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California Tracking No. 2 Summer 2003The Newsletter of the California Environmental Health Tracking Program |
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IN THIS ISSUE: Feature Article
Program Updates
National and Regional Updates on Environmental Health Tracking
In Other News |
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Pacoima Beautiful: A Community Perspective on Tracking Pacoima Beautiful, a community-based organization located in the northeast San Fernando Valley, "provides environmental education, leadership development, and advocacy to create a clean, healthy and safe environment to improve the quality of life" for over 97,000 residents of Pacoima. Established in the mid-1990's, Pacoima Beautiful focuses on implementing "resident-driven" programs that help residents create clean and environmentally safe neighborhoods; assist youth in participating to improve the environment in Pacoima; and help residents create healthy homes for their children.
Pacoima Beautiful staff and community members recognize the value of having accurate, relevant data. They have conducted limited health surveys and sampled air, water, and soil. They also recognize the need for ongoing help in locating and interpreting data specific to the community and comparing it to other communities.
"We need time to review, time to process, time to understand", states Aldana-Taday. "Environmental health tracking sounds great - the more information you have the better. But not if you don't know how to read it, not if you don't know what it means to say - 1000 people have XYZ thing, ABC facility puts out so many pounds of this chemical, or this chemical can cause cancer or birth defects. What do we do next as a community group? What do I do with the information as a resident? How can we use the information to improve our environment and the health of our children?"
Pacoima Beautiful's vision of an environmental health tracking network includes:
Additional community perspectives on environmental health
tracking can be found here. |
PROGRAM UPDATES
Statewide Needs Assessment: Seeking Your InputIn planning for an Environmental Health Tracking Network in California, it is essential that we hear the voices of stakeholders - NGOs, Tribal Organizations, and Local Health and Environmental Health Departments - to better address their needs.
The California Environmental Health Tracking Program is conducting a statewide needs assessment in order to identify, describe, and prioritize the following:
We are asking Local Health and Environmental Health Departments, Tribal Organizations, and NGOs to participate in a survey to provide information that will facilitate the development of a strategic plan for Environmental Health Tracking in California, including an Environmental Health Tracking Outreach/Education and Training Strategy.
Click here to participate in the needs assessment or to learn more about our initiative.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact the CEHTP Needs Assessment Coordinator: Eddie Oh, MPH at 510-620-3698.
Technical Assessment: Can Health and Environmental Data Systems Be Integrated?The CEHTP has recently awarded a sub-contract to the Sacramento consulting firm, Synergy, Inc. Synergy is surveying and interviewing data managers and other IT personnel within government environmental and health departments to collect information about the existing technological and surveillance system infrastructures of these departments.
The results will provide important information regarding the departments' abilities to integrate their surveillance systems with a statewide environmental public health tracking network. The final report for this project will be available at the end of 2003.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact the CEHTP IT/GIS Manager: Craig Wolff, MS Eng at 510-620-3655.
Alameda County Demonstration Linkage Project The Alameda County Demonstration Linkage Project is a key component of the CEHTP. The project will link datasets for traffic pollution, birth outcomes (low birth weight and pre-term birth), and asthma-related health care use for Alameda County and examine possible associations between these environmental hazards and health outcomes.
Data Collection Status
We are nearing the
completion of collecting health data, with the data
abstraction from Kaiser Permanente in its final stages. The
data from the California Center for Vital Statistics and the
DHS Medical Care Statistics Section are in various stages of
geocoding and processing.
This brings the project to an exciting stage, when work on statistical analysis of birth and asthma outcomes and the generation of maps and reports can begin. The assembly of environmental data is also progressing. We now have CalTrans information that describes traffic volumes on streets and highways throughout Alameda County. From these data, we will be able to estimate traffic pollution in Alameda County in 2001.
The Linkage Process Geocoding, the process of assigning latitude and longitude coordinates to addresses, allows us to compare environmental information to health outcomes for people who live in different parts of Alameda County. After processing, we will link the datasets and examine the environmental hazards and health outcomes together. Geocoding will also allow us to visualize the data on a map with a "smoothed surface"- that is, without boundaries such as census tracts or zip codes.
Future Plans Once the data are analyzed, materials will be developed to present the findings. Project staff will recruit local stakeholders from county agencies and community based organizations to assess these materials. Lessons learned will contribute to the development of the statewide CEHTP.
For research questions, please contact: Eric M. Roberts, MD, PhD, Demonstration Linkage Project Manager at 510-620-3699.
For community participation questions, please contact: Michelle Wong,
MPH, Demonstration Linkage Project Health Educator at
510-620-3661. |
Regional and National updates on Environmental Health Tracking
CDC Releases Request for ProposalsThe CDC announced the availability of funds for a cooperative agreement program with state and some local health departments. The program will demonstrate and evaluate methods for linking data from existing health surveillance systems to existing human exposure or environmental hazard surveillance/monitoring systems. The program will also serve to improve existing surveillance systems by increasing epidemiologic, analytic, and technological capacity at the local, state, and regional level. The project period will be 3 years, and the funding is additional to the funds that support current demonstration linkage projects.
The deadline for proposals was July 29, and the expected award date is in mid-September.
The demonstration linkage projects initiated from this program announcement will link environmental exposure/hazard data with one or more of the following health effects:
Updates on Senate Bill 702 Report and Senate Bill 189Senate Bill 702 (Escutia): Signed in October 2001, SB 702 states the Legislature's intent to establish an environmental health tracking system for chronic diseases and environmental hazards and exposures. The SB 702 Expert Working Group has been working hard to develop a legislative report with recommendations for the creation of a tracking system, estimates of associated costs for such a system, and recommendations for which health and environmental measurements should be used in the system. Be on the lookout for the final report, which will be released for public comment this fall and available at our website.
Senate Bill 189 (Escutia): Also known as the Environmental Health Tracking Act of 2003, SB 189 requires the California Department of Health Services, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the University of California to jointly develop and sign a memorandum of understanding to assess the feasibility of establishing an environmental health tracking network. The bill also authorize the California Environmental Health Tracking Program to collect an relevant information from state agencies, boards, departments, and offices. The bill has been signed by Governor Davis on 9/16 and chaptered on 9/17.
For
official California legislative information, go to
www.leginfo.ca.gov |
IN OTHER NEWS
Special Survey on Californians and the Environment The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a new report, PPIC Statewide Survey: Special Survey on Californians and the Environment, in July 2003. The report details results from a statewide telephone survey in which California residents were asked questions regarding growth, land use, and the environment. The survey focuses in particular on public perceptions, individual actions, and policy preferences relating to air quality issues.
For the full report, go to: http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=427
Key Findings
Also see the National Survey of Public Perceptions of Environmental Health Risks, California Component: http://healthyamericans.org/docs/index.php?DocID=15
San Francisco Adopts Precautionary Principle "We acknowledge that our world will never be free from risk. However, a risk that is unnecessary, and not freely chosen, is never acceptable." Jared Blumenfeld, Director, San Francisco Department of the Environment
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted the Precautionary Principle on June 17, 2003. The Precautionary Principle is a framework used to develop policies that protect health and the environment and has been used in many Western European countries. Jared Blumenfeld, the Director of San Francisco Department of the Environment, describes the importance of and reasoning behind the adoption: "Both locally and internationally, the public bears the direct consequences of environmental decisions. A government's course of action is necessarily enriched by broadly based public participation when a range of alternatives is considered. This concept of environmental democracy is deeply ingrained in San Francisco's Precautionary Principle."
For more information on the San Francisco Precautionary Principle Ordinance, go to: http://www.sfgov.org/sfenvironment/aboutus/policy/legislation/precaution_principle.htm
CEHTP Planning Consortium Meeting The 3rd meeting of the CEHTP Planning Consortium will be held in Oakland on October 23rd, 2003.
For questions regarding participation,
please contact: Mimi Johnson, MPH, CEHTP Program
Coordinator, at (510) 622-4480 or
mjohnson@dhs.ca.gov |
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Disclaimer: Links to non-CEHTP resources found at this site are provided solely as a service. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these resources and none should be inferred. CEHTP is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages or documents found at these links. |
Pacoima Beautiful: a Community Perspective on
Environmental Health Tracking
Community members are
taking steps to prioritize environmental issues and health
concerns. Environmental concerns include freeways, a
nearby airport, abandoned trash, oil drums, hazardous waste
sites, land use conflicts and mold, dust mites, peeling
paint. Health concerns include asthma, lead poisoning,
and impaired children's learning. Of primary
concern to Pacoima residents is finding out which
environmental hazards contribute to health problems and the
specific steps that can be taken to improve the health of
the residents. "We can't move the freeway, but we want to
know what kind of impact it has when it is 100 to 300 feet
from the school," states Kristin Aldana-Taday, Associate
Director of Administration for Pacoima Beautiful..
Opportunities
and resources for collaboration between scientists,
researchers, and community members to address local
environmental and health concerns 
