EuroHealthNet, Author at METEOR

Sep 19 2025

23 October: VALESOR Tool Launch – Stakeholder Workshop

By EuroHealthNet Events

VALESOR aims to make major contributions to the scientific and policy efforts to accommodate economic values of environmental stressors more homogenously in policy making, planning, focusing on chemical stressors such as chemicals and air pollutants transmitted via air, water, and soil vectors.

VALESOR will launch its new innovative online tool for stakeholders to assess health and economic consequences of planned variations in chemical stressors. This tool is based on the existing Alpha-RiskPoll model, used as a policy decision support tool within air pollution reduction work conducted by the EU and by the Air Convention. The tool operates with emission reduction scenarios and for each scenario provides users with a set of outputs such as the effects on health (decreased mortality, morbidity) and the expected benefits. The tool allows end users to easily test several valuation methods, adjust values of key parameters and directly see changes in the results.

Join VALESOR on 23 October for a workshop to explore the tool and its uses.

To join on the 23rd, click here.

For more information, click here.

Agenda

08.45 – 09.00 – Welcome & Introduction to Workshop main objectives and scope (Dr. Gildas Appéré, University of Angers, Dr. Stefan Åström, Anthesis)
09.00 – 09.45 – Presentation of Alpha-RiskPoll model and VALESOR tool (Dr. Michael Holland, EMRC, Katarina Yaramenka, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute)
09.45 – 10.15 – Presentation of the VALESOR case studies (Dr. Joseph Spadaro, SERC)
10.15 – 10.30 – Break
10.30 – 11.15 – Presentation of PARC project expected results / tool (Dr. Christophe Rouselle, PARC project)
11.15 – 11.45 – VALESOR use cases demonstration (Katarina Yaramenka, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute)
11.45 – 12.15 – Testing the VALESOR tool, Other EU-funded projects and speakers
12.15 – 13.00 – Open discussion

Sep 18 2025

22 October: METEOR Workshop on Economic Valuation – Linking Science and Policy

By EuroHealthNet Events

October 22, 2025 | Université d’Angers, France & online via Microsoft Teams

On 22 October 2025, leading researchers, policy experts, and practitioners will gather at the Université d’Angers – and online – for the METEOR Workshop on Economic Valuation. The event will address how methods for valuing health-related costs of environmental stressors can strengthen European and local decision-making.

The workshop, hosted at Amphi Lagon, Faculté DEG, and accessible remotely via Microsoft Teams, brings together participants to exchange insights on how scientific evidence can be translated into policy and economic assessments that better capture the true costs of environmental stressors.

Agenda highlights

From science to policy: Linking economic valuation to EU and local deliberations, with contributions from the European Commission, ISGlobal, HEAL, and ADEME.

Valuation methods: Presentations on health endpoints from the SWACHE project, complexity in valuing multiple outcomes, and approaches to measuring morbidity with QALYs and DALYs.

Meta-analyses and case studies: A global synthesis of the value of statistical life (VSL), valuation of quality-of-life improvements, and new evidence from the post-industrial region of Taranto.

This one-day hybrid event will serve as a platform to advance methodological discussions and foster collaboration across disciplines, helping to ensure that economic valuation can more effectively support public health and environmental policies.

Please connect to the event via this link and find all the details and agenda here.

Mar 04 2025

UBDPolicy Featured on European Commission Site

By EuroHealthNet News

The European Commission’s Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) published an article highlighting findings from the EU-funded UBDPolicy project. The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, identified four urban typologies across Europe – compact high-density cities, open low-rise medium-density cities, open low-rise low-density cities and green low-density cities – and assessed their environmental and health impacts. The team found that high-density compact cities have lower carbon emissions per capita, but suffer from poor air quality, higher mortality rates and limited green space, posing significant challenges for sustainable urban living.

Read the full article here.

Feb 18 2025

19-23 May – UBDPolicy: Health impact assessment course in Cambridge

By EuroHealthNet Events

As part of the UBDPolicy project, the University of Cambridge team is organising a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methods course for invited participants in Cambridge from 19-23 May. The course will take place at the University’s West Cambridge Hub in West Cambridge, and will include:

Day 1: Burden of disease, Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA), and Epidemiology

Days 2–5: Integrated Transport and Health Impact Model (ITHIM)

Day 2: Scenario development
Day 3: Metrics and Disbayes (r package for estimation of incidence and case fatality for chronic disease, given partial information, using a multi-state model)
Day 4: Life Tables and Multi-State Life Tables (MSLT)
Day 5: Addressing uncertainty

Feb 13 2025

MISTRAL: new publication on Health Impact Assessment on greenness and mortality

By EuroHealthNet News

A new study on the health impact of greenness and mortality from the MISTRAL project has been published in Nature Communications, revealing how access to green spaces can prevent deaths in Italy.

The results underscore the critical need for strong action to increase the amount and accessibility of green spaces in all human settlements. More green means fewer deaths, making it imperative for policymakers to prioritize greening initiatives as a strategic component of public health and urban planning.

In this health impact assessment, the authors utilised satellite data to estimate the number of preventable deaths across Italy’s 49 million adult population by increasing residential greenness. The exposure was measured using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at a 10-meter resolution within a 300-meter radius from homes in 7,904 municipalities.

The study’s findings are remarkable. By achieving the level of residential greenness currently experienced by the top 25% of the population nationwide, the researchers estimate that a total of 28,433 (95% confidence interval: 21,400–42,350) deaths and 279,324 (210,247–415,980) years of life lost could have been prevented in Italy in 2022. This represents 5% of the total mortality burden in the considered municipalities.

This research highlights the significant benefits of green spaces on human health, a topic that has long been challenging for epidemiologists to quantify.

Read the study here.

Jan 29 2025

14 February – UBDPolicy Workshop: Equity in Health Impact Assessment

By EuroHealthNet Events

Health impact assessment (HIA) of the environment involves comparing the health impact of different scenarios using a systematic approach. Impacts can be calculated at the full population level, but often the distribution of impacts across the population is important as well. Specifically, the distribution of health impacts across different socioeconomic or ethnic groups is of interest. Differences in health impacts across socio-economic, ethnic, or gender groups can be caused by all elements in the HIA process, including the level of exposure to environmental stressors, the impact of an intervention to reduce environmental exposure, exposure-response functions (ERFs), or background rates of disease or mortality. Little is known about which factors contribute more to differential impacts across socio-economic groups. For virtually all diseases, background rates of disease and mortality are higher in deprived populations. For the other paths, evidence is less consistent.

The UBDPOLICY project addresses health impacts related to outdoor air pollution, noise, green, and heat in urban areas. Organised by Utrecht University (UU), this workshop will discuss the evidence for quantifying different pathways of inequitable impacts across populations, including methodological issues. It will also assess approaches for integrating equity into health impact assessment of environmental stressors.

The aim of the workshop is to discuss:

Evidence for the quantification of different pathways for unequal impacts across population groups, including methodological issues.
Approaches for including equity in health impact assessment of environmental stressors.

To attend the event, please register here.

Jan 28 2025

UBDPolicy Newsletter: Translating research into real-world impact

By EuroHealthNet News

As UBDPolicy moves into the second half of the project, it will begin to transform its research into analysis and reporting. With data collection expected to conclude early next year, results will start flowing in 2025. These findings will be crucial for stakeholder discussions and actionable insights.

Read more in the latest edition of the UBDPolicy newsletter.

Jan 22 2025

VALESOR Newsletter: Two years of progress

By EuroHealthNet News

Over the past year, the VALESOR project has reached several key milestones, with the first scientific results from the project published. In this edition of their newsletter, you can read about the project’s first year of research into the economic valuation of environmental stressors, and what the project has planned for 2025.

Don’t miss out on subscribing to future newsletters, you can do so via this link: Follow the project | Valesor

Jan 07 2025

19 February – BEST-COST Webinar: Establishing new exposure-response functions for air pollutants and environmental noise

By EuroHealthNet Events

Air pollution and environmental noise have a huge impact on our respiratory and cardiovascular health. This webinar hosted by the European Burden of Disease Network will present the latest advancements in exposure-response functions (ERFs), focusing on NO₂ and COPD, O₃ and asthma, PM2.5 and lung cancer, and traffic noise and cardiovascular disease. Speakers from the BEST-COST consortium will present their insights from systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and interactive discussions, offering valuable updates on environmental health research.

Join us to explore these critical findings and their implications for public health in this webinar on Wednesday 19 February 2025, 10h-11h30 CET.

Programme

10h00	Welcome and Introduction — Vanessa Gorasso, Sciensano, Belgium
10h05	Introduction BEST-COST and ERFs — Juanita Haagsma, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands
10h10	NO₂ and COPD — Tessa Haverkate, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands
10h20	O₃ and asthma — Hamid Y. Hassen, Antwerp University, Belgium
10h30	General discussion and Q&A
10h45	PM2.5 and lung cancer — Mariana Corda, Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, Portugal
10h55	Traffic noise and cardiovascular disease — Periklis Charalampous, UCLouvain, Belgium, and Erasmus MC, The Netherlands
11h05	General discussion and Q&A
11h20	Closing remarks — Juanita Haagsma, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands

Dec 04 2024

UBDPolicy Mid-Term Meeting

By EuroHealthNet News

On 27-28 November, the UBDPolicy team gathered in Utrecht for the project’s mid-term meeting, bringing together project researchers and members of the External Advisory Board to assess progress and strategise for the future.

This mid-term meeting was a pivotal moment to ensure alignment across work packages, case studies, and methodologies while maintaining a strong focus on actionable outcomes.

Key Highlights:

Progress Across Case Studies and Workshops

UBDPolicy reviewed the advancements in its ten diverse case study cities. Each city has its unique characteristics, from population sizes to transport modes and exposure levels. Different scenarios, such as green space enhancements or low-emission zones (LEZs), were selected for each city based on the stakeholder workshops and local consultations. This tailored approach ensures local relevance and actionable results.

The scenarios will be thoroughly examined using methodologies such as Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA).

The importance of engaging policymakers, local NGOs, and academic partners was emphasized. As cities like Brussels and Warsaw demonstrate, meaningful participation helps identify interventions that can be implemented effectively. Effective communication of results is key to driving change and influencing urban policy. This is why we will prioritize developing policy briefs and infographics.

Exposure-Response Functions (ERFs) and equity

Discussions emphasised the need to integrate equity into every stage of the work, including subgroup analyses and the stratification of ERFs. Topics included how mobility, disabilities, income, and other socioeconomic factors influence health outcomes and access to urban benefits.

Methodologies

UBDPolicy revisited methodologies such as Comparative Risk Assessments and potential alternative approaches such as microsimulations and proportional multi-state life tables. The team also highlighted the importance of harmonizing frameworks across case studies, particularly regarding LEZ and Low-Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs).

Looking Ahead

As UBDPolicy moves into the second half of the project, its focus will shift to analysis and reporting. With data collection expected to conclude early next year, results will start flowing in 2025. These findings will be crucial for stakeholder discussions and actionable insights.

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