Assessment of Environmental
Legislative and Associated Guidance Requirements for the Protection of
Human Health
UKCC02 (Report)
August 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental
Research (SNIFFER) commissioned this research on behalf of the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Environment and Heritage
Service (EHS) within the Department of the Environment (Northern
Ireland). Both these agencies have a responsibility under a
number of legislative frameworks to ensure that the risks to human
health posed by environmental hazards are taken into consideration in
their decision making processes. This includes not only
responsibilities under specific environmental regimes for example those
concerning Pollution Prevention and Control but also wider duties in
relation to, for example, the Human Rights Act 1998.
To assist agency staff and others including statutory consultees,
applicants and other stakeholders to fulfill their roles and
responsibilities under each of the different legislative regimes the
agencies must ensure there is appropriate guidance available to clarify
the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders and guidance
on how to meet these responsibilities. This project seeks to identify
the legal duties and responsibilities under the various legislative
provisions and also assess the effectiveness of the available guidance
in assisting agency staff and other stakeholders in meeting their
responsibilities relating to the protection of human health.
The main objectives were to
- develop an understanding of the requirements of relevant
legislation with respect to human health and to identify the roles and
responsibilities of the agencies under these legislative frameworks,
- assess the effectiveness of existing guidance available to
agency staff and others to allow them to fulfill their duties with
respect to the protection of human health,
- identify gaps in the guidance and prioritise areas where
additional guidance is required, and
- develop generic guidance that can be applied across a range
of legislative regimes to assist agency staff and others where gaps in
the available guidance have been identified.
This report deals only with the first three objectives and is intended
as a technical reference document. The generic guidance (the fourth
objective) is presented in a stand-alone report “UKCC02:
Environmental Legislation and Human Health – Guidance for
Assessing Risk”.
The project has identified a range of environmental legislative
frameworks where the environment agencies have roles and
responsibilities for the protection of human health. Under some
frameworks the role is direct regulation e.g. Pollution Prevention
Control whereas in others it may be a more advisory role e.g. Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA). The project also highlights the
differences in the legislative requirements across the administrative
regions identifying the specific statutory instruments and the
agencies’ roles and responsibilities in each region. For
example SEPA’s role under SEA differs slightly from that of
EHS and the Environment Agency in that there is a requirement to
consider more plans and programs.
The assessment of the effectiveness of the existing guidance with
respect to the protection of human health involved the identification
of guidance under the specific regimes. Guidance users including
regulatory staff, applicants and other stakeholders were consulted via
questionnaires and telephone interviews for their views on the guidance
– including its accessibility, general usefulness and
adequacy for assessing risk to human health. Most respondents were
aware of the existence of guidance under the specific regimes but many
felt the guidance did not explicitly address the protection of human
health.
A number of gaps were identified including the lack of transparency of
regulatory criteria, the lack of technical guidance to cover specific
substances and their impact on human health and the lack of explicit
consideration of human health in the application of the guidance. Some
respondents indicated they were not always aware of the existence of
new and emerging guidance and many felt they did not have the technical
skills to assess risks to human health and would require further
training to develop their skills set.
The need to consult with other health-based organisations is recognised
by the regulator. Most respondents felt the process did not work well
in practice citing the lack of definitive advice on a site-specific
basis as the main reason. The lack of awareness of guidance on
effective risk communication was also identified as a gap.
The roles and responsibilities for the protection of human health under
the wider regulatory frameworks of human rights and sustainable
development are not well understood. Respondents indicated they had an
awareness of the requirements but did not give site specific
consideration to these issues rather relying on the incorporation of
high level policies into technical guidance.
The second stage of this project aims to develop generic guidance to
address some of the identified gaps. It will focus on
- the need to increase awareness of the requirement for the
protection of human health;
- the basis of the existing standards;
- roadmapping to guidance in other regimes (allowing a regime
specific decision on its relevance to be made);
- development of a tiered methodology to allow transparent
robust decision-making.
The output of this stage is presented as a stand-alone report
“UKCC02: Environmental Legislation and Human Health
– Guidance for Assessing Risk”.
Keywords:
human health, risk assessment
Copies of this report are available from the Foundation, in electronic
format on CDRom at £20.00 + VAT or hard copy at
£35.00, less 20% to FWR members.
N.B.
The report is available for download from the SNIFFER Website