Policy

Generally, all Collaborative members are striving to institutionalize HIA in planning and policy-making processes. In 2007, HIP co-sponsored the California Healthy Places Act (AB 1472 Leno) which would have created a new state program to support local health impact assessment practice. SFDPH plays a day-to-day role in advancing the integration of HIA and EIA practice and has implemented new local regulations requiring health analysis of air quality in development decisions. Below we list specific policies that Collaborative members have developed to advance health considerations in decision-making.

Policy	Developed by	Scale	Summary	Contact Info
AB 1472 – Healthy Places Act	SFDPH and HIP as part of Healthy Places Coalition	State	Sponsored by HIP, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network and Latino Issues Forum, AB 1472 - the California Healthy Places Act of 2008 (modeled after the 2006 Federal Healthy Places Act) - would have required various state agencies and departments to collaboratively support childhood development, prevent injury, illness, and chronic disease, ensure environmental health, and reduce health disparities by providing knowledge, guidance, and resources for health impact assessments of land use and transportation system planning. It would also establish a program within the State Department of Public Health to guide and support cities and counties in conducting health impact assessments. While passing out of the CA State Assembly, the bill failed to pass out of Senate Appropriations.	Rajiv Bhatia (415) 252-3931 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Air Quality Ordinance	SFDPH	Local	The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a new law imposing regulations to prevent health impacts from air pollution hotspots created by busy roadways. The rules require developers to screen all residential projects for proximity to traffic and calculate the concentration of particulate matter (PM 2.5) from nearby traffic sources. If levels of traffic-attributable particulate matter at a project site exceed a health-based action level, developers are required to incorporate ventilation systems to remove pollutants from outdoor air. San Francisco is the first city in the country to take such action to protect residential development from the harmful effects of air pollution from traffic.	Rajiv Bhatia (415) 252-3931 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Revising CEQA transportation metrics to account for environmental and health impacts	SFDPH with other agencies and NGOs	Local and State	CEQA thresholds for traffic should be based on environmental and health impacts of auto trips – including air quality, noise, and pedestrian safety impacts. The US Environmental Protection Agency has developed or endorsed tools to model the impacts of traffic volume changes on air quality and noise, and health authorities have health-based standards for these environmental attributes as well as pedestrian injuries. SFDPH staff has been using health evidence and existing and SFDPH-developed analytic modeling approaches in its ongoing work to assess and mitigate adverse air quality, noise, and traffic hazard impacts from San Francisco land use and transportation planning and policy decisions.	Megan Wier (415) 252-3972 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Noise Control Ordinance	SFDPH	Local	The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a new law imposing regulations to prevent health impacts from noise. The new ordinance updates standards and protocols for noise measurement by doing the following: replaces zoning based noise standards with a new relative standard for excessive noise that varies depending on where the noise is being generated; establishes a new absolute limit for interior noise to protect residents; establishes a new low frequency standard for music and vibration; creates an office at the Department of Public Health to coordinate and monitor the response to noise; requires the DPH to make recommendations to planners to prevent noise exposure; and establishes a City Agency Noise Task Force to coordinate enforcement and to address noise problems not currently regulated by the City.	Rajiv Bhatia (415) 252-3931 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it