Integrated environmental health impact assessment does not stand alone.  It has developed from (and complements) many other approaches to assessment that have been developed, for somewhat different purposes, over recent decades.  These include:

• Risk assessment – which traditionally has focused on the relatively immediate and direct health risks from potentially dangerous substances (e.g chemicals) or practices (e.g. manufacturing processes), often in relation to cancer;
• Comparative risk assessment – which extends traditional forms of risk assessment to the evaluation and comparison of multiple risks (from different sources or agents) across large population groups;
• Health impact assessment – which evaluates the potential health implications of policy or other developments, usually at a relatively local scale (and usually without trying to aggregate the impacts);
• Integrated environmental assessment –  which assesses the overall environmental (but rarely human health) impacts of large, complex pressures or developments.

The attached file (Comparison of assessment methodologies) illustrates the relationship between the first three of these and integrated environmental health impact assessment, and shows how the latter provides an encompassing framework for all these approaches.

File Attachments: 

Comparison of assessment methodologies.pps