James Edwin recently posted a message to the
Asia Pacific HIA Email List:
I need some assistance with health impact assessment methodologies. I would like an identification of existing guidelines, models and/or practices in the area of health impact assessment specific to the oil and gas industry. I would appreciate a list of models, a review of the literature, case studies, practical applications, references, annotated bibliography, etc
This led to a number of very helpful responses, which I've included in the comments for this post. If you are aware of any other materials please include them in a comment.
James – not sure about oil and gas but try HIA wiki http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/health_impact_assessment_hia_community_wiki/ or HIA Connect http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/ . These are portals to the HIA world.
ReplyDeleteJames
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of places to start searching - one is the WHO HIA website:
http://www.who.int/hia/en/
And then you may have obtained some information and HIAs on oil and gas from the HIA web blog:
http://www.ipieca.org/downloads/health/hia/HIA.pdf
In addition to the resources already indicated I suggest you look at the Health Canada website especially the HIA Handbook.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/eval/index_e.html
Hi James
ReplyDeleteThis is further to the info provided by others that may be useful with respect to processes.
In WA we have an integrated collaborative approvals process which includes the main agencies/sectors for resource developments and, although the final decisions are made within the environmental portfolio, health has an equal position at the table. Oil and gas field developments are key components of these.
http://www.odac.dpc.wa.gov.au
Hope this is useful.
James
ReplyDeleteIn terms of International best practice, the following may be of use:
* The international Association of Impact Assessments HIA guidelines: http://www.iaia.org/modx
* The Sakhalin project HIA is on-line: www.sakhalinenergy.com/en/documents/doc_38_hia_part1.pdf
* The OGP (the international association of oil and gas producers) also have guidelines on HIA: http://www.ogp.org.uk/Publications/
ERM have worked extensively on HIAs for oil and gas clients globally hence if you need any further information feel free to contact me.
Hi James
ReplyDeleteGreetings from a very nice Cape Town, South Africa.
I have used the following literature review which contain very
interesting information:
"Methods of Health Impact Assessment: A literature review authored by
Linda McIntyre and Mark Petticrew.
The web address on the front cover is http://www/msoc-mrc.gla.ac.uk/
Please shout if you require any assistance.
Hi James
ReplyDeletePlease find a brief overview on some of your queries. However, it would be best if you provided a bit more background to your request. If its for a research project or lecture at the University then the following information is appropriate. However, if you researching HIA to aid in commissioning or performing a HIA then there are other aspects and lessons learned you should be made aware of.
The key point to remember is that HIA is an emerging field and the assessment of health requires methods specifically tailored to the relative circumstance of an area, the resident community and the various project activities. In short, do not take guidance as gospel (some of it no longer represents actual practice).
Existing Guidance
As pointed out by both Sam McCrea and Necia Burford there is Oil and Gas specific HIA guidance available through OGP and IPIECA. This guidance is useful and provides an introduction to HIA and how it is incorporated into Environmental and Social Impact Assessment as best practice (forming Environmental Social and Health Impact Assessment ESHIA).
In addition to the IPIECA guidance, it might be worth you contacting Shell. They developed their own HIA guidance, put in place a minimum HIA competency standard and even had their own online HIA Training course. If you don’t have any joy with them it might be worth contacting Martin Birley. He developed their HIA capabilities and is now a freelance HIA consultant.
I strongly agree with Jeffery Spickett that you get in touch with Health Canada. They have been doing Environmental Health Impact Assessment for a long time now and apart from the literature review that Jeffery sent you, they developed a pretty comprehensive HIA guidance document.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/eval/handbook-guide/vol_1/index_e.html
They also have quite a lot of experience on Arctic and ‘first nation’ HIA. If you get the chance try and talk to a guy called Roy Kwiatkowski. He held a HIA training course in partnership with the Pan American Health Organisation and the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute.
Approach and Founding Principle
In addition to model and literature reviews, I strongly recommend you research the founding principles and basis for HIA. A common mistake is to assume a uniform definition of health. People have different health priorities, What is important to you is not necessarily important to the people you are assessing. Furthermore, depending on the country you are in the definition of health may vary. i.e. I know Thailand include religion within their definition of health. This is one of the reasons why consultation is important. .
Drivers
It would also be worth you looking into the current and emerging drivers for HIA. Although there is some statutory requirement for HIA (national and international), there are other important drivers.
Models
There are numerous models, tools and guidelines that differ in approach, scope, focus and in some cases terminology, examples include:
*
Bielefeld Environmental Health Impact Assessment model (Fehr R. 1999);
*
Birley Health Impact Assessment of Development Projects model (Birley 1995);
*
Birley procedures and methods for HIA (Birley 1998);
*
British Colombia model (Population health Resources Branch 1994);
*
Merseyside guidelines on Health Impact Assessment (Scott Samuel 1998);
*
NHS HIA model (Ison 2000);
*
Kirklees Metropolitan Council Model;
*
Swedish County Councils model Landstingsforbundet, 1998, 2001), and
*
Better Health Better Wales, Developing Health Impact Assessment in Wales (National Assembly for Wales 1998)
Have a look at these for more
http://www.szu.cz/czzp/enhpa/members/inequalities/tab1.doc
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/hs/health-impact/models.htm
The generic process tends to comprise the following key stages, however they are less clearly defined in the guidance.
Project Profile
The purpose of the project profile is to identify those relevant features associated with the project that are potential influences on the determinants of health.The project profile also acts as a formal scoping procedure providing insight and a rationale for aspects not considered within the final assessment.
Community Profile
Evidence suggests that different communities have varying susceptibilities to health impacts and benefits as a result of ethnicity, social and demographic structure, relative deprivation and existing burden of health. A community profile therefore allows an insight as to how potential health pathways identified by the project profile might act disproportionately upon some communities and sensitive receptors.
Stakeholder Engagement
An important component of gathering an appropriate evidence base is seeking the views of stakeholders and communities likely to be affected.
Such engagement aids in identifying unanticipated health effects, develops more effective health mitigation and draws out additional opportunities to improve health.
Assessment
The assessment stage will be refined by the previous stages and normally comprise quantitative and qualitative methods to appraise the distribution, likelihood and significance of potential health impacts and benefits. Such an assessment is best when supported by or integrated within the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.
Conclusions and Recommendations:
The final stage of the HIA builds upon the findings of the previous stages, developing evidence based recommendations tailored to local circumstance to further reduce or remove negative health effects, perceived community risks and maximise health benefit uptake.
Health Management Plan
A health management plan is a bit of a new addition, and combines monitoring and ongoing work to ensure mitigation is effective, appropriate and health benefits maximized.
Literature, References and Bibliography
Are you after all HIA literature or do you have a particular health topic or geographic area in mind, if you are more specific I will be able to send more relevant literature through?
I hope this is of use, feel free to contact me if you have any other queries.
Additional sites and articles that I would recommend taking a look at:
ReplyDeleteInternational Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) Guide to Social Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry
Encompasses some of the issues that could be dealt with in HIAs or intgrated assessments, though many of the issues are covered in the HIA guidance already mentioned.
Alaska Inter-Tribal Council HIA Program
The Alaska Inter-Tribal Council is beginning a new initiative aimed at addressing the public health impacts of industrial development on Alaska Native communities.
International Finance Corporation Project Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Responsibility
International Finance Corporation Project Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines
Obviously these are most relevant to IFC-funded projects but they may be of interest anyway. The guideline page a number of sector-specific guidelines, including oil and gas.
Jobin W (2003) Health and Equity Impacts of a Large Oil Project in Africa, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 81(6): 420-6.
Utzinger J, Wyss K, Moto DD, Yemadji N, Tanner M and Singer BH (2005) Assessing Health Impacts of the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project: Challenges and a way forward, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 25(1):63-93.
Hi James.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably already aware but the Alaska Inter Tribal Council have their own Health Impact Assessment Programme http://www.aitc.org/HIA.htm designed to integrate HIA into Environmental Impact Assessment. I would not be surprised if they have already covered some of your queries and might make a good local research partner.
You might also want to talk to Ben Cave or Suphakij Nuntavorakarn. They are the Co-Chairs of
the Health Section of the International Association of Impact Assessment and as such will be well networked with a number of leading international HIA practitioners and research groups.
web address for Canadian Handbook on HIA is
ReplyDeletewww.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/eval/index_e.html (English)
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/eval/index_f.html (French)
You can also find an introductory course on HIA on the web at
machaon.fmed.ulaval.ca/medicine/hia/home.asp
We hope to have a HIA training course on mining up on the web by January of
2008.
Within Canada a number of EIA's have been done on the oil and gas sector -
and therefore you might like to visit the web page for the Canadian
Environmental Assessment Agency (Agency responsible for administring the
Federal EA Act)
The link for the HIA site is slightly wrong, it should use the French word for medicine 'medecine'
ReplyDeletehttp://machaon.fmed.ulaval.ca/medecine/hia/home.asp