The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the need for a new conceptual framework to evaluate health-based interventions. The proposed Work Environment Impact Assessment (WEIA) is analogous to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a concept and method developed 30 years ago in the environmental policy arena to evaluate potential consequences of human activity for the natural environment. WEIA entails identifying and evaluating both intended and unintended consequences, or outcomes, associated with a particular intervention. It assumes that the workplace is an ecology, and that changes in one aspect may lead to changes in other aspects. WEIA calls for a systematic and comprehensive approach to the total work environment. To illustrate its utility, we use WEIA to evaluate an intervention to reduce the public's exposure to the pesticide Alar, which had been used on apples until it was withdrawn from the market in 1989. While this intervention did indeed reduce the public's exposure to Alar, it also led to other unintended consequences, namely new ergonomic hazards for apple pickers, as well as new worker, and perhaps public, exposure to potent neurotoxins. The goal of using WEIA is not to engage in a risk-risk debate that stalls worthwhile interventions. Rather, we propose that by conducting a Work Environment Impact Assessment, all possible positive and negative "ripple" effects stemming from an intervention can be considered, so that the intervention can be designed to achieve maximum benefit.
Learning Objectives: 1) Articulate the main points proposed by the work environment impact assessment 2) Identify the key social actors that should be involved in work environment impact assessments 3) Apply the work environment impact assessment to analyze the impacts of environmental bans or regulations and formulate policies to minimize them
Keywords: Occupational Health, Environmental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.