ABSTRACT
The way in which Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) have addressed human health issues has evolved over time, from an initial focus on impacts to the biophysical environment to a more nuanced approach that includes a broad range of social, economic, institutional and environmental determinants of health. Despite the legislation's original objectives, the practice of EIA became entrenched in looking at biophysical elements of the environment (e.g. air quality, water quality), rather than directly examining potential impacts to human health. An important first step in understanding issues relevant to community health is an attempt to define what "health" means. Because health outcomes are influenced so strongly by economic, institutional, social and environmental conditions, there is often a high degree of crossover and interdependence between those issues examined in an Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and those that may be assessed by other disciplines, particularly socio-economic disciplines.
