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Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions
Following alerts about the diminishing role of health risk assessment (HRA) in informing public health decisions, this study examines specific HRA topics with the aim of identifying possible solutions for addressing this compelling situation. The study administered a survey among different groups of...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409883 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074200 |
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author | Bizjak, Tine Kontić, Davor Kontić, Branko |
author_facet | Bizjak, Tine Kontić, Davor Kontić, Branko |
author_sort | Bizjak, Tine |
collection | PubMed |
description | Following alerts about the diminishing role of health risk assessment (HRA) in informing public health decisions, this study examines specific HRA topics with the aim of identifying possible solutions for addressing this compelling situation. The study administered a survey among different groups of stakeholders involved in HRA or decision-making, or both. The responses show various understandings of HRA in the decision-making context—including confusion with the health impact assessment (HIA)—and confirm recurring foundational issues within the risk analysis field that contribute to the growth of inconsistency in the HRA praxis. This inconsistency lowers the effectiveness of HRA to perform its primary purpose of informing public health decisions. Opportunities for improving this situation come at the beginning of the assessment process, where greater attention should be given to defining the assessment and decision-making contexts. Both must reflect the concerns and expectations of the stakeholders regarding the needs and purpose of an HRA on one side, and the methodological and procedural topics relevant for the decision case at hand on the other. The HRA process should end with a decision follow-up step with targeted auditing and the participation of stakeholders to measure its success. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8998966 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89989662022-04-12 Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions Bizjak, Tine Kontić, Davor Kontić, Branko Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Following alerts about the diminishing role of health risk assessment (HRA) in informing public health decisions, this study examines specific HRA topics with the aim of identifying possible solutions for addressing this compelling situation. The study administered a survey among different groups of stakeholders involved in HRA or decision-making, or both. The responses show various understandings of HRA in the decision-making context—including confusion with the health impact assessment (HIA)—and confirm recurring foundational issues within the risk analysis field that contribute to the growth of inconsistency in the HRA praxis. This inconsistency lowers the effectiveness of HRA to perform its primary purpose of informing public health decisions. Opportunities for improving this situation come at the beginning of the assessment process, where greater attention should be given to defining the assessment and decision-making contexts. Both must reflect the concerns and expectations of the stakeholders regarding the needs and purpose of an HRA on one side, and the methodological and procedural topics relevant for the decision case at hand on the other. The HRA process should end with a decision follow-up step with targeted auditing and the participation of stakeholders to measure its success. MDPI 2022-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8998966/ /pubmed/35409883 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074200 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Bizjak, Tine Kontić, Davor Kontić, Branko Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title | Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title_full | Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title_fullStr | Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title_full_unstemmed | Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title_short | Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions |
title_sort | practical opportunities to improve the impact of health risk assessment on environmental and public health decisions |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409883 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074200 |
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