EDPHiS

On December 11th 2008, the Scottish Government announced its Equally Well strategy, for tackling health inequalities in Scotland. Linked with Equally Well, it announced a new strategy for environment and health, called Good Places, Better Health.

On January 23rd 2009, it also announced funding of £1.45M for a major new research project, Environmental Determinants of Public Health in Scotland (EDPHiS), to inform the Good Places, Better Health strategy. EDPHiS is a 4-year research collaboration involving a multidisciplinary team of experts from ten research organisations, mostly based in Scotland, all with a high international reputation for studying environment and health issues.

EDPHiS will be led by IOM, through Fintan Hurley, IOM’s Scientific Director. Fintan and colleagues on the EDPHiS team work on many projects and advisory groups linking science with policy development. Speaking of EDPHiS, he said: “More and more people are recognising the close links between environment and health, for people of all ages. The connections are complex, but we have put together a very strong team to assess the evidence. We are all looking forward very much to the challenges of summarising that evidence in a way that is fair and honest, that the Scottish Government can use, and that is accessible to others, including the wider public. We are very pleased to be able to use our knowledge as scientists to help inform the Scottish Government’s development of policies for a greener and healthier Scotland, and a better life for Scotland’s children.”

The study has actually been under way since 1 April 2008, but official announcement was held over to coincide with Good Places, Better Health (GPBH). This is because EDPHIS was designed to inform GPBH, in two ways.

  • First, it will summarise the extensive international evidence linking children, their environments, the wider social context and children’s health. The focus is on the environments that children experience, from pre-birth up to age 8 years. EDPHiS will look not only the negative effects of environmental pollution, but also at the positive health benefits of a good environment.
  • Then it will link that evidence with data about Scotland, its people and environment, to help predict how policies that affect the environment in Scotland will also affect the health of children.

    • Like GPBH, EDPHiS will focus on four major health outcomes for children in Scotland. These are (i) asthma; (ii) unintentional injuries; (iii) obesity; and (iv) mental health and wellbeing.

    To tackle this complex set of issues, the IOM and colleagues have assembled a very strong, multi-disciplinary team, consisting of:

  • Institute of Occupational Medicine (Edinburgh) - exposure assessment, health risk assessment, health impact assessment methods, project management
  • Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (near Edinburgh) - air pollution, EDPHIS website, Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
  • The Scottish Agricultural College (Edinburgh) and Macaulay Institute for Land Use Research (Aberdeen) - soil and water; rural policies
  • University of Aberdeen: Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine - diet, asthma, obesity; health risk assessment
  • University of Glasgow: Division of Developmental Medicine - unintentional injuries, physical activity
  • Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health - mental health and wellbeing
  • MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (Glasgow) - social factors and environment; social determinants of health...
  • Imperial College (University of London) - Geographical Information Systems, social determinants of health, HIA methodology
  • Glasgow Caledonian University - community engagement

    EDPHiS was funded following an open call and competition for research proposals dealing with environment and health, announced in 2006 by the then Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Directorate, now RERAD.

    EDPHiS will link into Good Places, Better Health via ScotEnvH, a new information network for environment and health in Scotland. ScotEnvH comprises four linked Streams of activity; http://openscotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/12/11090318/7.

    In effects, EDPHiS is the Research Stream of ScotEnvH. It will work closely with other international initiatives, such as the World Health Organisation's Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) http://www.euro.who.int/childhealthenv/policy/20020724_2,
    and UK initiatives in support of CEHAPE, led by the Health Protection Agency in England http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&Page&HPAwebAutoListName

    For more information, see the EDPHiS website at http://www.edphis.org/. (The website is still under development.)


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