Abstract:

These Guidelines aim to promote and enhance the incorporation of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) into environmental and planning impact assessment generally, thereby improving the consideration of health issues. In particular they seek to provide those involved in impact assessment across all levels of government and developers, along with their advisers, with an introduction to HIA and general guidance on the key steps involved. The intent of the Guidelines is to achieve this without the addition of another layer of ‘bureaucracy’ to the impact assessment processes already in operation across Australia, through the integration of HIA with the processes already in place. The current consideration given to human health in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is often unstructured and confined to negative impacts. An EIA may not properly recognise the positive effect on health that development can have, for example financial status. Health is determined by many factors including genes, age, a person’s social and economic circumstances, lifestyle and access to services, as well as environmental health factors such as air and water quality, housing, etc. HIA seeks to ensure both the positive and negative impacts on health (as viewed from a wider perspective than just physical illness or injury) are effectively considered during impact assessment.