[Evaluation of impact on health--a central responsibility of the public health service].

Health impact assessment (HIA) is defined in this paper as the adequate coverage of health aspects within the context of environmental impact assessment. HIA is a typical task for the public health service. A project on HIA undertaken by the North Rhine-Westphalian Research Compound for Public Health found out that presently the opportunity to use HIA for preventive health purposes is still largely neglected. However, in a survey local health departments expressed great interest in receiving HIA-training. A workable concept and supporting tools are both necessary prerequisites for the practice of HIA becoming routine. This paper presents a ten step HIA-conceptl. Supporting tools are presently under development and testing.