Evidence-informed policy for tackling adverse climate change effects on health: Linking regional and global assessments of science to catalyse action.

Robin Fears and co-authors discuss evidence-informed regional and global policy responses to health impacts of climate change.

Introduction to arsenic contamination and health risk assessment with special reference to Bangladesh.

The problem of arsenic contamination in the Bengal River Basin illustrates a classic conundrum in environmental health, namely, that development projects can have double effects: on one hand development of tube wells eliminated bacterial pathogens and on the other it exposed the population to poisoning from arsenic. Thus, in future development projects the full health risk of a project must be considered during the planning, implementation, and decommissioning phases (Caussy 2003b; Caussy et al. 2003b).

Case studies of the impact of understanding bioavailability: arsenic.

Arsenic is a metalloid that occurs in virtually all environmental matrices. The inorganic forms of arsenic occurring as As(III) and As(V) are toxic and may pose a health risk to human population. Although exposure can occur in various settings, ingestion of contaminated ground water is more widespread.

Lessons from case studies of metals: investigating exposure, bioavailability, and risk.

Since metals are widely distributed in environmental matrices, humans are exposed to them by either anthropogenic activities or inadvertently by necessity. Selected metals: arsenic, mercury, iron, tin, lead and chromium were chosen on the basis of their economic and public health importance to illustrate the diversity of exposure pathways and differences in factors governing bioavailability. Bioavailability is central to the toxicity of metals and this is discussed from the health risk paradigm standpoint of risk assessment and risk management and the impacts of including or excluding bioavailability in such assessment.

Health impact assessment needs in south-east Asian countries.

A situation analysis was undertaken to assess impediments to health impact assessment (HIA) in the South-East Asia Region of WHO (SEARO). The countries of the region were assessed on the policy framework and procedures for HIA, existing infrastructure required to support HIA, the capacity for undertaking HIA, and the potential for intersectoral collaboration. The findings show that environmental impact assessment (EIA) is being used implicitly as a substitute for HIA, which is not explicitly or routinely conducted in virtually all countries of the Region.