“Health Impact Assessment and NEPA” Course Nov' 14-16, North Carolina, USA

The Duke Environmental Leadership (DEL), Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University,  has announced a new “Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and NEPA” course through its Certificate in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) program.

Developed and led by Dr. Aaron Wernham— a world-recognized leader in Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and Director of the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts—the course will address and explain how HIA helps with decision making as well as meeting procedural requirements for analyzing health effects.

Ray Clark, Chair of the NEPA Education and Certificate Program, called the new HIA course an overdue program of study,

“Decision makers in many fields need a tool to help them understand the health consequences of proposed actions. This course provides that tool.” Not only is the topic timely, as the National Research Council recently released the report “Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment,” but can also be applied broadly for identifying and addressing human health in various sec-tors, like transportation, agriculture and energy.

The emerging practice of HIA has shown promise as a way to meet the procedural requirements of NEPA, as well as provide a general tool for decision making on projects. Co-lead instructor Dinah Bear—Attorney at Law and former General Counsel to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) — speaks to the relationship between HIA and NEPA, “Modeled closely after environmental impact assessment (EIA), HIA has become standard practice in much of Europe, Asia, Australia, and Canada. The National Academy of Sciences released a report this fall on HIA's place in the United States, including recommendations on integration of HIA into the NEPA process."

The course will provide an introduction and overview of methods to assess health effects relying on recent experience in the U.S. and review the National Academy of Sciences report on a framework and guidance on HIA. This course will also:

1. Introduce participants to the procedures, steps and methods used in HIA.

2. Explain how HIA can be used in analysis and decision making.

3. Demonstrate the use of HIA in the context of several in-depth case studies.

4. Introduce participants through hands-on exercises to a set of procedures that can be used to determine when health effects should be included in an analysis, and what scope of health effects should be considered.

The course will be held November 14-16, 2011, as a two-and-a-half day course, and will be immediately followed by - Climate Change and NEPA. Both courses will count to-wards the Certificate in NEPA requirements. Participants will have the option to register for either class alone or receive a discount for registering for both.

Funding for tuition may be available through the Bill Cohen Memorial Scholarship. 


To register for a seat in either or both of these courses, click here to visit theDEL Exec Ed Upcoming Courses website.

TUITION

Health Impact Assessment and NEPA:Registration on or by October 17= $1400
Registration after October 17= $1475

Climate Change Under NEPA
Registration on or by October 17= $1400
Registration after October 17= $1475

BOTH COURSES-
There is a 10% discount for registering for and attending both courses held within this week.Registration on or by October 17= $2520
Registration after October 17= $2655

For further details please contact the DEL Program at del@nicholas.duke.edu, 919-613-8082.

Source: Duke University