Health Impact Assessment For Construction Projects In China: Problems And Countermeasures

1. ObjectivesThe health impact assessment (HIA) problems were clarified and countermeasures were put forward to promote the functional maturation and development of HIA in China through systemic analysis of the national and international HIA theory and practice.2. MethodsBoth qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted in the research. The major 3 approaches were as follows:(1) Literature research method. Literatures on environmental impact assessment (EIA) and HIA were collected. EIA and HIA relationship and their differences and similarities in institutional developmental, techniques and methods between China and other countries and international organizations were analyzed.(2) Case analysis. Typical cases of HIA were illustrated to identify problems about HIA approaches and public participation in China compared with other countries.(3) Evidence-based approach. US EPA HIA guidelines were applied in local HIA practice on construction projects to verify the feasibility of the guidelines and provided decision-making reference for local government.Finally the HIA problems in China were summarized and countermeasures aiming at these problems were proposed.3. Results(1) 26300 EIAs for construction projects were performed annually during 2000- 2009, which amounted to more than 99% of total projects. However,600000 environmental complaints were recorded annually in the same period. Environmental pollutants posed explicit threats to human health. There was an urgent need to conduct HIAs for construction projects. HIA was part of EIA for construction projects and should be improved in legal construction, policy support and development of HIA techniques and methods.(2) In legal construction for HIA in China,’Protection of human health’should be added to the purpose article of EIA act. The legislation process of soil protection act should be accelerated to complete the legal system of EIA. Air, soil and water protection acts should lay down requirements for compiling lists of priority pollutants in conformity with the Chinese conditions.(3) In policy support for HIA in China, screening criteria for implementation of HIA based on the character and size of the construction projects should be established. Preventive medicine should be recognized as the EIA related discipline for examinees to apply to EIA engineers and HIA professional training should be intensified. EIA organizations should be staffed with certain amount of HIA professionals. Effective public participation must be involved in HIA and a reasonable weight value of public participation should be assigned in decision-making. Health preventive measures must be proposed and the subject of liability to impose those measures should be identified.(4) In development of HIA techniques and methods in China, draft HIA guideline should be improved and promulgated soon. More health indicators for HIA should be included in environmental standards. Human health should be recognized as an equally important element as air, soil and water in EIA and posted in the same screening phase. Research on prediction model for health risk based on epidemiology should be conducted and promoted. Investigation on basic data about population exposure for HIA must be carried out. Scope of public participation should be expanded and complete information regarding health risk should be accessed by the public.(5) US EPA risk assessment model of superfund and integrated exposure uptake biokinetic model were applied to quantitatively evaluate health risk of antimony in a brownfield and lead from a lead-acid battery plant in Hubei province. Under the exposure conditions of the projects, the predicted hazard indexes (HI) were 3.4 and 46.3 when children were exposed to average and maximum antimony pollution respectively. HI was more than 1.0 and it was highly likely that significant health risk would occur. The proposed soil remediation limit for antimony was 12mg/kg. The predicted geometric mean of children’s blood lead was 70.2μg/L and 22.6% of children’s blood lead might be above 100μg/L. Health risk would elevate with the increased lead discharge and accumulation in soil. HIA contributed to the decision-making of soil remediation and people relocation for local government.4. Conclusion(1) EIA is an effective tool to prevent and control the pollution generated from construction projects. However, EIA could not be performed as a replacement for HIA to predict health risk and safeguard the human health in current China.(2) A large HIA gap still exists between China and advanced nations in legal construction, policy design, techniques and methods. Effective measures should be adopted to improve HIA in China and meet the requirements of social-economic development at present stage.(3) Preliminary HIA practice proves that it could play an important role in EIA of construction projects. HIA promotes a coordinated development of the human, environment and economy through preventing potential health risk of the construction projects and managing the risk at an acceptable level.5. The innovations of the studyInnovation in research content:the research focused upon the gap of HIA on construction projects which was an urgent problem for EIA in social transition in China. Effective legal, policy and methodological countermeasures were proposed based on the comprehensive analysis on national and international HIA theory and practice.Innovation in research method:literature research, case analysis and evidence-based approach were combinatively applied to the research. Conclusions of the research were useful references to HIA on construction projects in China.