Including Health in Environmental Assessments of Major Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Documentary Analysis

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dc.contributor.authorRiley, Emma
dc.contributor.authorHarris, Patrick
dc.contributor.authorKent, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorSainsbury, Peter
dc.contributor.authorLane, Anna Patricia
dc.contributor.authorBaum, Fran
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-06T06:31:38Z
dc.date.available2018-09-06T06:31:38Z
dc.date.issued2017-05-10
dc.descriptionThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_US
dc.description.abstractTransport policy and practice impacts health. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are regulated public policy mechanisms that can be used to consider the health impacts of major transport projects before they are approved. The way health is considered in these environmental assessments (EAs) is not well known. This research asked: How and to what extent was human health considered in EAs of four major transport projects in Australia. Methods We developed a comprehensive coding framework to analyse the Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) of four transport infrastructure projects: three road and one light rail. The coding framework was designed to capture how health was directly and indirectly included. Results We found that health was partially considered in all four EISs. In the three New South Wales (NSW) projects, but not the one South Australian project, this was influenced by the requirements issued to proponents by the government which directed the content of the EIS. Health was assessed using human health risk assessment (HHRA). We found this to be narrow in focus and revealed a need for a broader social determinants of health approach, using multiple methods. The road assessments emphasised air quality and noise risks, concluding these were minimal or predicted to improve. The South Australian project was the only road project not to include health data explicitly. The light rail EIS considered the health benefits of the project whereas the others focused on risk. Only one project considered mental health, although in less detail than air quality or noise. Conclusion Our findings suggest EIAs lag behind the known evidence linking transport infrastructure to health. If health is to be comprehensively included, a more complete model of health is required, as well as a shift away from health risk assessment as the main method used. This needs to be mandatory for all significant developments. We also found that considering health only at the EIA stage may be a significant limitation, and there is a need for health issues to be considered when earlier, fundamental decisions about the project are being made.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe study was funded by a grant from the Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Patrick Harris was funded for this research by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia (APP1090644).en_US
dc.identifier.citationRiley, E., Harris, P., Kent, J., Sainsbury, P., Lane, A. P. & Baum, F., (2018). Including Health in Environmental Assessments of Major Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Documentary Analysis. Int J Health Policy Manag, 7(2), 144–153en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2017.55en
dc.identifier.issn2322-5939
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2328/38242
dc.language.isoen
dc.oaire.license.condition.licenseCC-BY
dc.publisherKerman University of Medical Sciencesen
dc.relation.grantnumberNHMRC/APP1090644en
dc.rightsCopyright: © 2018 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en
dc.rights.holderCopyright: © 2018 The Author(s).en
dc.subjectHealthen
dc.subjectTransporten
dc.subjectInfrastructureen
dc.subjectEnvironmental Assessment (EA)en
dc.subjectContent Analysisen
dc.titleIncluding Health in Environmental Assessments of Major Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Documentary Analysisen
dc.typeArticleen
local.contributor.authorOrcidLookupBaum, Fran: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2294-1368en_US
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