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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Judy Qualters, PhD and Alex Charleston. Environmental Health Tracking Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, MS E-19, Atlanta, GA 30333, 404-498-1028, JQuarlters@cdc.gov

The link between environmental risk factors and chronic disease is still largely unknown. Chronic diseases are responsible for seven out of ten deaths in America.

Much of public health surveillance focuses on infectious diseases. A need exists for a more comprehensive approach to the collection and analysis of noninfectious disease data and the integration of that information with environmental hazard and biomonitoring data. The availability of geocoded data in a standardized tracking network will enable the community and its public health professionals to begin to understand possible associations between the environment and adverse health effects.

The purpose of the CDC's National EPHT Program is to provide information from a nationwide network of integrated health and environmental data that drives public health action. The National EPHT Network will integrate the three distinct components of hazard monitoring, exposure, and health effects surveillance into an informatics network that will provide valid information on environmental exposures and adverse health conditions and the possible spatial and temporal relations between them. Geospatial analysis tools can utilize data from this network and may identify areas and populations likely to be affected by environmental contamination and to provide information on the health and environmental status of communities. The data can be used to drive public health policy and actions that ultimately will reduce the burden of adverse health effects on the public.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Describe the information gap that the National EPHT Network will be designed to fill and necessary steps for implementing EPHT networks at the state and national level;
• Learn about specific focus areas for environmental and health outcomes population surveillance;
• Review lessons learned from state and local pilot projects linking health and environmental data; and
• Demonstrate the opportunity the National EPHT Network presents to bring together the often disparate fields of environmental monitoring, environmental health and chronic disease prevention in order to work towards a coordinated information system.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation