DEVELOPMENT OF A METHODOLOGY FOR
USE BY STAFF ASSESSING IMPACTS ON HUMAN HEALTH ASSOCIATED WITH PPC
LICENSING
UKCC01
July 2006
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) requires a high level of
protection of the environment taken as a whole, which includes human
health. Hence there is a need to consider human health
impacts within the assessment of PPC applications. As part of
the development of a methodology for use by staff assessing impacts on
human health associated with PPC licensing an initial screening tool
has been developed. The screening tool provides a means of
making an initial assessment of the impacts that may arise from a PPC
installation, in order to determine whether a more detailed assessment
is required or whether the impact is judged to be so small that further
expenditure of resources on its assessment is not warranted.
Although primarily aimed at regulatory staff within the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency, the Northern Ireland Environment and
Heritage Service and the Environment Agency for England and Wales (the
UK Agencies) and statutory consultees, the screening tool has been
designed so that it can be adopted by the PPC applicant.
The objectives of the research were to:
- identify the UK Agencies’ and key
stakeholders’ requirements and duties with respect to
assessment of human health impacts for PPC applications;
- develop a methodology and workable screening tool to be
used by the UK Agencies staff and other stakeholders when assessing
human health impact assessments;
- identify which relevant environmental quality standards are
to be applied, to present this information in a transparent manner so
as to promote consistent application, and where no relevant standards
exist to detail the approach to be applied;
- develop associated electronic based guidance on the
application and use of the screening tool for UK Agencies staff and
other stakeholders including statutory consultees, specifically
National Health Service Boards, Local Authorities and other relevant
organisations.
The screening tool focuses on the direct impacts of PPC installations
which are of concern within the PPC regulatory regime. Based
on the requirements of key stakeholders, the following impacts which
have a bearing on human health have been included in the screening tool:
- local effects of emissions to groundwater;
- effects of odours on local receptors;
- local effects of the use of raw and auxiliary materials;
- local effects of waste disposal to land within the boundary
of an installation;
- risks from accidental events;
- effects of noise on local receptors;
- local effects of site closure;
- local effects of emissions to air;
- local effects of emissions to surface water; and
- local effects on the food chain.
The approach adopted in the screening tool to judge whether a more
detailed assessment is required varies from a quantitative assessment
involving, for example, the comparison of maximum concentrations in the
environment with 1% of the Environmental Assessment Level (EAL) to a
qualitative assessment involving consideration of whether certain
criteria are met. Health based EALs are used in the screening
tool.
The screening tool has been incorporated into electronic guidance on
its application and use. This was developed as an Excel based
application which was designed to have a small file size and a standard
Microsoft Windows appearance. The spreadsheet uses a
flowchart approach to guide the user through the impacts that are
considered. In order to assist the user the cells within the
spreadsheet are colour coded to delineate whether they are providing
information or requiring information to be entered. The
electronic guidance provides an introduction to the screening tool and
then prompts the user to enter the details of the application being
assessed. Throughout the electronic guidance clear
information is provided to aid the user on use of the screening
tool. At appropriate positions in the electronic guidance the
user is provided with further supporting information and hyperlinks to
relevant documents. A comments text box is included within
each section of the screening tool to allow the user to enter
supporting information. The results from the screening tool
are provided in a summary format.
Amendments have been made to the screening tool as a result of a one
day consultation workshop with key stakeholders on the workability of
the screening tool and based on the results of case studies using PPC
applications that have been undertaken with the screening
tool. The longer term review of the performance of the
screening tool should include more trials of the tool encompassing a
wide range of types of installations. The best approach to
this would be for the regulators first to determine the PPC
applications using their current procedures and then to undertake
assessments of the same applications using the screening
tool. In addition, the Food Standards Agency should be
encouraged to trial the screening tool and to provide comments on the
food chain section.
The screening tool needs to be kept up to date by ensuring that where
assessment methodologies and guidance from established sources have
been incorporated into the tool any changes to these are also made
within the tool. The listings of EALs within the screening
tool need to be kept up to date, as do the links to external documents.
Keywords:
human health, impact assessment, screening tool, Pollution Prevention
and Control, installation licensing, Environmental Assessment Level
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N.B.
The report is available for download from the SNIFFER Website