NCEH in Partnership with Hawaii
The National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) is part of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). NCEH’s work
focuses on three program areas: identifying environmental hazards,
measuring exposure to environmental chemicals, and preventing
health effects that result from environmental hazards. NCEH has
approximately 450 employees and a budget for 2004 of approximately
$189 million; its mission is to promote health and quality of life
by preventing or controlling diseases and deaths that result from
interactions between people and their environment.
NCEH and partners in Hawaii collaborate on a variety of
environmental health projects throughout the state. In fiscal
years 2000–2004, NCEH awarded more than $1.2 million in
direct funds and services to Hawaii for various projects. These
projects include activities related to assessing health affects
associated with volcanic emissions, assessing the quality of
newborn screening programs, and inspecting cruise ships. In
addition, Hawaii benefits from national-level prevention and
response activities conducted by NCEH or NCEH-funded partners.
Identifying Environmental Hazards
NCEH identifies, investigates, and tracks environmental hazards
and their effects on people’s health. Following are examples of
such activities that NCEH conducted or supported in Hawaii.
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Assessment of Health Effects
Associated with Volcanic Emissions—NCEH is funding the
Hawaii State Department of Health (HI DOH) to establish a
lung-function monitoring program and asthma intervention for
children from eight schools in Hilo, near the Kilauea
Volcano. Funding began in fiscal year 2000 and continues through
fiscal year 2004.
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Addressing Asthma from a Public
Health Perspective—NCEH is funding HI DOH to develop
asthma-control plans that include disease tracking,
science-based interventions, and statewide partnerships to
reduce the burden of asthma in home, school, and occupational
environments. Funding began in fiscal year 2002 and continues
through fiscal year 2004.
Measuring
Exposure to Environmental Chemicals
NCEH measures environmental chemicals in people to determine how
to protect people and improve their health. Following are examples
of such activities that NCEH conducted or supported in Hawaii.
Funding
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Antiterrorism Funding to Increase
State Chemical Laboratory Capacity—In fiscal year 2003, CDC
provided more than $1 million to Hawaii to help expand
chemical laboratory capacity to prepare for and respond to
chemical-terrorism incidents and other chemical emergencies.
This expansion will allow full participation of
chemical-terrorism response laboratories in the Laboratory
Response Network.
In addition, NCEH funds laboratory development and the purchase
of state-of-the-art equipment in Hawaii’s public health
laboratory to develop a network of chemical laboratories and
transfer technology to measure chemical agents.
Studies
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Antioxidant Study Among Vegans in
Hawaii—Little is known about the effects of solely
vegetarian diets on people’s homocysteine levels. Lower
homocysteine levels have been linked to decreased risk for
cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease. In January 2002, NCEH’s
laboratory measured homocysteine levels for a study of people in
Hawaii who consume strictly vegetarian diets. Study results
showed that homocysteine levels were not significantly lower in
people who ate a solely vegetarian diet compared with the levels
in people whose diets contained a full spectrum of foods.
Services
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Newborn Screening Quality
Assurance Program—NCEH provides proficiency-testing services
and dried-blood-spot, quality-control materials to monitor and
help assure the quality of screening program operations for
newborns in Hawaii. The importance of accurate screening
tests for genetic metabolic diseases cannot be overestimated.
Testing of blood spots collected from newborns is mandated by
law in almost every state to promote early intervention that can
prevent mental retardation, severe illness, and premature death.
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Helping State Public Health
Laboratories Respond to Chemical Terrorism—NCEH is working
with Hawaii’s public health laboratory to prepare state
laboratory scientists to measure chemical-terrorism agents or
their metabolites in people’s blood or urine. NCEH is
transferring analytic methods for measuring chemical-terrorism
agents (including cyanide-based compounds and other chemicals)
to Hawaii. In addition, NCEH instituted a proficiency-testing
program to measure the comparability of the state’s analytic
results with results from the NCEH laboratory.
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Preventing
Health Effects that Result from Environmental Hazards
NCEH promotes safe environmental public health practices to
minimize exposure to environmental hazards and prevent adverse
health effects. Following are examples of such activities that
NCEH conducted or supported in Hawaii.
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Public Health Inspections of
Cruise Ships—NCEH established the model Vessel Sanitation
Program in 1975 to combine industry cooperation with CDC’s
ability to aggressively protect the health of travelers. The
program helps the industry develop and implement comprehensive
sanitation programs to minimize risks for gastrointestinal
diseases. Every vessel that has a foreign itinerary and carries
13 or more passengers is subject to two unannounced inspections
each year. These inspections result in safer vessels and
sanitation programs that protect the health of passengers and
crew members. In 2003, the Vessel Sanitation Program conducted
eight inspections of cruise vessels with stops in Hawaii.
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Childhood Lead Poisoning
Prevention Program—The Hawaii Childhood Lead Poisoning
Prevention Program (HI CLPPP) received NCEH funding from
2000 to 2003. In 2001, the program screened 9,174 children for
lead poisoning. Forty-two children under the age 6 years had
elevated blood lead levels.
HI CLPPP used NCEH funds to develop and maintain an ongoing
surveillance system, assure case-management services to children
with elevated blood lead levels, and integrate lead poisoning
prevention practices into all activities.
Resources
NCEH develops materials that public health professionals,
medical-care providers, emergency responders, decision makers, and
the public can use to identify and track environmental hazards
that threaten human health and to prevent or mitigate exposure to
those hazards. NCEH’s resources cover a range of environmental
public health issues. These issues include air pollution and
respiratory health (e.g., asthma, carbon monoxide poisoning, and
mold exposures), biomonitoring to determine whether selected
chemicals in the environment get into people and to what extent,
childhood lead poisoning, emergency preparedness for and response
to chemicals and radiation, environmental health services,
environmental public health tracking, international emergency and
refugee health, laboratory sciences as applied to environmental
health, radiation studies, safe disposal of chemical weapons,
specific health studies, vessel sanitation, and veterans’ health.
For more information about NCEH programs, activities, and
publications as well as other resources, contact the NCEH Health
Line toll-free at 1-888-232-6789, e-mail
NCEHinfo@cdc.gov, or visit
the NCEH Web site at
www.cdc.gov/nceh.
September 2004
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