LINKING ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH - EPA'S HELI PROGRAM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 003533

SIPDIS

ADDIS ABABA FOR ESTH HUB - BALZER

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: SENV TBIO XF JO
SUBJECT: LINKING ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH - EPA'S HELI PROGRAM


1. Summary: EPA's Children's Environmental Health Indicators
(CEHI) program and the Health and Environment Linkage Initiative
(HELI) program, co-chaired by UN Environment Program (UNEP) and
the World Health Organization (WHO),seek to assess the health
costs of environmental factors and ultimately to prevent
environmentally-caused illness through more informed policy
making. WHO convened a Middle East regional HELI/CEHI
consultation in Amman March 28-31 to assess progress and share
information. End Summary.

EPA And Canada Launch Programs at WSSD
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2. US EPA, an early leader in linking health and environment,
launched the Children's Environmental Health Indicators (CEHI)
program at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD). CEHI focuses specifically on environmental
impacts on children's health. At the same time, Canada launched
the Health and Environment Linkage Initiative (HELI) program.
HELI is now run in a unique "joint secretariat" relationship
between UNEP and WHO. WHO also runs EPA's CEHI program, and
WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) is managing a
CEHI pilot program. EPA funds CEHI at $500,000 over 5 years, or
$100,000 per year. Canada funds HELI at $1 million per year for
3 years.

Attendees from Middle East, Maghreb, Gulf, Iran
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3. WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) held a
regional HELI/CEHI consultation in Amman on March 28-31 to review
Jordan's HELI pilot project, which looks at the relationship
between water consumption and health. Uganda and Thailand also
have HELI pilot projects on other topics. The intent is to scale
up the programs after the appropriate tools and plans are
developed. In addition to regional consultations, there will be
periodic global HELI/CEHI meetings. Participants at the Amman
HELI/CEHI consultation came from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman,
Syria, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, USA, Canada,
Kuwait, Egypt, WHO, UNEP and Thailand. (Note: Israel belongs to
WHO's European Regional Office, and does not participate in WHO
meetings under the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office.)

Prevention Cheaper Than Treatment
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4. According to Pierre Quiblier from UNEP, environmental factors
cause 25 percent of all illness, primarily in developing
countries. HELI seeks to prove that environmentally sound
policies contribute to income and development through better
health, and that it is cheaper to prevent environmentally caused
illnesses than to treat them. The first job of the HELI group is
to identify information tools to prove these assertions. Each
country defines its own agenda and needs, which are often multi-
sectoral, using HELI tools. Participants emphasized the need for
practical, locally oriented results, not more studies.

Health Impact Assessment - An Important New Tool
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5. HELI's strategy is to generate information for decision-
makers that show the health costs of policy options so that those
costs are considered at the policy planning phases, not ignored
up front and managed later as side effects. A "health impact
assessment," similar to the environmental impact assessment, is
one tool for identifying the health impacts of individual
environmental actions and policies. An economic approach to
measuring the health outcomes of environmental factors seems to
resonate best with policymakers, according to speakers at the
meeting. HELI seeks to tailor their processes and tools to fit
decision-makers' needs.

Wide Range of Factors Can Degrade Health
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6. Environmental factors that can affect health include air
pollution, smoking, chemicals in paints, household cleaners,
pests and vermin, lead from paint and tailpipe emissions, car
accidents, impure water, water scarcity, exposure to pesticides
and fertilizers, noise, and proximity to solid waste. For
example, bad water makes kids sick with diarrhea, leading to
fewer school days, higher medical expenses, lost household income
as parents take time to care for sick children, and ultimately to
developmentally stunted children and lost lives.

Health-Environment Issue Lacks a Bureaucratic Champion
-------------- --------------

7. According to several meeting participants, governmental and
policy-making bodies have been slow to link environment and
health. There has been a "not our problem" reaction to
environmental health by both health departments and environment
departments, leaving environmental health issues without a clear
bureaucratic lead agency. HELI/CEHI participants are working hard
to overcome this problem. Even in the United States, according
to EPA specialists, pediatricians receive only a few hours of
training about environmental effects on children's health. As a
result, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and EPA
have developed a unique collaboration to create eleven
Environmental Health Specialty Units in the United States. The
mission of these centers is to train pediatricians about health
effects from environmental factors.

Low-End Users Need to Use More Water, Not Less
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8. Dr. Amer Jabarin, a HELI advisor from the University of
Jordan, discussed Jordan's HELI pilot project on the relationship
between water consumption and health. He said that there is a
minimum level of water consumption from a health viewpoint. He
said that people at the low end of the water consumption scale
might not be using enough water to stay healthy (through such
things as hand washing, bathing, waste disposal, washing
vegetables and washing utensils). While conservation at the high
end of the consumption scale should be encouraged, he said, it
might be useful, even in an arid country like Jordan, to
encourage more water consumption among people with the lowest
water consumption levels. Consuming water among those people may
make a net contribution to national income through better health,
even though the water and the energy used to pump the water add
costs.


9. Comment: The Health Impact Assessment may become an
indispensable legal tool to protect public health, just as the
Environmental Impact Assessment has become a standard tool for
environmental protection.
HALE