Legal Review Concerning the Use of Health Impact Assessments in Select Jurisdictions

Efforts to improve the public's health are increasingly focused on ensuring that health is factored into policies, plans, projects and programmatic decisions made outside the health sector. Health impact assessments (HIAs) use an interdisciplinary methodology to evaluate a policy or program's prospective impacts on health in order to inform governmental or private-sector decision making on policies, programs, plans and projects. HIAs are becoming more common in the U.S. but remain underutilized. Most practice to date has occurred outside of any formal legal or regulatory process, yet some existing laws may support or require the use of HIA. Insufficient understanding of how existing law may support HIA may result in missed opportunities to appropriately factor health into decisions made by non-health sectors. To address this issue, the Health Impact Project funded ASU's Public Health Law and Policy Program to conduct a comprehensive review and analyses of statutes, regulations, and other laws that may support the promotion and use of HIAs, using a sample of 36 local, state, tribal and federal jurisdictions. The research shows that existing laws create many opportunities to factor health into a range of decision-making where it typically would not otherwise be considered. HIA provides a systematic way to fulfill the full intent and spirit of these laws, and allow public health officials and advocates to more fully engage other sectors in efforts to improve the public's health.

This presentation should be considered as part of a panel on health impact assessments, along with abstract numbers 264621, 264717.