Environmental Health Department, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 401 Park Dr, 4th floor, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Glob Health Res Policy. 2024 Oct 5;9(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s41256-024-00383-w.
Financial resources alone cannot guarantee effective public health policy. In Abu Dhabi, massive economic growth in the desert climate resulted in concentrated urbanization and led to challenges in the regulation of air pollution. The Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi commissioned us to scope the regulatory challenges for air pollution. Part of this project relied on the participation and involvement of key stakeholders. We found three barriers: (1) limited appreciation of uncertainties in risk estimates and discussion on the importance of considering control costs and the societal trade-offs between health and wealth inherent in such decisions, (2) compartmentalization of efforts, and (3) challenges to decide how to prioritize risks in policy agendas. We propose a consortium-like approach that brings stakeholders together and places risk, uncertainty, and tradeoffs between health and wealth at the forefront of decision-making. Expected outcomes include improved collaboration and information sharing, strategic prioritization of emission controls, and a better understanding and consideration of uncertainty to guide future public health research.
仅财政资源并不能确保有效的公共卫生政策。在阿布扎比，沙漠气候下的大规模经济增长导致了城市化的集中，从而给空气污染的治理带来了挑战。阿布扎比环境署委托我们研究空气污染的监管挑战。该项目的一部分依赖于关键利益相关者的参与和投入。我们发现了三个障碍：（1）对风险估计中的不确定性的认识有限，以及对考虑控制成本和在这些决策中固有的健康与财富之间的社会权衡的重要性的讨论；（2）工作的割裂；（3）决定如何在政策议程中优先考虑风险的挑战。我们提出了一种类似联盟的方法，将利益相关者聚集在一起，并将风险、不确定性和健康与财富之间的权衡置于决策的前沿。预期的结果包括改善协作和信息共享，对排放控制进行战略优先排序，以及更好地理解和考虑不确定性，以指导未来的公共卫生研究。
