National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program: Bridging the Information Gap

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.

GeoMedStat: an integrated spatial surveillance system to track air pollution and associated healthcare events

“…This surveillance system also aligns with the US Government's initiative on environmental tracking (a follow up of the Pew Commission's report), which is being implemented by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (McGeehin, et al, 2004).…”

“…The Commission recommends actions for tracking asthma rates and studying environmental risks, and also addressing environmental causes of asthma development and exacerbation in order to achieve the goal of cutting the number of asthma cases in half by 2020. Another Pew Environmental Health Commission report (2000) states that the U.S. is facing a gap in critical knowledge regarding environmental health that hinders its national efforts to reduce or eliminate diseases that might be prevented by better managing environmental factors (McGeehin et al, 2004). GeoMedStat can be considered as an example of a system designed to address the recommendations of both these reports.…”

Epigenotoxicity of environmental pollutants evaluated by a combination of DNA methylation inhibition and capillary electrophoresis–laser-induced fluorescence immunoassay

“…Surprisingly, the epigenetic changes induced by environmental chemicals could be heritable over several generations [12], providing a new perspective to the toxicological study of environmental pollutants [13,14]. Identification and evaluation of the epigenetic effects and mechanisms of environmental contaminants is one of the major objectives of toxicological and biomedical research [15,16]. On the other hand, DNA methylation may be a useful biomarker for the toxicity evaluation of environmental chemicals and early diagnosis of pollutant-induced human disease [17].…”

Summary and findings of the EPA and CDC symposium on air pollution exposure and health

“…In 2002, CDC launched the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program) with broad state and local partnerships to integrate environmental, exposure and health information data into a nationwide, standardized, web-based data network (McGeehin et al, 2004). The Tracking Network is a public health surveillance system that will serve as a ''one-stop shop'' for data and information on environmental exposures, health effects, and, by linking these data, the possible spatial and/or temporal relation between them.…”

“…In addition, differences in the degree of statutory authority directed to environmental and health data reporting, along with limited allocation of resources toward this purpose, have led to variable standardization and completeness of data sets across local and state jurisdictions. The EIEN and the Tracking Program have spurred the development of new and strengthened federal-state partnerships and facilitated progress toward an integrated program linking environmental and health information to support health promotion and risk management initiatives (McGeehin et al, 2004;Litt et al, 2007). However, this endeavor continues to face significant challenges.…”