enHealth Council - Strategy & Implementation Plan

Environmental Health Systems - Health Risk Assessment

Environmental Health Risk Assessment - Guidelines for assessing human health risks from environmental hazards

Currently there is no consensus in Australia on a methodology to assess public health risks associated with hazards from the environment, such as chemicals and pollutant emissions. The Department of Health and Ageing commissioned the publication Environmental Health Risk Assessment Guidelines for assessing human health risks from environmental hazards.

Purpose:

This document provides a national approach to environmental health risk assessment.

Risk assessments are being undertaken for a wide variety of projects by government and industry. Environmental health agencies need to be able to assess their content and approach against a benchmark. This document presents a general environmental health risk assessment methodology applicable to a range of environmental health hazards. The core methodology is intended to be able to accommodate specialised ‘modules’ that will deal with issues such as physical and microbiological hazards and mixtures as they become available. The links to risk management and community consultation/risk communication will be identified.

Audience:

This document is primarily intended to be used by environmental health agencies reviewing risk assessments, by people preparing risk assessments for environmental health agencies and by those regulatory agencies reviewing risk assessments. It is also intended to be of assistance to a broader audience seeking information about processes of environmental risk assessment in Australia.

Risk assessors should have a basic grounding in epidemiology and toxicology.

Contact Officer:

Leo Heiskanen

Contact Details:

Phone: (02) 6289 7792
Fax: (02) 6289 4215
Email: environhealth@health.gov.au

You can access the publication by clicking on the following link

http://enhealth.nphp.gov.au/council/pubs/pdf/envhazards.pdf

If you would like to obtain a hard copy of this publication call: 1800 020 103 or email: phd.publications@health.gov.au