Pollution harms our health – but these harms are not felt equally. The lasting impacts from air and noise pollution are worse felt by vulnerable communities, and contribute to widening socioeconomic inequalities.
Over the past few years, BEST-COST has worked to improve research methodologies that increase our understanding of the socioeconomic costs from pollution, and how this influences health outcomes. By looking at the environmental burden of disease, health monetisation, and socioeconomic inequalities, researchers can provide strong scientific evidence to guide policymakers in creating living and working environments that are more health-promoting, equitable and sustainable.
We sat down with different researchers from the BEST-COST project to learn about their work, breaking down the scientific process and asking them what the conclusions mean for policymaking.
The BEST-COST podcast series launched with three episodes for listeners to dive into and learn more about the work behind calculating the health costs of pollution:
- The cost of pollution: How BEST-COST is assessing socioeconomic inequalities with Vanessa Gorasso (Sciensano) and Carl Baravelli (Norwegian Institute of Public Health) (transcript)
- How polluted is your neighbourhood? – what does air and noise pollution mean for people’s wellbeing with Juanita Haagsma (Erasmus MC) and João Vasco Santos (University of Porto) (transcript)
- healthiar – a tool for tackling pollution with Alberto Castro Fernandez and Axel Luyten (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute) (transcript)
Listen to the podcast now:
The series is available on:
