In November 2009, Queensland Health plans to release an interim Health Risk Assessment (HRA) with the final Assessment due in the second half of 2010. This report will evaluate whether industry and community air emissions pose a human health risk to the Gladstone community and, if there is a risk, identify the particular contaminants that cause this risk.

To understand the purpose of a HRA, it is important to understand the difference between a HRA and an epidemiological study.

A HRA examines whether current or future exposures could possibly cause future health problems. While an epidemiological study evaluates if past chemical exposures are likely to have been responsible for past actual health problems.

An example of an epidemiological study is the Queensland Health investigation into past Leukaemia cases in the Gladstone and Calliope region from 1996 – 2004.

The detailed and plain English summary Examples of Health Risk Assessments include:

• Queensland Health’s evaluation of the risks due to chlorobenzene in Queensland homes. This chemical is used in products such as “mothballs” to protect clothes.

• Queensland Health’s investigation of the expected community health impacts from the August 2005 fire at the Narangba Industrial Estate, about 35 kilometres North of Brisbane.

• The Federal Government’s 2004 investigation into the possible human impacts of dioxins in contained foods such as meat, dairy and fish products.

The process used to complete these assessments is similar to the one that will be used for the Gladstone HRA and has four steps:

1. Identification of the contaminants of concern.

2. Identification of safe exposure levels for these contaminants.

3. Calculation of contaminant exposures.

4. Assessment of health risks.

Over coming weeks I will explain each of these steps and how they will be applied in the Health Risk Assessment of Gladstone industrial and community air emissions.

If you would like to comment about the Health Risk Assessment approach or have any specific questions that you would like me to answer, please go to our forum topic at www.gilg.com.au.

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