The city of Moss takes the new public health act seriously.                                            

Now all political matters in this city will be considered whether they have implications for public health or not. No other municipality in Østfold has attended to this matter so seriously, and the city is also among the first ones in Norway that makes this move.  This health impact assessment is supposed to help the politicians in making the right decisions trying to improve people’s health, based upon the principle of health in all policies.

– Mayor Tage Pettersen took the initiative after a training course in HEPROGRESS. He is sure the work being implemented in this direction now has a great potential for improving health of the citizens, says public health coordinator May Mollan.

The management of Moss is arranging a seminar for politicians, leaders and deputies on January 10 for the purpose of preparing implementation of the Public Health.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health praises the management of the city. Senior adviser of the Health Department Asle Moltumyr was a manager of the project for national improvement of public health planning in 8 counties and 32 communes, including Østfold and Moss.

– We appreciate initiatives taken by the management of Moss in this field. In this sense enactment in this commune is ahead of the national schedule. By using health impact assessment they have a potential of actually reducing health inequalities, he says.

Moltumyr also hopes that the current strategy in Moss will not be limited to the political decision-making only.

–  I’m sure the most important factor for success of this strategy in Moss is that health impacts are assessed already in the early stages of projects and plans, he says.