Risk assessment for improved treatment of health considerations in EIA

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Risk Assessment (RA) processes are rarely used to complement each other despite potential benefits of such integration. This paper proposes a model for procedural and methodological integration of EIA and RA based on reported best practice approaches. The proposed model stipulates ‘embedding’ RA into EIA and is organized in accordance with the generic stages of the EIA process. The model forms the basis for the proposed Evaluation Package which can be used as a benchmarking tool for evaluating the effectiveness of integration of RA within particular EIAs. The current paper uses the package for evaluating seven Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) of waste incineration facilities in the UK produced between 1990 and 2000. Though RA was found to be an element of these EIAs, its prominence varied considerably from case to case. Systematic application of RA in accordance with the best practice was not observed. Particular omissions were demonstrated in assessing health impacts not directly associated with air emissions, identifying the receptors of health impacts (affected population), interpreting health impacts as health risks, dealing with uncertainties, and risk communications.