How Health Canada Contributes to Environmental Assessment

This content was archived on June 24, 2013.

2010
ISBN: 978-1-100-15152-6
Cat. No.: H128-1/10-598E

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1. Purpose of This Document
2. Health Canada's Role in Environmental Assessment
3. Health Canada Areas of Expertise Relevant to Environmental Assessment
4. When Health Canada Contributes to Environmental Assessment
5. Conclusion
6. Contact

1. Purpose of This Document

This document has been developed to provide guidance on how Health Canada contributes to environmental assessment in Canada. The document outlines the departmental obligations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (herein referred to as the Act), and how the department operationally meets these obligations. The principles within this document will help to understand how Health Canada provides expert advice regarding the impacts of development projects on human health. Further, this document provides guidance on factors that Health Canada will consider in determining the extent of departmental participation in environmental assessment, and the priority of such activities in recognition of other departmental priorities.

2. Health Canada's Role in Environmental Assessment

Health Canada is the federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health. Human health is a shared responsibility between the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Health Canada's mandate is met in part through promoting healthy and safe living and working environments and by reducing harm caused by controlled substances, environmental contaminants and unsafe consumer and industrial products. Health Canada provides health services to First Nations and Inuit communities, federal employees on federal lands and visiting dignitaries.

Health Canada's role in environmental assessment (EA) is founded in statutory obligations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (the Act), which provides the legal basis for the federal EA process. The key purposes of the Act are to do the following:

• achieve environmental sustainability by promoting high-quality environmental assessments;
• integrate environmental factors into planning and decision making;
• anticipate and prevent environmental degradation; and
• facilitate public involvement in the EAs in which the federal government is involved.

The Act requires certain federal projects to undergo an EA before receiving approval. The intent of the Act is to encourage responsible authorities to take actions that promote sustainable development and to ensure that projects are considered in a careful and precautionary manner before federal authorities take action in connection with them. Responsible authorities are most commonly federal departments that provide funding, land, a permit, an approval or a license for a proposed project. Federal departments also become responsible authorities for physical works that they undertake.

The Act includes a number of sections relevant to Health Canada's role. Section (2) of the Act defines an environmental effect, with respect to projects, as any change the project causes in the environment, including any effect of the changes in the environment on health. As a result, any change in health that results from a change in the environment is considered an environmental effect. Since the intent of the Act is to minimize environmental effects, the implications of the changes in the environment on health need to be assessed and mitigative measures considered where appropriate. Health Canada is a federal department with knowledge and expertise that can be used when impacts on health are assessed and considered in federal EA processes.

Section 12(3) of the Act governs Health Canada's primary role in EA. That is, as a federal authority (FA) under the Act, Health Canada is to provide, on the request of responsible authorities, mediators, panels and review boards, expert information regarding the validity and adequacy of the assessments of the impacts of development projects on human health. EAs are generally conducted by consulting firms on behalf of the project proponent, and the responsible authorities request Health Canada to review the assessments and provide advice regarding the possible impacts on human health that may result from the project. In making recommendations, Health Canada provides information on these impacts, any information that may be available on the longer term implications of the impacts, and what actions may be taken to mitigate or prevent these impacts.

The Act requires responsible authorities to determine if the collective environmental effects of a project are "significant adverse effects". Health Canada, as an FA, does not assess the signifi cance of the human health effects related to the project as this responsibility rests with the responsible authority. Rather, Health Canada's comments focus on the accuracy, scientific validity and completeness of, and use of appropriate methods and rationale for the conclusions made concerning human health effects in the EA. When Health Canada has expertise regarding actions that may be taken to mitigate the impacts, this too may be provided.

Under the Act, Health Canada also has occasional obligations as a responsible authority. The Act ensures that Health Canada completes EAs for departmental physical undertakings such as the construction and remediation of nursing stations and health centres on First Nations reserves.

3. Health Canada Areas of Expertise Relevant to Environmental Assessment

The Act requires Health Canada to provide expertise regarding the assessment of impacts of development projects on human health upon request. Any input provided is case-specific, in response to the information provided on the specific development project. The following sections summarize the technical areas of Health Canada's expertise that can be provided for EAs.

Air Quality

Health Canada's expertise on air quality impacts focuses on assessing the risks to human health resulting from exposure to air contaminants using health-based evaluation tools, guidelines and toxicological reference values. Harmful health outcomes attributable to air pollution can be acute or chronic and can range from respiratory irritation and reduced lung function to increased cardio-respiratory hospitalizations and mortality. Health Canada provides expertise on the assessment of a project's potential health impacts based on information provided on changes to air quality. This information includes predicted air pollutant concentrations for different assessment scenarios at locations where human receptors may be affected by changes from baseline air quality. Health Canada relies on the expertise of Environment Canada in the areas of emissions and dispersion measurement and modelling and the provision of related advice on the adequacy of ambient air quality predictions presented in an EA.

Country Foods

Country foods include those harvested by hunting, trapping, fishing or small-scale farming, and produce grown in vegetable gardens and orchards or collected from naturally occurring sources (e.g. wild berries). They do not include any foods sold commercially. Increases in contaminant levels in the tissues of country foods may impact the health of people who consume them. Health Canada provides expertise on the potential toxicological health effects of consuming contaminated country foods. Expertise on pathways through which foods may become contaminated and on the impacts of contamination on animal and plant health is limited. Health Canada's expertise is based on information provided about the harvesting of country foods in the project area, especially by First Nations and Inuit peoples, the amounts of food consumed by individuals and the predicted levels of contaminants in these foods.

Water Quality

Health Canada provides expertise on human health risk assessments for chemical and microbiological contaminants that may be present in drinking water and recreational water. Also, expertise can be provided on treatment requirements and the availability of treatment technologies for contaminants in sources of drinking water, including how changes in source water quality may affect the drinking water treatment process at the treatment facility. Expert advice is based on information provided on the impacts on sources of drinking water that are located downstream from a project, whether these sources are groundwater (e.g. wells, both private and public) or surface water, that will be processed through a drinking water treatment facility. Also, Health Canada can provide expertise on the possible health effects of changes to recreational water quality.

Noise

Health Canada provides expertise regarding the health effects of project-related noise. Health endpoints used to characterise noise impacts include interference with speech intelligibility, sleep disturbance, noise complaints and annoyance. Advice is provided based on information on existing and predicted future daytime and nighttime sound levels at locations where humans are present, as well as on information on the characteristics of the noise (e.g. impulsive or tonal).

Electric and Magnetic Fields

At present, there are no federal guidelines for exposure to electric and magnetic fields because there is no conclusive scientific evidence of any harm caused by exposures at levels found in the Canadian living environment. Further, the evidence suggesting that electric and magnetic fields may contribute to an increased risk of adverse health effects from long-term exposure is very weak. Health Canada's expertise is usually requested in cases of heightened public concern over the electric and magnetic fields health issue, and is generally limited to suggesting that the EA include an analysis of recent findings regarding the risk of health effects from long-term exposure to electric and magnetic fields.

Radiation

Health Canada provides expertise on the health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, which includes alpha (i.e. non-penetrating radiation including radon gas, materials found in smoke detectors, etc.), beta (some medical applications), and gamma and x-radiation (i.e. penetrating radiation including medical applications, nuclear accidents and explosions). As well, expertise is provided on the guidelines for radioactive isotopes in drinking water, foods and air. In addition, expertise for environmental modelling on the dispersion of radioactive isotopes and monitoring may be provided. Occupational health and safety is a federal responsibility at all nuclear facilities. Health Canada acts as an advisor to the federal regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Human Health Risk Assessment

Most EAs require some form of human health risk assessment to determine human health impacts from exposures to contaminants of concern through various environmental media (e.g. air, water, soil, dust, and country foods). A human health risk assessment can include the qualitative assessment of the presence of exposure pathways, receptors and contaminants, simple screening level assessments, and detailed quantitative risk assessments of multi-media exposures. Where any of the above forms of human health risk assessments have been completed, Health Canada can provide technical expertise regarding the scientific validity of such assessments and the conclusions drawn as a result of such assessments.

Contaminated Sites

EAs for the remediation of a contaminated site typically include a Remedial Action Plan. The Remedial Action Plan would include an assessment of the various technologies and/or remedial strategies being considered for use at the site being remediated, along with an assessment of the potential impacts (both short and long term) on human health and the environment associated with the various remediation activities to take place. Health Canada's provision of expertise for environmental assessments (and/or Remedial Action Plans) for federal contaminated sites typically involves other areas of health expertise, including air, water, foods and human health risk assessments. Health Canada has developed guidance documents for each of these areas in relation to the remediation and/or risk management of contaminated sites (available at www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/contamsite/docs/index-eng.php).

4. When Health Canada Contributes to Environmental Assessment

Upon request, Health Canada can provide advice during the following phases of the environmental assessment process:

• scoping and terms of reference/guidelines;
• review of environmental assessment reports, i.e. screening reports, environmental impact statements, comprehensive study reports, technical reviews and memos;
• panel hearings;
• other meetings: as appropriate, Health Canada can participate in meetings when requested, such as technical review committee meetings;
• follow-up: In some circumstances, Health Canada may suggest that follow-up monitoring be conducted to verify that impacts on human health are not of higher concern than what was predicted in the environmental assessment process. Health Canada will provide the technical expertise it has available in the development and implementation of monitoring programs on an as-needed basis.

Health Canada's participation in the EA process focuses on being value-added. Health Canada's advice has the most value when:

• There may be a potential risk to human health: Projects that clearly have a high potential level of risk to human health based on Health Canada's expertise and experience.
• Health Canada's participation is likely to impact the outcome: Past Health Canada experience can be used to predict how likely it is that Health Canada's participation in an assessment process may result in changes that will reduce the risk to human health. Such changes may include project design, the mitigation measures implemented and follow-up plans. Some types of low-level risk impacts cannot feasibly be mitigated or managed and dedicating signifi cant resources to obtain and review an in-depth assessment may not be worthwhile in comparison to the health risk the impact may pose.
• There may be a potential risk to the health of First Nations and Inuit people: Projects that are situated near First Nations and Inuit communities are often higher profile, often due to concerns raised by people following traditional ways of life that may result in higher risk of exposure to environmental contaminants. Health Canada has additional roles, such as the provision of health care, with respect to First Nations and Inuit health.
• There may be elevated public concern: Human health issues are often a real or perceived concern. In cases where public concern is high, Health Canada can assist in activities explaining the potential risks to human health to all stakeholders.
• The project undergoing an EA uses new technologies or is novel: When a project type is novel and/or involves new technologies and/or there is a high degree of uncertainty of the project's effects, Health Canada's participation may be beneficial in an EA process until the potential human health effects are better understood.
• There are no other reviewers providing expertise on human health issues in one or more areas: If Health Canada is the only source of human health expertise, either in general or for a specific issue, it is reasonable that providing this expertise may be of higher priority than in the case where another jurisdiction, such as a provincial human health department, is providing the same or similar advice and expertise.

5. Conclusion

Health Canada's central role in the EA under the Act is to provide advice in Health Canada's areas of expertise (air quality, country foods, water quality, noise effects, electric and magnetic fields, radiation, human health risk assessment, contaminated sites), when requested by responsible authorities or a review panel. Health Canada can also participate in provincial/territorial environmental assessments upon request.

6. Contact

Environmental Assessment Division
Safe Environments Directorate
Health Canada
99 Metcalfe Street, Room 1126
A/L 4111A
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9

Email: ead@hc-sc.gc.ca
Fax: 613-960-4540

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/eval/index-eng.php