The environment plays an important role in human health and development. Researchers have linked exposures to some environmental hazards with specific diseases. An example is the link between exposure to asbestos and lung cancer or 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 and bladder cancer.
In the 1988 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 stated that the existing environmental health system is neither adequate nor well organized and it 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 most existing environmental hazard, exposure, and disease tracking systems worked separately and are not linked together. Because existing systems are not linked, it is difficult to study and monitor relationships among hazards, exposures, and health effects.
In 2002, Congress provided CDC funding to 17 state and local health departments and 4 Schools of Public Health to begin developing a nationwide environmental public health tracking network and develop capacity in environmental health within state and local health departments (View Grantee Map).
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
EPHT Vision: Healthy Informed Communities
The EPHT Program’s vision, “Healthy Informed Communities,” describes what the program is striving to achieve as its long-term goal for the future.
EPHT is an initiative to protect communities by providing information to all those who can use it to take action and make decisions to improve health. For example, federal, state, and local public health agencies will use this information to plan, apply, and evaluate public health actions to prevent and control environmentally related diseases (see Memorandum of Understanding). Health care providers can use it to help them provide better care to their patients. Individuals can use it to empower themselves and their communities to make well-informed decisions. As a result, people will have the opportunity to lead healthier lives.
The mission of the EPHT program is to provide information from a nationwide network of integrated health and environmental data that drives actions to improve the health of communities.
The Program will develop a tracking system that integrates data about environmental hazards and exposures with data about diseases that are possibly linked to the environment. This tracking system will allow federal, state, and local agencies and others to:
- Monitor and distribute information on occurrence and trends among environmental hazards, exposures, and health effects;
- Advance research on posible associations among environmental health effects that are linked to exposure to environmental hazards; and
- Develop, implement, and evaluate regulatory and public health actions to prevent or control exposure to environmentally related hazards.
Goal 1: Build a sustainable national environmental public health tracking
network
Goal 2: Enhance environmental public health tracking workforce and infrastructure
Goal 3: Disseminate information to guide policy, practice, and other actions to improve the nation’s health
Goal 4: Advance environmental public health science and research
Goal 5: Foster collaboration among health and environmental programs
Interested in learning more? Check out our "EPHT Resources" page, "Important links" page, or Contact a Utah EPHT staff member
