The world all over is experienced a new and accelerated bout of growth in all spheres including the social, political, economic and environmental among other spheres of life. While this kind of accelerated growth is to be appreciated, it is true that it has underlying negative effects primarily on human health which should be addressed. The best tool for assessment, in this case, would be Health Impact Assessment, which tries to find out the effect of any growth on the health of a nation’s population. This process is especially important since it is this kind of development process that gives chances for health improvements. However, it is this type of development that most often than not compromise the whole development objectives since they may present adverse effects to the health of the populations. As a result, benefit-cost ratios are destabilized as more people become unproductive due to ill-health forcing the health sector to take up the responsibility of covering the gaps they leave behind usually through hidden costs. The case is made worse by the fact that most countries lack in legal and policy frameworks for regulating development programs, initiatives and projects thus failing to access their impact on human healthfully.
Overview and description of health impact Assessment Stages
Health Impact Assessment is an intricate procedure as it seeks to find evidence to confirm that a particular program, proposal or project will have negative effects on human health if allowed to kick off. Health impact assessment happens in intricate processes with each stage building and complementing the next. These stages are as follows:
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Screening- this initial stage involves a first assessment with the aim of determining if a proposed program or project has the potential of posing significant health impacts on the population (International Finance Corporation, 2009). In this case, it is critical to determine whether starting a waste management facility in the community will pose any risk to the health of the local population. It is during this screening stage that one can determine whether he or she will require health impact assessment tool.
Scoping -this is a stage where one determines the kinds and range of hazards the project will bring as well as analyzing whether these hazards bear any benefits. According to Harris et al. (2007), at this stage, it is important to involve the input of healthcare authorities and stakeholders to ensure that HIA can address various health concerns raised at this stage. As a result, the stakeholders through their assessment can give the go-ahead for a particular project or program to take off.
Risk Assessment - during this stage the participants usually come up with various activities where investigation and appraising of possible impacts are done with an actual qualitative or quantitative ranking. The ranking is helpful as it guides the implementers on the relative importance of each impact as well the level it is likely to occur and how to address it in the end (Harris et al. 2007).
Health Action Plan - At this point the implementers considering the impact rankings in the risk assessment stage develop a Health Action Plan (HAP) in writing. This HAP usually establishes some of the proposed course of action necessary to mitigate the various identified impacts as well as include the health opportunities in the proposed program or project.
Implementation and monitoring - once the health action plan is developed the team determines how to implement and monitor the mitigation actions. Additionally, it is during this stage that roles are allocated to concerned companies and key stakeholders to avoid conflict of interest. It is also during this phase that frameworks regarding resources allocation are established as well as the designing of monitoring systems to ensure compliance with the HIA. At this level, it is important to ensure the monitoring plan developed is capable of tracking al, the performance indicators all through the project duration.
Performance Evaluation - this last stage is very critical as it is here that one determines whether the implementations of the project has been successful and find out if the intended results have been achieved
Information Needed for the Waste Management Facility
The proposed waste management facility being such a crucial project regarding its estimated benefits and health impacts would mean that one requires various pieces of information to determine its sustainability. According to Zagozewski, Judd-Henrey, Nilson and Bharadsaj (2011), one would need to know its precise location to find out if it is to be located near residential, recreational, educational, or commercial areas. This is crucial, as it will enable the implementers to best access the magnitude of its health impacts. Additionally one would need to understand its scope regarding the size of the population it will serve. This is important since the more people it serves, the more the health impacts it has and vice versa.
Information on Community Demographics
For the project to be initiated in the light of benefiting the community, it is important to understand the composition of such community. Some of the vital information that one would need to know is the population age brackets to establish the susceptibility to illnesses posed by a waste management facility. According to Mindell (2005), one would need to know the economic status of the population to determine their spending power to determine their ability to access health care services in case of a threat posed by the facility. More so one would need to understand how the community perceives the facility as well as its impacts to understand if this community is in need of a waste management facility per se.
Recommendations for Promoting Positive Health Effects
To ensure that the proposed waste management facility it is important for the concerned stakeholders to adopt only those strategies, which put into consideration human health. The strategies taken should aim at reducing the levels of pollution posed by reckless waste disposal into the water, air, and land. According to International Atomic Energy Agency (2014), all the waste disposal and management procedures should be those allowed by environmental management agencies across the country. This would be important, as it will ensure that the health of the community members targeted by this initiative is assured.
Recommendations for Mitigating Adverse Health Effects Posed By the Waste Management Facility
It is true to say that the proposed waste management facility will have associated health effects once it is implemented. However, this can be avoided by strictly adhering to the regulations set by the concerned environmental conservation agencies. According to Friis (2012) to ensure that adverse health effects are mitigated it would be advisable to locate the facility away from the residential, recreational, commercial, educational, or any other area that has high population densities. More so the waste management procedures used should be the ones that are less harmful to the environment by adopting the use of least technological innovation in waste management practices.
Decision Makers Who Require this Information
It is true to say that a community project revolving around waste management would be of interest to various decision makers and as such, it is essential for them to get information concerning such an undertaking. Some of the decision n makers would include community leaders, government representatives, environmental agencies, as well as the project implementers. The community leaders will want this information as they link the community members to the project. The government representatives will need to give their consent since it is the people they represent who stand to gain or lose from the project. The environmental agencies will require the information to see if it falls in line with the set regulations. The implementers will require the information to know the way forward when it comes to implementing the project.
In conclusion, Health Impact Assessment is a very vital tool when it comes to determining the health impacts that a certain program, proposal or project would have on the community. This tool makes use of five stages, which include screening, scoping, risk assessment, implementing and monitoring as well as evaluation with each stage building on the preceding stage. The use of HIA ensures that the right considerations about impacts, mitigation measures as well as other vital considerations are made. Additionally, it is important to involve key decision makers including the community leaders, government representatives, environmental agencies, and the implementers to ensure the success of the facility. This will ensure that every vital detail and individuals are considered to ease the harmful effects the project would have on the health of the community members.
References
Friis, R. H. (2012). Essentials of environmental health. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Harris, P. et al. (2012). Health impact assessment: A practical guide . Sydney: Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE).
International Atomic Energy Agency. (2014). Major considerations: The issue of waste storage and disposal. Retrieved on 31 October 2017 from https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/55304641215.pdf.
International Finance Corporation. (2009). Introduction to health impact assessment. Retrieved on 31 October 2017 from http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/a0f1120048855a5a85dcd76a6515bb18/HealthImpact.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.
Mindell, M. J. J. (2005). Health impact assessment. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2005 (62), 907-912.
Zagozewski, R., Judd-Henrey, I., Nilson, S. & Bharadwaj, L. (2011). Perspectives on past and present waste disposal practices: A community-based participatory research project in three Saskatchewan first nations’ communities. Environmental Health Insights . 2011(5): 9–20.
