Health impact assessment of proposal to burn tyres in a cement plant

A cement plant located in a small English town applied for a variation in its license to allow it to use chopped tyres as fuel in the cement kiln in part replacement for coal. The local health authority (PCT), a statutory consultee in the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) process, requested an Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the proposal to inform its response. A combination of interviews with key informants, literature search and participatory methods was used. The HIA broadly concluded that the proposal was unlikely to cause adverse impacts. The attempt to be impartial and the failure to confirm health fears disappointed many residents. The HIA had to be completed very quickly and it proved impossible to produce meaningful participation within this time scale. It is also suggested that very few PCTs have adequate resources to make the assessment of health impacts necessary for them to properly fulfil their role in the IPPC process.