[Environment and the "Health in All Policies" approach-an overview]

One quarter of the global disease burden could be avoided with management strategies for environmental risk factors such as air and water pollution, food contamination, injuries and poor road safety. Many decisions influencing health are made outside the health sector; thus, the joint consideration and implementation of health and environmental factors in the relevant policies are becoming increasingly important.

By means of a selective literature search, we identified important policy documents and selected research articles as a basis for the introduction and current discussion of the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach. Parallels with the Environment in All Policies (EIAP) approach are debated.

The consideration and reinforcement of environmental topics in HiAP and the link with health in the EiAP approach increase the chances of policies with mutually positive effects, especially with regard to the significance of social factors for health and the environment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a good starting point for a joint strategy for reinforcing health and environmental aspects. Health and Environmental Impact Assessments are accepted procedures in many countries. The HiAP strategy implemented in South Australia provides a well-documented institutional approach to the integration and linkage of health and environmental issues. These examples can be used as well-established starting points for a definition of HiAP incorporating the equitable involvement of environmental issues. Barriers to this goal relate, for example, to the particular interests of the various participating sectors.