National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program: Bridging the Information

[Guest guest]

This tracking program is in place, but not for our condition, Hmmmm,

I wonder why!!!???

National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program: Bridging the

Information Gap

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/7144/abstract.html

A. McGeehin, Judith R. Qualters, and Sue Niskar

Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National

Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and

Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Abstract

In January 2001 the Pew Environmental Health Commission called for

the creation of a coordinated public health system to prevent

disease in the United States by tracking and combating environmental

health threats. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention initiated the Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT)

Program to integrate three distinct components of hazard monitoring

and exposure and health effects surveillance into a cohesive

tracking network. Uniform and acceptable data standards, easily

understood case definitions, and improved communication between

health and environmental agencies are just a few of the challenges

that must be addressed for this network to be effective. The nascent

EPHT program is attempting to respond to these challenges by drawing

on a wide range of expertise from federal agencies, state health and

environmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the

program's academic Centers of Excellence. In this mini-monograph, we

present innovative strategies and methods that are being applied to

the broad scope of important and complex environmental public health

problems by developing EPHT programs. The data resulting from this

program can be used to identify areas and populations most likely to

be affected by environmental contamination and to provide important

information on the health and environmental status of communities.

EPHT will develop valuable data on possible associations between the

environment and the risk of noninfectious health effects. These data

can be used to reduce the burden of adverse health effects on the

American public. Key words: environmental monitoring, environmental

public health surveillance, information system integration,

tracking. Environ Health Perspect 112:1409-1413 (2004). [Online 3

August 2004 ]

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This article is part of the mini-monograph " National Environmental

Public Health Tracking, " which is sponsored by the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Address correspondence to M.A. McGeehin, CDC, 1600 Clifton Rd., NE,

MS F52, Atlanta, GA 30333. Telephone: (770) 488-3400. Fax: (770) 488-

3460. E-mail: mmcgeehin@....

We acknowledge CDC's Environmental Health Tracking Branch staff and

the Environmental Public Health Tracking cooperative agreement

partners for their contributions to the conceptualization and

development of the National Environmental Public Health Tracking

Network.

Contributions are acknowledged to the development of this mini-

monograph from the members of the National Environmental Public

Health Tracking Program 2003 Publication Committee: A.S. Niskar

(Guest Editor for mini-monograph), Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention; T.A. Burke, s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public

Health; J.I. Joyner, City of Houston Department of Health and Human

Services; J. Leighton, New York City Department of Health and Mental

Hygiene; G. Lomax, California Environmental Public Health Tracking

Program; T.E. McKone, School of Public Health, University of

California, Berkeley; A.E. , Maine Department of Human

Services; L.E. White, DABT, Tulane School of Public Health and

Tropical Medicine.

This article was supported by an environmental public health

tracking cooperative agreement from CDC. Its contents are solely the

responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the

official views of CDC.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 1 April 2004; accepted 3 August 2004.

doi:10.1289/ehp.7144 available via http://dx.doi.org/

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