Health Impact Assessment (HIA)

Health costs due to road traffic-related air pollution. An impact assessment project of Austria, France and Switzerland

Resource/Evaluation type

Evidence

Subject area

Transport, Air

Summary

Austria, France and Switzerland

This project assessed the health costs of road traffic-related air pollution in the three countries using a common methodological framework. In addition to road transport’s positive impact on the growth and prosperity of the national economy and its importance for satisfying our individual needs for mobility, road transport also has adverse effects: accidents, noise, air pollution, harm to health, crop damage, traffic jams, etc. These costs are mainly external costs which mean that they are not covered by the polluters (the motorists) but imposed on everybody. Information about air pollution-related effects on human health and the share of traffic-related air pollution was assessed by integrating data on air pollution, epidemiology and the economy. The three domains assessed were: air pollution: evaluation of (road traffic-related) exposure; epidemiology: evaluation of the exposure-response relationship between air pollution and health impacts; the evaluation of the road traffic-related health impacts and their monetarisation. The project contains four reports: a summary, a PM10 report on exposure, a technical report on epidemiology and an economic evaluation.

More information

Author and Email

WHO European Centre for Environment and Health Rome Division
E-mail: csa@who.it

Owner contact details

WHO European Centre for Environment and Health
Rome Division
Via Francesco Crispi, 10
I-00187 Rome Italy

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