ID: 1706
Presenting Author: Loren Knopper
Session: 604 - Everything Everywhere All at Once: Harnessing Holistic Impact Assessment
Status: pending
Here we compare and contrast the process of Health Impact Assessment and One Health and provide a roadmap of how to draw from each both when conducting holistic health assessments for propos
In 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, social, and mental wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. When it comes to assessing potential health effects of proposed mining projects in Canada, this comprehensive definition is embraced at national, provincial and territorial levels. Indeed, regulators now expect that health be assessed following a holistic approach, which is above and beyond the scope of traditional human health and ecological risk assessments that focus on physical health outcomes related to changes in chemical concentrations in the environment. For example, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada recommends using a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) process to assess the interconnection of both biophysical and social determinants of health to understand potential effects from projects that fall under the Impact Assessment Act. Similar to HIA, the concept of One Health is focused on the interconnectivity of human, animal, and ecosystem heath, but as they generally relate to infection prevention, disease and pandemic control, and the human-animal bond. While separate in application, the fundamentals of HIA and One Health are similar, and both are valuable tools for assessing human and ecological health holistically. Here we compare and contrast each approach and provide a roadmap of how to draw from both when conducting holistic health assessments for proposed mining projects.
Loren is an environmental health scientist, with over 25 years of academic and consulting experience
Coauthor 1: Brian Husband
Coauthor 2: Tania Noble