Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

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. These diseases strike more than a third of our population and the costs of caring for people with chronic diseases account for over 75% of the nation's health care budget.

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 Environmental Public Health Tracking (Tracking) Program is to provide information from a nationwide network of integrated health and environmental data that drives public health action. The Tracking Network integrates the three distinct components of hazard monitoring, exposure, and health effects surveillance into an informatics network which provides valid information on environmental exposures and adverse health conditions and the possible spatial and temporal relations between them. Geospatial analysis tools utilize data from this network and may identify areas and populations likely to be affected by environmental contamination and 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.