UNIT 1

ENVIRONMENT AS RELATED TO
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
LECTURE 3: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT (E-O-HIA) WITH
SPECIFICITY TO HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT (HRA) IN RELATION TO
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION & PUBLIC HEALTH

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Introduction to Environmental and Occupational Health Impact

Assessment (E-O-HIA) with Specificity to Health Risk Assessment
(HRA) in Relation to Environmental Management & Protection & Public
Health

In this session, an overview of OH-R-IA, EHRA, HRA and HIA is given in order to find
their crucial similarities and differences as well as understand their interwoven
connections to public health. Read the documents on good practice and guidance to
understand the relationships and impacts of these crucial processes of public and
environmental management health assessments.

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Aim of O-HRAs

The aim of occupational HRAs is to systematically and proactively identify health

hazards, assess their potential risks to health, prioritize these, including the
identification of material unwanted events (MUEs), and determine appropriate control
measures (including the identification of critical controls to prevent MUEs) to protect
the health and well-being of workers.

Occupation Health Impacts of Mining and Metals

The mining and metals sector, as with all employment sectors, will on occasions
encounter cases of ‘stress’ and other adverse mental health and well-being effects
that are attributable to, or contributed to by, occupational factors, including shift work.

Chronic health effects usually occur after repeated exposure over days, weeks and
months. Examples of such conditions would be noise-induced hearing loss and hand-
arm vibration syndrome.

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Types of HRA

There are three broad types of HRAs that are each conducted at different levels and at
different times:

• baseline HRAs
• issues-based or targeted HRAs
• continuous HRAs.

Continuous HRA is part of an effective health risk management programme and includes
learning from incidents, which is linked to continuous improvement.

New Developments, Processes, Activities and Working Methods

Changes in processes and tasks, as well as additional development, should trigger a

review of the existing baseline and continuous HRAs.
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Setting up a HRA Team or Advisory Group

Ideally, the HRA should be carried out by a multidisciplinary team with a range of
specialist skills, including those associated with the process or task being assessed.

Identification of Issues

A walk-through survey of the area, process or task enables the assessor to get a
sense of the types of potential health hazards, the levels of exposure, the types of
workers and workers’ general levels of health, physical and mental functioning.

Hazards can also be numerically rated in terms of their likely health effects. This
supports the accurate assessment and prioritization of risks by highlighting those
hazards that could give rise to significant harm to workers.

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Introduction

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a systematic approach to predicting and

managing the potential positive and negative health effects of policies, plans,
programs and projects on local communities and the wider society.

The purpose of this guide is to:

• promote the use of HIA in the mining and metals sector

• introduce managers and health and safety advisors to the HIA process

• provide a practical resource for conducting initial in-house rapid HIAs

• support the commissioning of in-depth HIAs either as stand-alone assessments or

more usually as part of Integrated Environmental, Social and Health Impact
Assessments (ESHIA).
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The Business Case for Managing Community Wellbeing Impacts

A proactive approach to preventing ill health and maximizing health and wellbeing benefits
can improve the financial performance of a project and parent company. Key bottom line
benefits include:

• Speedier achievement of a mining and metals project’s licence to operate

• Lower planning and associated legal and consultancy costs

• Access to international funding

• Lower risk of disruptive protest or sabotage

• Lower risk of damage to a project and parent company’s reputation

• Lower risk of future community-led liability and litigation

• Reduced absenteeism and health care costs for employees from local communities

• Improved general employee morale.

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What is Health Impact Assessment?

The Gothenburg Consensus definition of HIA is “a combination of procedures,

methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its
potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects
within the population.

The International Association for Impact Assessment has recently updated this
definition and states that HIA is: “A combination of procedures, methods and tools
that systematically judges the potential, sometimes unintended, effects of a policy,
plan, program or project on the health of a population, including the distribution of
those effects within the population, and identifies appropriate actions to manage
those effects.

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Purpose of HIA

The purpose of HIA is to support and add value to the decision-making process on
whether, and in what way, a policy, plan, program or project goes ahead. It does so
by providing a systematic analysis of the potential community health impacts as well
as developing options for maximizing the positive health impacts, minimizing the
negative impacts and enhancing health equity/reducing health inequalities.

HIA makes a distinction between the potential health impacts of investment in the
construction and operation of a mining and metals project and the potential health
and wellbeing impacts from social investments and community development
programs associated with the project. This is in order to understand the primary
positive and negative impacts and the contribution of mitigation and enhancement
measures in minimizing the negatives and maximizing the positives.

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Principles that underpin HIA

HIA draws on an explicit value framework that:

• Promotes a transparent HIA and decision-making process that involves and

informs local communities (Democratic/Participatory).

• Promotes a focus on unequal impacts especially on those individuals and groups

who are already vulnerable because of their personal, social, economic and
environmental circumstances (Health Equity/Inequalities).

• Promotes the equal consideration of the health needs of future generations, and
the long-term costs, alongside the needs of current generations and short-term
benefits (Sustainable Development).

• Promotes the transparent use of qualitative and quantitative evidence that is

credible, robust, balanced and based on a range of disciplines (Ethical Use of
Evidence).
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What is an EHIA?

A health impact assessment is defined as: “A combination of procedures, methods

and tools by which a policy, programme or project may be judged as to its potential
effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the
population.

What are environmental health impacts?

Environment health impacts are the overall effects, direct or indirect, of a policy, plan,
programme or project on the health of a population. Anything which alters a
determinant of health may, as a consequence, have an impact on health. If members
of a community are exposed to a risk (e.g. agricultural pesticides) that cause health
impacts (health problems or death), and that risk factors is removed from the
environment (e.g. through legislative action), it can be expected that the overall
number of health impacts in the community would decline.

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