On Wednesday, Food Security Study Group Co-chair Ed Fogels will give a briefing on Health Impact Assessments and the role they could play in developing Food Security policies in Alaska. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population.

The State of Alaska has developed a HIA program and toolkit within the Department of Health and Social Services. Its primary purpose is to ensure that large-scale resource development projects are designed to maximize the positive health benefits and to minimize the negative health impacts to all Alaskans, however, the HIA program can also be used to evaluate the health impacts of policy initiatives.

Ed Fogels co-authored an article in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health in 2013, The State of Alaska’s early experience with institutionalization of health impact assessment.

Ed is a natural resource consultant and former deputy commissioner at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.