Health impact assessment for proposed western extension of the central London - Essay Example

Introduction Health impact assessment is a very important procedure that is done by the government before it implements a project. It is a way by which an entity judges a project, policy or a programme by looking at its health implications to the general public. While carrying out the procedure one requires different tools, procedures and methods. Governments are usually interested in ensuring health of the general public to prevent diseases that can lead to death and thus a very negative economic implication to the country. It should be noted that it is not conducted on projects only but even policies set by the government and any up coming services. It is important to have the needs of the general public in mind while setting up a project or coming up with a policy that will affect the citizens of a country. It is considered as procedure to save lives. This practice has become necessary in many countries in maintaining a health status for its citizens. Many European countries including the United Kingdom have started implementing the procedure before they set up a policy or a project. The World Health Organisation, an international health organisation, has campaigned to several countries on the importance of the procedure which is saving lives. It should be noted that the procedure is still new and there are major changes that are being made to ensure that the project is finally perfect (Kemm, 2003, pp. 387). In 2005, people around the Central Charging Zone in London were experiencing a lot of traffic congestion. The mayor had to ask the Transport for London (TFL) to come up with a report on how there can be an extension to reduce the congestion at the Central Charging Zone. The team had to come up with recommendations on its modification and other matters that were associated with it like the health assessment impact. The report made by the TFL was not only left to that as the mayor and his team still urged the TFL to conduct further research on the impacts of the extension. The research led to the government extending the Western Central Charging Zone in London (Government of UK, 2005). Health impact assessment procedures It is important for an entity that deals with the health assessment impacts to know the procedures to follow in looking at the implications of implementing a project or a policy in a community. It should be noted that the procedures used indifferent impact assessments are the same as those in the health assessment impact. It follows different steps the first one being screening where the organisation has to look at the necessity of the project. Before a project or a policy is implemented, it is important to know if it is really required. This can be done by questionnaires given to the people who are around that area to explain if they face any problems because of the lack of the project or policy (Taylor, 2003, pp. 345). The mayor took the first step to see if the extension of the Western Central Charging Zone was important to the people who used the road and the people who lived around the area. The health assessment impact came up with some reasons as to why the project is needed to reduce the congestion within the Central Zone (Government of UK, 2005). The assessment appreciated the fact that the project would lead to the reduction of congestion in the zone thus making travelling easier and reliable. People will be able to spend less time travelling. The project was considered as the best option and solution for reducing the traffic congestion within and without the area. There was no other solution as the project had very few negative impacts to health as compared to other projects. Moreover, the bus operations will be faster and more reliable as the congestion due to too much traffic would be reduced thus the reducing the waiting time of the passengers. In addition, the bus operation would be able to make more money by taking many trips. There would be an increase in the net revenues due to the extension of the zone thus the London transport sector would be able to increase its work by implementing better projects elsewhere. The project was considered to link very well with other already initiated projects within the transport sector in ensuring that the public transport system was improved completely. In addition, it would make the Central Zone to be more attractive and very reliable for people to move around freely. This would lead to attracting investors thus increasing the employment opportunities. The fact that the area would reduce congestion and make people feel while walking around the area, means that it would reduce the stress factors that can be caused by bombarding with people along the way due to lack of space. Moreover, it would reduce the chances of pickpockets stealing property from poor citizens’ who are simply taking a walk in the area. Lastly, it would be very flexible in that the lighting system is adjustable thus in case of any future changes, it would be easier for any implementations to be made and it was easy to reintroduce the project too (Moore, 2003, pp. 34-5). The other step is scoping where the health assessment impact organisation will determine the impacts of the project. Because of the high traffic congestion problem, the Transport for London (TFL) came up with a conclusion that the people around really require the extension of the Charging Zone. The extension would benefit the citizens by reducing the congestion within and without the charging zone thus travelling would be faster. This would lead to reducing traffic queues which will create faster movements of ambulances and fire brigades. This is a positive health impact to the extension as it will lead to saving lives. It is evident that ambulances and other rescue machineries require first priority when on the road because of the importance of saving a life that is in danger. The traffic congestion will definitely slow down the movements of the rescue team leading to loss of lives. Let’s take a case of a fire emergency and the fire rescue team has to go all the way then meets traffic on the Western Central Changing Zone. The rescue team will delay because there will not be any space for other vehicles to move and give it way. Thus the fire is bound to kill many people and destroy a lot of property. Thus the project to extend the zone will be a benefit to the emergency rescue teams in saving lives as it will first of all do away with the traffic and allow more space for the rescue teams’ vehicles (Krieger, 2003, pp. 659-662). Moreover, traffic congestion is bound to bring up stress. The fact that an individual is able to delay their daily duties due to traffic can bring up stress. This is because the person is not able to meet the goals that were set for the day. Sometimes it brings economic depression as some people are not able to go to work at the right time set. This can lead to them being fired from their work place. This will definitely increase the stress rates in the country. Stress has been considered as a very big health problem as it leads to some other diseases forming; depression, heart attacks and other bad eating habits that can lead to obesity. Stress has been the major cause of people committing suicide and the government has to take the responsibility of reducing the suicidal rates to ensure that its citizens are safe. Stress leads to a lot of people taking anti-depressants or sleeping pills that can make them lose focus thus cause more road accidents. Road accidents have negative implications to the economy of a country because studies show that a country has the capability to lose a lot of pounds due to one death. In addition, studies link high stress levels with alcoholism thus even more increase in road accidents. The project will have a positive impact in ensuring that the citizens who use the road daily have better health by reducing stress caused by too much traffic congestion (Douglas, 2001. pp.300-305). The third step is identification and assessment which is a major determinant of the magnitude of the project on the health impacts of the people who are to be affected by the project. The step deals with identifying the potential health impacts of implementing the project. The process thus shows that the people will gain both in terms of increasing their social, economic and health status if the project is implemented. Because the project is likely to increase investors within the area, then it means that employment rates will rise making the unemployed people access income. This will reduce stress conditions brought about by lack of income to sustain ones life. This will definitely increase the health of the people because it will reduce the stress causing diseases (Birley, 2005, pp.702-713). More so, the people will get income that will increases their chances of accessing better health care systems due to better income conditions. This would also lead to healthy eating that would definitely reduce the chances of being infected by diseases due to poor eating habits. The project was bound to reduce the congestion of the people who would walk around the area thus creating more space for fresh air reducing the spread of disease due to high levels of congestion. More so, the project was to help in the reduction of air pollution that was bound to reduce the death rates per year. This is because more space would be created leading to free flow of polluted air and fresh air making people to inhale fresh air all the time. More so, it would reduce the rate of accidents by making ensuring that people improve on the transport system and vehicles they were to use. Though the project had all the positive impacts it had one major negative impact which was that it will lead to inequality. The transport system would be better thus making the transport costs to increase leaving the poor to suffer because of the affordability problem (Birley, 2003, pp.313-321). The last step in the health assessment impact is the evaluation and monitoring stage. It can be referred to as the follow up stage. This happens after the project has been implemented. The rest of the steps had focused on the probable impacts of the project. This is to ensure that the estimated problems in the stages before are true or there are some that were not considered. This can make the project to either to be continued or stopped and therefore look for other projects that can lead to better health implications. This stage is very important as it is able to reveal the poor strategies of the health assessment project thus make it better the next time one is carrying such an assessment. Methods It is important to know the types of methods to use while conducting the health assessment impact. The first method is to view the appropriateness of the policy or the project. As it has been discussed previously in the paper, the project will lead to the reduction of traffic congestion that is bound to have very negative implications by 2010. If the extension was not considered then the people around the areas would definitely be affected by the pollution caused by the heavy traffic. The people in London were complaining of pollution rates increasing due to the congestion. It was the responsibility for the government to create a project that could improve environmental conditions because the environment we live in is a major determinant of the individuals’ health status living in it. It was bound to reduce the chances of lung cancer and other types of diseases caused by lack of fresh air such as asthma and other bronchiole diseases (Birley, 2003, pp.313-321). It is important to know which group of people will be affected by the project. The project needs to highlight the extent to which the project is likely to go to know how the people in different areas will be affected by the project. The project was to affect the people who were around the boundaries of the Western Central zone. The area has about 233300 people with 1990 ha thus a population density of 117. the project is to go all the way to the West London Railway line where there is a population of 150000 people having the area more densely populated of about 3.5 per ha. The area is therefore considered more densely populated than the Western Central zone. The people leaving in this area were not born in the United Kingdom and they are characterised by being a minority group. The individuals are mostly aged between 25 and 54 thus are able to depend on themselves making the project important for them as it will bring about employment opportunities. Most of the people within the area are Christians making the Muslims hold a percentage of about 0.9%. It should be noted that the area is characterised by very limited business entities, leaving the market for numerous hotels, restaurants and retail establishments. The main employment scheme is the restaurant and hotel industry holding about 34% employees within the area. Very many people are considered to frequent the western Central zone for employment. This means that the area holds the numerous business entities leaving the other residential area with limited entities. It should be noted about 14% of the citizens’ do not have formal education in their respective employment fields. The area though has access of several entities like hospitals, child social care, worship centres, schools, libraries and post offices. The house charges in London are more expensive than those in Kensington and Chelsea. The method used is bund to reveal the people who will be affected by the implementation of the project (Douglas, 2001. pp.300-305). It is important to have very informed people to collect data on how the project can influence the health status of the people. This can be done by colleting data on the problems the people are facing due to the congestion around the area. The project is expected to look at the crime rates in the area due the congestion. Moreover, get the rates of accidents in the past years. This will reveal if the congestion has brought about the increase of accidents and casualties around the zone. It will be easy to find out the number of social and voluntary services over the years. If they have been increasing, then it means the congestion is contributing to poor social structure within the communities that live in the zone. More so, it will reveal if their have been vast increases in the number of investors in the area. If the numbers of investors have been reducing, then it means that the area is facing a lot of pollution problems thus people running away from it making businesses to relocate to look for available markets. The method should reveal the use of energy and resources within the zone. It should aim at looking at how the use of the energy and resources is efficient. This will highlight the reduction in efficient use of the energy and resources thus show the negative implications of the congestion. The method will therefore reveal the quality of air that the people around the zone inhale everyday. This will ensure that the project implemented will be to improve the quality of air if it is found to be very poor (Krieger, 2003, pp. 659-662). The method needs to have the key factors that influence health in mind. First of all, the biological factors such as sex, age and genetic factors need to be considered. This will probably affect the kind of policy or project to be implemented. In the Western Central zone, the extension project is bound to favour the age of the individuals as it is characterised by a very energetic group of people aged between 25 and 54. The project is bound to create a field for more investors to venture in thus create employment opportunities for the people. The genetic factor does not matter as the people are of a mixed race thus hard to tell a specific genetic factor. The second factor can be the lifestyle of the people. The education levels are not very high like other areas in the United Kingdom as 14% of the population offers informal employment. The fact that there are no major businesses entities show that the available labour for those entities is very low thus they do not see the need to invest in the area. The transport sector is very limited due to the congestion in the area making very many people complain about the traffic caused due o lack of the road extension. The area has access to public facilities like toilets and parks but they are not numerous (Birley, 2005, pp.702-713). Implications of the project The health assessment impact is necessary as it will allow the government to know if the project will improve the health status of the people or not. It also reveals the environmental implications of the project as it highly affects the health status of the people. The impact will also reveal the social status of the people around the zone. Thus when carrying out the health assessment impact of a project, the social and environmental impacts always arise as they highly do affect the health status of the people. This also helps the government to make the necessary recommendations to the projects to ensure that the negative implications are done away with (Moore, 2003, pp. 34-5). The main importance of the project will be the government to reduce the congestion levels in the area. The reduction will see that there are economic, social and health improvements in the area. This will make the area more attractive and make it more conducive for living. More so, the government is able to know if the project can go hand in hand with other already implemented projects. It is supposed to support the environmental policies that have been set by the government. For example, the government major environmental sustainability policy is to reduce air pollution within the environment. Thus the project has been appraised for the fact that it will reduce to levels of air pollution that is likely to increase over the years. Thus this gives the government a go ahead in implementing the project as soon s possible to stop the rates of pollution and their future of implications right now (Moore, 2003, pp. 34-5). More over, the project will definitely reduce noise pollution that is caused by cars hooting and people making noise as they try to get themselves out of the congestion. This will make sure that the individuals living around the area are comfortable by getting enough sleep due to low noise making. This will definitely reduce stress due to lack of sleep and proper resting of the individuals. Thus it is very important for the government to implement the project as it does complement other strategies it has set before (Moore, 2003, pp. 34-5). Another government policy is to increase the economic status of its residents equally in the country. Thus the project will definitely allow the policy to go through as it will lead to very many businesses investing in the area. This will definitely increase the standards of living of the residents in the Western Central zone. This will make them to access better hospital facilities because of the increase in the income availability. The coming up of better business entities in the zone will lead to better employee health insurance facilities. One of the major targets in the United Kingdom is to increase the access of better health insurance services. It is evident that the economic status of a country can not be improved with poor health conditions (Birley, 2005, pp.702-713). The project is bound to increase the social status of the people in the area. Stress is bound to lead to drug abuse and alcoholism but due to the investment increasing project in the area such risks is likely to be reduced and avoided completely. The lack of employment opportunities can lead to very many people running to drugs as a source of income and stress reliving object. Drug abuse leads to a lot of social evils like child abuse and rape which are a great hindrance in the healthy growth of any child. In addition, the children can be exposed to taking drugs early stage thus exposing them to dangers such as poor body development. Drugs are known to affect the brain development of small children and stunted growth (Graham, 2008, part 5). The project is supposed to increase the house availability to the residents. The housing plan is supposed to enhance the health status of the individual sin London as it will bring about a good housing plan avoiding congestion. Thus it will be easy to set up a good sewerage system tat will avoid the spread of diseases such as cholera and other water borne diseases. The housing system in the area is expected to be completed by the year 2016. This will be a way of reducing the high chances of the people in the area becoming homeless in the years to come. Good housing is another positive impact of setting up the project as it will ensure that the people are in warm and durable houses sheltering them from the harsh conditions of weather such as cold and rain (Graham, 2008, part 5). Conclusion Even though the project has a negative impact of rising costs it is better fro it to b implemented to reduce the numerous negative implications of the congestion. The government can make sure it deals with the high cost of things once the project has been completed. This is because the project has far much better positive health impacts and it is complementing all other projects by the government. For this reason the government needs to continue with the project of extending the Central Zone. References Barwick D., 2002. Health needs assessment in primary care retrieved from http://www.gmconfed.org.uk on 12th December 2008. Birley M., 2003. Health impact assessment: integrations and critical appraisal. Vol. 21, pp. 313-321. Birley M., 2005. Health impact assessment in multinational corporations: Case study of health impact assessment. Vol. 25, pp. 702-713. Douglas M., 2001. Achieving better health through health impact assessment: health bulleting. Vol. 5, pp. 300-305. Graham S., 2008. Organisation of Health services: Sociology as applied to medicine. Sixth edition, Part 5. Government of United Kingdom, 2005. The health impact assessment gateway retrieved from http://www.hiagateway.org.uk on 12th December 2008. Kemm J., 2003. 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