Environmental Health Tracking

Environmental Health Tracking is the ongoing systematic collection, integration, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data about environmental hazards, exposure to environmental hazards, and health effects potentially related to exposure to environmental hazards.

The Case for Environmental Health Tracking

Approximately 7 out of every 10 deaths in the United States are due to chronic diseases and there is growing scientific evidence that environmental factors (such as pesticides and toxic air pollutants) are strongly linked to many chronic diseases (such as asthma, birth defects, and cancers).  Exposure to environmental hazards accounts for a significant proportion of many chronic diseases, including an estimated 30% of childhood asthma exacerbations and 10% of neurodevelopmental disorders in children. More than 33 million Californians reside in areas where exposure to air pollution results in increased risk for chronic disease.

Environmentally related chronic diseases take a fiscal and human toll on Californians.  An effective surveillance system that reduces only 1% of cost of the environmentally-related chronic diseases would save California $100 million annually.  In California, the costs associated with only nine such diseases, including childhood asthma, cancer, and lead poisoning, is an estimated $10 billion per year, or $288 per person.  Alarmingly, some of these illnesses are on the rise.  For example, from 1984 to 2003, asthma in adults and children reportedly increased 76% nationwide.

Currently, no comprehensive tracking system exists at the state level to track many of the exposures and health conditions that may be related to environmental hazards.  Because individual environmental and health databases, registries, and monitoring systems are not coordinated and/or linked together and because some hazards and chronic diseases are not tracked at all, it is difficult to carry out key public health functions.

Lack of an on-going, comprehensive tracking system contributes to the critical gap in knowledge about the possible links between environmental hazards and chronic diseases.  Just as physicians need vital information about a patient for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, the public health field needs information about the population's health and environmental risks.  Statewide and community level incidence data on chronic diseases are needed to identify trends and patterns and improve disease prevention efforts.  In most cases, especially at local (county, city, zip code) levels, it is very difficult or impossible to answer any of the following questions:

What environmental hazards are people exposed to?

How much are they exposed to (e.g. concentration)?

How have these exposures changed over time?

How do these exposures compare to other populations or communities?

Is there an unusual rate of disease in a population or community?

How have disease rates changed over time?

Is there an unequal burden disease in a specific population or community?

What are the effects of pollution and disease prevention policies and programs?

The establishment of an environmental health tracking system will play a key role helping to answer such questions and providing the information needed to improve existing pollution and disease prevention policies and programs.

The California Environmental Health Tracking Program (CEHTP) is currently developing a comprehensive plan for a standards-based, coordinated, and integrated system that would facilitate public health actions through monitoring, reporting, linkage, and communication of data on environmental hazards/exposures and environmentally related diseases.

For an authoritative and comprehensive report on environmental health tracking in California, consult Strategies for Establishing an Environmental Health Surveillance System in California: A Report of the SB702 Expert Working Group Report at: www.catracking.com/sub/sb702.htm.

Functions of an Environmental Health Tracking Network

A statewide Environmental Health Tracking Network, which would integrate data systems and collaborative programs and partnerships, involving environmental and public health professionals and organizations would facilitate the following public health actions:

Track environmental hazards to guide exposure-prevention efforts;

Track disease trends to understand if they are changing over time, in residents statewide, in specific populations, or in certain geographic areas;

Link environmental-hazard information, exposure data, and disease reports to support environmental-health research;

Inform the development and evaluate the effectiveness of disease-prevention and environmental-protection programs and policies;

Facilitate public access to information on environmental-health issues.