Human health and wellbeing in environmental impact assessment in New South Wales, Australia: Auditing health impacts within environmental assessments of major projects

Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Environmental Impact Assessment Review

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2009.02.002· OSTI ID:21364592

Harris, Elizabeth ^[1]; Thompson, Susan ^[2]; Harris-Roxas, Ben ^[1]; Kemp, Lynn ^[1]

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1. Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation, part of the UNSW, Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, UNSW, Locked Mail Bag 7103, Liverpool BC, NSW 1871 (Australia)
2. Faculty of the Built Environment, UNSW, Sydney, NSW 2052 (Australia)

Internationally the inclusion of health within environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been shown to be limited. While Australian EIA documentation has not been studied empirically to date, deficiencies in practice have been documented. This research developed an audit tool to undertake a qualitative descriptive analysis of 22 Major Project EAs in New South Wales, Australia. Results showed that health and wellbeing impacts were not considered explicitly. They were, however, included indirectly in the identification of traditional public health exposures associated with the physical environment and to a lesser extent the inclusion of social and economic impacts. However, no health data was used to inform any of the assessments, there was no reference to causal pathways between exposures or determinants and physical or mental health effects, and there was no inclusion of the differential distribution of exposures or health impacts on different populations. The results add conceptually and practically to the long standing integration debate, showing that health is in a position to add value to the EIA process as an explicit part of standard environmental, social and economic considerations. However, to overcome the consistently documented barriers to integrating health in EIA, capacity must be developed amongst EIA professionals, led by the health sector, to progress health related knowledge and tools.

• OSTI ID: 21364592
• Journal Information: Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Journal Name: Environmental Impact Assessment Review Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 29; ISSN 0195-9255; ISSN EIARDK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AUDITS
AUSTRALASIA
AUSTRALIA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
NEW SOUTH WALES
POPULATIONS
PUBLIC HEALTH