CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program - Background

• The Need 
• Development

The Need

 

The environment plays an important role in human development and health. Researchers have linked exposures to some environmental hazards with specific diseases. One example is the link between exposure to asbestos and lung cancer. Another example is the link between exposure to lead and decreased mental function in children. However, other links remain unproven, such as the suspected link between exposure to disinfectant byproducts (for example, chlorine from showerheads) and bladder cancer. 

 

In 1988, in its report “The Future of Public Health,” the Institute of Medicine noted that the removal of environmental health authority from public health agencies has led to fragmented responsibility, lack of coordination, and inadequate attention to the health dimensions of environmental problems. 

 

In January 2001, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued the report “America’s Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network.” The report, which stated that the existing environmental health system is neither adequate nor well organized, recommended the creation of a “Nationwide Health Tracking Network for disease and exposures.”

 

Currently, no systems exist at the state or national level to track many of the exposures and health effects that may be related to environmental hazards. In addition, in most cases, existing environmental hazard, exposure, and disease tracking systems are not linked together. Because existing systems are not linked, it is difficult to study and monitor relationships among hazards, exposures, and health effects. 

 

Development

Environmental public health tracking is the ongoing collection, integration, analysis, and interpretation of data about the following factors:

• Environmental hazards
• Exposure to environmental hazards
• Health effects potentially related to exposure to environmental hazards

The goal of environmental public health tracking is to protect communities by providing information to federal, state, and local agencies. These agencies, in turn, will use this information to plan, apply, and evaluate public health actions to prevent and control environmentally related diseases. 

In fiscal year 2002, Congress provided CDC with funding of $17.5 million to do the following: 

• begin developing a nationwide environmental public health tracking network
• develop capacity in environmental health within state and local health departments.

CDC’s goal is to develop a tracking system that integrates data about environmental hazards and exposures with data about diseases that are possibly linked to the environment. This system will allow federal, state, and local agencies, and others to do the following: 

• monitor and distribute information about environmental hazards and disease trends
• advance research on possible linkages between environmental hazards and disease
• develop, implement, and evaluate regulatory and public health actions to prevent or control environment-related diseases.

Planning for an environmental public health tracking network is an important priority for CDC because of the opportunity it provides to address some of the most challenging problems facing local, state, and national public health leaders. From the outset, this activity has involved substantial collaboration between CDC and its public health and environmental partners (e.g., see the memorandum of understanding between HHS/CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency).

 

CDC assembled four workgroups to develop recommendations for the environmental public health tracking program. The workgroups included representatives from 30 organizations, including the following: 

• Federal agencies
• State and local public health and environment agencies
• Non-governmental organizations
• Academic institutions.