title: Health impact assessment of transport policies in Rotterdam: Decrease of total traffic and increase of electric car use.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Green house gas (GHG) mitigation policies can be evaluated by showing their co-benefits to health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Health Impact Assessment (HIA) was used to quantify co-benefits of GHG mitigation policies in Rotterdam. The effects of two separate interventions (10% reduction of private vehicle kilometers and a share of 50% electric-powered private vehicle kilometers) on particulate matter (PM2.5), elemental carbon (EC) and noise (engine noise and tyre noise) were assessed using Years of Life Lost (YLL) and Years Lived with Disability (YLD). The baseline was 2010 and the end of the assessment 2020.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intervention aimed at reducing traffic is associated with a decreased exposure to noise resulting in a reduction of 21 (confidence interval (CI): 11-129) YLDs due to annoyance and 35 (CI: 20-51) YLDs due to sleep disturbance for the population per year. The effects of 50% electric-powered car use are slightly higher with a reduction of 26 (CI: 13-116) and 41 (CI: 24-60) YLDs, respectively. The two interventions have marginal effects on air pollution, because already implemented traffic policies will reduce PM2.5 and EC by around 40% and 60% respectively, from 2010 to 2020.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The evaluation of planned interventions, related to climate change policies, targeting only the transport sector can result in small co-benefits for health, if the analysis is limited to air pollution and noise. This urges to expand the analysis by including other impacts, e.g. physical activity and well-being, as a necessary step to better understanding consequences of interventions and carefully orienting resources useful to build knowledge to improve public health.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; German Environment Agency, Section Exposure Assessment and Environmental Health Indicators, Corrensplatz 1, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: mtobollik@uni-bielefeld.de.
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tobollik
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Applied Research Organization (TNO), Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Menno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keuken
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sabel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cowie
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Welfare Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Jouni
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tuomisto
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sarigiannis
authors.affiliation: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Künzli
authors.affiliation: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.affiliation: WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: mudup@ecehbonn.euro.who.int.
authors.forename: Pierpaolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mudu
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control; D002947:Cities; D058735:Environmental Policy; D017752:Greenhouse Effect / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control; D062489:Health Impact Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D018986:Motor Vehicles / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009426:Netherlands; D009622:Noise / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control; D014186:Transportation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D001335:Vehicle Emissions
keywords: Air pollution; Disability-adjusted life years; Health impact assessment; Noise; Transport