Health and the environment belong in the same box: why health impact assessments belong in environmental assessments

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and other health organizations advocate for the integration of comprehensive human health impact assessments into Canada's federal environmental assessment processes to better address the link between ecological health and human wellness.

• The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), and other health professionals have formally requested that the Federal Government integrate comprehensive human health impact assessments into its environmental assessment processes.
• Comprehensive human health impact assessments are designed to evaluate a project's effect on ecological determinants of health, such as greenhouse gas emissions, and social determinants of health, including income and housing.
• Integrating health assessments into environmental reviews allows health authorities to identify potential positive and negative community health impacts, plan and fund necessary healthcare services, and propose modifications to projects to mitigate negative health outcomes.
• The push for integrated assessments is supported by broader medical consensus and global health frameworks, including a 2012 Canadian Medical Association General Council motion for health impact studies in industrial projects and the World Health Organization's designation of climate change as the "greatest threat to global health in the 21st century."
• The integration of health and environmental assessments is presented as a cost-saving measure, based on the principle that preventative medicine is less expensive than acute care.

APA

Howard, C., Hancock, T., & Rattle, R. (2017). Health and the environment belong in the same box: why health impact assessments belong in environmental assessments. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. https://cape.ca/health-and-the-environment-belong-in-the-same-box-why-health-impact-assessments-belong-in-environmental-assessments/

Chicago

Howard, Courtney, Trevor Hancock, and Robert Rattle. Health and the environment belong in the same box: why health impact assessments belong in environmental assessments. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, 2017. https://cape.ca/health-and-the-environment-belong-in-the-same-box-why-health-impact-assessments-belong-in-environmental-assessments/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Howard |first1=Courtney |last2=Hancock |first2=Trevor |last3=Rattle |first3=Robert |title=Health and the environment belong in the same box: why health impact assessments belong in environmental assessments |publisher=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |date=3 January 2017 |url=https://cape.ca/health-and-the-environment-belong-in-the-same-box-why-health-impact-assessments-belong-in-environmental-assessments/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{howard2017health, author = {Howard, Courtney and Hancock, Trevor and Rattle, Robert}, title = {{Health and the environment belong in the same box: why health impact assessments belong in environmental assessments}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2017}, month = jan, url = {https://cape.ca/health-and-the-environment-belong-in-the-same-box-why-health-impact-assessments-belong-in-environmental-assessments/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }