Health impact assessment

Health Impact Assessment is like a check-up for people in communities. It helps people understand how changes in the environment—like new buildings, new roads, or change to the air or water—might affect people's health. A health impact assessment looks at both the positive and negative effects that a change might have. For example, a new road might benefit people by making it easier to get to places, but it might also create more pollution and noise, which might be bad for people's health. A health impact assessment helps figure out if the positives outweigh the negatives, and if there are better ways to plan the change.