Appraisal Framework for Environment and Health

The Appraisal Framework for Environment and Health problems can serve as a starting-point for balanced and transparent decisions in health and environment by policy makers. It should serve as a tool for a broad and systematic description of the knowledge and scientific evidence on health and environment problems, to allow for even-handed treatment of environmental health problems based on standardized description of these problems. The framework explicitly aims to involve stakeholders in the appraisal process. It could also serve to prioritize among environmental health problems at the national as well as the local level.

The framework has the form of a questionnaire-based checklist, so as to systematically address five key issues relevant for the environmental health problem: extent of health effects; severity of health effects; perception of risk; possibility of interventions; and cost effectiveness