Human Health in
the EIA Convention and SEA Protocol
Project EIAs have rarely provided
sufficient emphasis on such impacts, despite the
fundamental importance of human health, focusing
instead on the physical and biological environment
(see below). The Protocol
on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) attempts to redress this imbalance
by placing a special emphasis on human health, reflecting the Declaration of the Third
Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health,
London, 16—18 June 1999 (London
Declaration on Action in Partnership 
), which
included:
-
Cross-cutting action: 7.
We will carry out environmental impact assessments
fully covering impacts on human health and safety.
We invite countries to introduce and/or carry
out strategic assessments of the environment
and health impacts of proposed policies, plans,
programmes and general rules. We invite international
financial institutions also to apply these procedures.
There will be appropriate participation of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) and members of the public
in the procedures set out in this paragraph.
-
Economic perspectives on environment
and health: 45. We will develop, so far
as is needed, our capacities to carry out economic
analysis, in order to place this tool at the
service of efforts to meet our commitments,
and in particular to strengthen our national
systems of strategic environmental impact assessment
so as to include health concerns, and to ensure
the integration of environment and health considerations
into policies (paragraph 21(a)). We will promote
the full internalization of environment and
health costs, and the preparation of strategies
for achieving this.
Human health has often been taken
into account in EIAs and SEAs. However, “even when
health aspects are addressed, assessments tend to
estimate only the negative effects resulting from
expected changes in [physical] environmental media,
neglecting the effects of modifications on other
health determinants, such as socio-economic ones,
and the possibility of promoting health benefits”.[1]
Health is dependent on both environmental and socio-economic
determinants. [2]
Further, the human health component of an EIA or
SEA is not generally undertaken by a health professional,
but rather by an environmental or social scientist,
further diminishing the consideration of health.
For a more thorough discussion of health and the Protocol on SEA, see the Resource Manual, which includes a part oh health and where links to further resources may be found.
Links to resources for health in EIA
The European Environment and Health Committee (EEHC) acts as the steering committee for the series of ministerial conferences on environment and health, held by the World Health Organisation (WHO) every five years. The Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health was held in Budapest 2004. Summary report of the side event UNECE Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment: Implications for the health sector organized by the Czech Republic in cooperation with WHO, UNECE and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. The event was held in Budapest, 23 June 2004, as part of the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (see summary report 
).
See also the 2010 publication by WHO/Euro on health and strategic environmental assessment .
[1] Dora & Racioppi (2002)
— see note [2].
[2] The importance of socio-economic
determinants of health is noted by, for example,
Dora, C., & Racioppi, F. 2002. Health
Impact Assessment as part of Strategic Environmental
Assessment: moving the European policy framework
towards a greater integration of health consideration
in the development of policies, plans and
programs, in Proceedings
of Symposium at ISEE-ISEA Conference 2002
on Health Impact Assessment (HIA) - a maturing
tool for decision-making , Vancouver,
Canada, 14 August 2002.