidence in for public consideration,
decision-makers are more likely to make a more informed and thus healthier public
decision.  But make no mistake, HIA is generally informed by a stakeholder process
engaging in an even broader stakeholder process.  Because of that, all the caveats in the
literature about power and stakeholder/collaborative processes apply; stakeholder
processes are easily co-opted and are highly dependent on representation, timing, and good
facilitation to address power structures.  HIA, while committed in theory to good process,
is still in its infancy in defining and bounding engagement.  And community driven HIAs
are relatively rare in the U.S.  

My research shows that the social justice and community aspects of HIA practice are less a
result of stakeholder/participation formats and more a function of explicit HIA values
such as a commitment to health equity and broad determinants of health.  Through these
values, public health professionals are able to identify and advocate for underserved or
unorganized communities - particularly in spatially-based plans.  It is also important to
realize that public health professionals engage in HIAs  because they do not see the
current NEPA regulatory and federal/state legal structures do not go far enough to protect
population health and health equity.  And HIA processes and products engage the notion of
equity in ways that are currently not exploited in planning and EJ circles - a likely win
for vulnerable communities.  So HIA may not explicitly address civil rights law (certainly
true in most U.S. HIAs), but it engages in the notion of health disparities and thus
health, social, and environmental equity.   

The dissertation employs a case-study approach; two of the three cases are HIAs that are
centered around non-English EJ populations in the U.S. and thus might be of particular
interest to some commenters.  It is a reasonably interesting read for a dissertation and
publically available through OTREC at http://otrec.us/project/715.

Fun to see this being discussed!  Hope to have some of you on the webinar on July 16th.
http://otrec.us/events/entry/health_impact_assessment_hia_in_transportation…

~Nicole

Nicole Iroz-Elardo, PhD
Portland State University
irozelardo(a)yahoo.com

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   1. Re: H+T--Friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4 - HIA (Mindell, Jenny)
   2. Re: H+T--Friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4 - HIA
      (mbrenman001(a)comcast.net)
   3. David Ragland Profiled for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
      Safe Routes to Schools work (Phyllis ORRICK)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:58:44 +0000
From: "Mindell, Jenny" &lt;j.mindell(a)ucl.ac.uk&gt;
Subject: Re: [H+T--Friends] H+T--Friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4 - HIA
To: &quot;h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net&quot; &lt;h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net&gt;
Message-ID:
	&lt;7354587cd221478c8333e68518d1a139(a)DB3PR01MB331.eurprd01.prod.exchangelabs.com&gt;

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

We may like the concept of evidence-based decision-making but  being realistic, political
(including planning) decisions are based on a whole range of things.
So most people now aim for 'evidence-informed decision-making', for which HIA is
well-suited.
It would be daft to think that planners (or others in local, regional or national
government) consider only health when making their decisions.
But the more that the decision-makers are involved with the HIA process, the more likely
they are to engage with the recommendations produced.
And I am very surprised by the statement that public health professionals are unaware of
social equity or civil rights.  Certainly not the case in the UK.  And HIA, as accepted
across Europe and I thought worldwide, considers both the health impacts and their
distribution across the population.

Dr Jennifer Mindell
Clinical senior lecturer
Health and Social Surveys Research Group Research Department of Epidemiology and Public
Health UCL
1-19 Torrington Place
London WC1E 6BT

Tel. 020 7679 1269 (Internal x41269)
Survey doctor: 07770-537238
Fax 020 7813 0242
Email: j.mindell(a)ucl.ac.uk
Web: IRIS web page

Journal of Transport and Health: www.elsevier.com/locate/jth

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2014 12:29:58 +0000 (UTC)
From: mbrenman001(a)comcast.net
Subject: Re: [H+T--Friends] webinar on Health Impact Assessment (HIA)
	in Transportation Planning
To: TRB Health and Transportation &lt;h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net&gt;
Message-ID:
	&lt;648017716.8220462.1402144198106.JavaMail.root(a)comcast.net&gt;
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Who is putting on this webinar? It appears to be something called IBPI. "The
Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation is an exciting center for research and
learning that is focused on bicycle and pedestrian travel. IBPI?s aim is to advance
bicycling and walking as integral elements of the transportation system in Oregon?s
communities." Where's the neutrality and objectivity? 

In regard to this statement, "Health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged in the U.S.
as a promising way to increase social and environmental justice by addressing health
equity within transportation planning," much HIA work does not adequately address
social equity and EJ issues. For example, HIA's rarely address Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 or the environmental justice executive order. They rarely contain legal
concepts at all. HIA's are usually conducted by public health people, who have no
background in social equity or civil rights. They often perform with an environmentalist
bias (see "bicycle innovation" above), which often is in tension with the needs
of low income communities and communities of color. 

As to this, "It also augments community and stakeholder engagement by providing a
forum - usually through an advisory committee - where stakeholders can identify and
deliberate about health interests related to the target plan. While HIA advisory
committees are diverse by design," much HIA work is conducted solely in English, and
the limited English proficiency needs of various demographic groups are not addressed.
Another concern with "advisory committees" is that fact that they only provide
"advice" which the "planning" entity is not obligated to pay any
attention to. A colleague who leads an immigration advocacy group told me a couple of
years ago, "I no longer serve on advisory committees because they don't make
policy or control anything." 

Marc Brenman
mbrenman001(a)comcast.net 

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:08:33 +0000 (UTC)
From: mbrenman001(a)comcast.net
Subject: Re: [H+T--Friends] H+T--Friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4 - HIA
To: TRB Health and Transportation &lt;h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net&gt;
Cc: j.mindell(a)ucl.ac.uk
Message-ID:
	&lt;1533380969.350750.1402423713482.JavaMail.root(a)comcast.net&gt;
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Here's what I said: "HIA's rarely address Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 or the environmental justice executive order. They rarely contain legal concepts at
all. HIA's are usually conducted by public health people, who have no background in
social equity or civil rights. They often perform with an environmentalist bias...much HIA
work is conducted solely in English, and the limited English proficiency needs of various
demographic groups are not addressed." My comments were focused on the US, where the
webinar under discussion is occurring. But prove me wrong in the UK. Quote some HIAs in
the UK that discuss the Equality Act (which is under fire in the UK by the Conservative
Party) or the equivalent, and environmental justice, and use the languages preferred by
demographic groups. This is more than "awareness," since awareness doesn't
cure much of anything. I'll be happy to be proved wrong and would love to use those
good HIA examples. 

In recent work with The City Project in Los Angeles, as funded by the California
Endowment, we observed that even those public health organizations and medical
professionals who work with minority health disparities rarely engage civil rights law to
help solve the challenges. Various professions just seem stuck in their silos. And
don't get me started on trying to use epidemiologists as witnesses in environmental
just cases. I've never found one who would testify that X environmental insult caused
Y adverse effect on a given minority or low income community. They insist upon a
scientific standard of proof, which is way higher than the administrative civil rights
standard of proof of a preponderance of the evidence. 
Marc Brenman
mbrenman001(a)comcast.net 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Jenny Mindell" &lt;j.mindell(a)ucl.ac.uk&gt;
To: h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 1:58:44 AM
Subject: Re: [H+T--Friends] H+T--Friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4 - HIA 

We may like the concept of evidence-based decision-making but being realistic, political
(including planning) decisions are based on a whole range of things. 
So most people now aim for 'evidence-informed decision-making', for which HIA is
well-suited. 
It would be daft to think that planners (or others in local, regional or national
government) consider only health when making their decisions. 
But the more that the decision-makers are involved with the HIA process, the more likely
they are to engage with the recommendations produced. 
And I am very surprised by the statement that public health professionals are unaware of
social equity or civil rights. Certainly not the case in the UK. And HIA, as accepted
across Europe and I thought worldwide, considers both the health impacts and their
distribution across the population. 

Dr Jennifer Mindell
Clinical senior lecturer
Health and Social Surveys Research Group Research Department of Epidemiology and Public
Health UCL
1-19 Torrington Place
London WC1E 6BT 

Tel. 020 7679 1269 (Internal x41269)
Survey doctor: 07770-537238
Fax 020 7813 0242
Email: j.mindell(a)ucl.ac.uk
Web: IRIS web page 

Journal of Transport and Health: www.elsevier.com/locate/jth 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2014 12:29:58 +0000 (UTC)
From: mbrenman001(a)comcast.net
Subject: Re: [H+T--Friends] webinar on Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Transportation
Planning
To: TRB Health and Transportation &lt;h+t--friends(a)chrispy.net&gt;
Message-ID: 
&lt;648017716.8220462.1402144198106.JavaMail.root(a)comcast.net&gt;
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" 

Who is putting on this webinar? It appears to be something called IBPI. "The
Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation is an exciting center for research and
learning that is focused on bicycle and pedestrian travel. IBPI?s aim is to advance
bicycling and walking as integral elements of the transportation system in Oregon?s
communities." Where's the neutrality and objectivity? 

In regard to this statement, "Health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged in the U.S.
as a promising way to increase social and environmental justice by addressing health
equity within transportation planning," much HIA work does not adequately address
social equity and EJ issues. For example, HIA's rarely address Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 or the environmental justice executive order. They rarely contain legal
concepts at all. HIA's are usually conducted by public health people, who have no
background in social equity or civil rights. They often perform with an environmentalist
bias (see "bicycle innovation" above), which often is in tension with the needs
of low income communities and communities of color. 

As to this, "It also augments community and stakeholder engagement by providing a
forum - usually through an advisory committee - where stakeholders can identify and
deliberate about health interests related to the target plan. While HIA advisory
committees are diverse by design," much HIA work is conducted solely in English, and
the limited English proficiency needs of various demographic groups are not addressed.
Another concern with "advisory committees" is that fact that they only provide
"advice" which the "planning" entity is not obligated to pay any
attention to. A colleague who leads an immigration advocacy group told me a couple of
years ago, "I no longer serve on advisory committees because they don't make
policy or control anything." 

Marc Brenman
mbrenman001(a)comcast.net 

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Re: [H+T--Friends] HIA Webinar