Health aspects of environmental impact assessment

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Health aspects of environmental impact assessment
a report of the findings of the European
Commissions IMP3 project on IMProving the
IMPlementation of environmental IMPact
Assessment in Europe
Presented by Salim Vohra on behalf of the IMP3
team7th International Health Impact Assessment
Conference, Cardiff, April 2006
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Project background

• European Commission regularly reviews the
  workings of EU Directives.
• This is the second review of the EIA Directive
  since its amendment in 1997
• Carried out by six partners from five countries
  Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK
• 1 year research project

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Project partners

• ÖIR, Österreichisches Institut für Raumplanung
  Austria(Austrian Institute for Regional
  Studies and Spatial Planning)
• UBA, Umweltbundesamt (Austrian Federal
  Environment Agency) Austria
• CITTA, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do
  Porto Portugal(Research Centre for Territory,
  Transports and Environment)
• SZAP, Slovenská Agentúra Životného Prostredia
  Slovakia(Slovak Environmental Agency)
• Nordregio, Nordic Centre for Spatial
  Development Sweden
• WCfH, Wales Centre for Health UK

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Research background

• Questionnaires
• 970 EIA stakeholders were sent questionnaires
• 183 responded from 24 EU countries (19)
• Interviews
• 38 stakeholders in 10 EU countries
• 26 stakeholders in Canada and the US

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Number of responses by country
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Definition of health used in EIA

• Majority view - environmental risks to health
  i.e. air, water, soil and noise pollution
• Minority view - in 12 countries - mental health
  and social wellbeing recognised in legislation
• Small but significant shifts in recognition of
  need to assess health more broadly in EIA
  practice compared to previous studies

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Definition of health used in EIA by country
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Health impacts assessed in EIA

• Physical health impacts are always or most often
  considered
• Social and mental health-wellbeing impact are
  less often or rarely considered
• Inequalities in health impacts between different
  groups within a community are very rarely, if at
  all, considered

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Influences on health considered in EIA
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Barriers to strengthening health

• No or insufficient guidance on how to consider
  health issues in EIA (65)
• Insufficient knowledge and understanding of
  health and health determinants (49)
• Definition of human health in EIA regulations is
  inadequate or too narrow or missing(40)
• Failure to include health experts in EIA teams
  (34)

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EU-level policy options identified
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Overall findings

• Human health is being assessed within EIAs in
  Europe
• Most are health risk assessments of the affect of
  emissions into the air, water and soil
• or completely separate HIAs carried out after the
  EIA has already been completed
• Few examples of integrated environmental and
  health impact approaches and methodologies
• There are signs of small but significant shifts
  in attitudes among EIA stakeholders about the
  need to consider human health in a broader way in
  EIA

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Emerging challenges strengthening health in EIA

• Should we integrate HIA into EIA or keep them
  separate?
• How do we create better links and more
  collaboration between environmental impact and
  health impact practitioners?
• More and better guidance but what precisely on?
• How do we develop better baseline health
  information and health evidence bases, that fit
  the EIA legislative framework at EU and national
  levels?

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?? A team effort and great fun!!! ??

• Antonia Cornaro, Erich Dallhammer, Valérie
  Dumont, Ulrike Fasching, Peter Schneidewind,
  Gregori Stanzer, Gabriele Tatzberger
• Wolfgang Lexer, Sabine Mayer, Bernhard Schwarzl
• Maria Rita Correia, Paulo Pinho, Sara Santos Cruz
• Daniela Bugánová, Mária Hrncárová, Zuzana
  Lieskovská, Katarína Palúchová, František Parišek
• Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, Åsa Pettersson, Arto
  Ruotsalainen
• Ceri Breeze, John Kemm, Nicola Pearce, Lynnette
  Thomas, Salim Vohra