Environmental Health Indicators Bridging the Chasm of Public Health and the Environment: Workshop Summary (2004) / Chapter Skim
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3 Environmental Health Monitoring at the Federal Level
3 Environmental Health Monitoring at the Federal Level
Pages 35-52
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From page 35... ...
The public relies on these agencies to safeguard them from the dangers of environmental hazards. Individuals and communities look to the CDC for protection against environmental diseases, to the EPA for protection from environmental hazards, to NIOSH for elimination of workplace hazards, to ATSDR for its work on toxic exposures, and to NIEHS for research findings.
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From page 36... ...
The system includes tools for transferring data electronically from health care systems to health departments, and it follows strict security standards to protect confidentiality. The CDC recently received $17.2 million from Congress to put into place the first step of the health monitoring effort for the nation.
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From page 37... ...
Further analysis and interpretation of blood lead level data showed health disparities in the population. For example, an African-American child living in older housing in the United States was found to be 22 times more likely to have an elevated blood lead level than was a white child living in newer housing (see Figure 3.1)
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From page 38... ...
Surveillance is considered essential to the work of the CDC and critical to all of public health. The CDC has taken on the task of improving its use and uniformity to make it yield more useful data and to reduce the burden on state and local health departments, health care providers, and laboratories.
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From page 39... ...
ATSDR has set up exposure registries for people exposed to various chemicals at Superfund sites, including benzene, dioxin, trichloroethane, and trichloroethylene. Other registries have been proposed, including one for tremolite asbestos exposure in Libby, Montana; one for multiple exposures around the World Trade Center site in New York City; and a multisite registry for exposure to natural uranium in areas with high levels.
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From page 40... ...
. ATSDR responds to concerns about disease clusters and other health issues by conducting site-specific investigations of diseases, performing epidemiological studies, establishing exposure registries, and launching pilot studies to track diseases.
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From page 41... ...
Dover Township has many Superfund sites and many well fields. ATSDR investigators calculated the contribution of water from different wells and were able to link water from contaminated wells to affected children, said Falk.
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From page 42... ...
We also have to examine combinations of risk factors, such as genetic susceptibilities, environmental factors from the distant and recent past, life-style, and other risk factors. CURRENT EFFORTS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH The NIOSH has much to contribute to the national health monitoring effort because of its long history in occupational health surveillance and the wealth of data and experience it can offer, said Kathleen Rest of NIOSH.
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From page 43... ...
is a collaborative effort between NIOSH and states to improve recognition and prevention of selected occupational health conditions, some of which overlap environmentally related illness, such as asthma and pesticide poisoning. The Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology Surveillance (ABLES)
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From page 44... ...
These investigations found the firing range to be highly contaminated with lead, with few precautions taken to protect the workers. In collaboration with the local childhood lead program, the SENSOR program found four other workers with lead poisoning, nine children with elevated blood lead levels, and one spouse
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From page 45... ...
The third example is from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health SENSOR program. Through its surveillance of work-related asthma, the program found that cleaning agents were the second most common asthma-causing agent identified by affected workers completing interviews.
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From page 46... ...
Nelson noted that we are in an analogous situation today as we try to understand environmental health data. To assess what environmental data are available and what they mean for characterizing the state of the environment in the country, in 2002 the EPA generated a State of the Environment Report (IDEM, 2003)
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From page 47... ...
Producing a comprehensive national State of the Environment Report required coordinated information exchange among federal, state, and local partners and provided an opportunity to strengthen partnerships, said Nelson. An important partnership was formed between the EPA's National Environmental Exchange Network, which offers a grants program to states to support the collection of high-quality environmental information, and the Health Tracking Network grants program of the CDC/ATSDR.
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From page 48... ...
There has been a change in the toolbox, which makes our research capacity much more powerful. Animal models have been used in this field for decades; however with new genetic technologies, we can create animal models with specific types of experimental targets in mind and, thus, conduct more precise experiments.
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From page 49... ...
report Clearing the Air: Asthma and Indoor Air Exposures (2000a) , which cited evidence from academic studies showing that asthma morbidity and incidence of attacks could be reduced through elaborate environmental methods, such as vacuuming the subjects' houses three times a week and setting up various controls, that may not be workable in the "real world." 1State Health Officer of California.
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From page 50... ...
Similarly, if the public health enterprise doesn't communicate and work with local communities, then things don't work, stated Nelson. Can a time be envisioned when the government issues a State of the Environment Report that involves not only the EPA but also the CDC, NIOSH, NIEHS, and other federal agencies engaged in environmental health work?
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From page 51... ...
Two of the primary agencies involved in that study are the state environmental agency and the state health agency. However, the EPA also is involved, as are the ATSDR and NCEH at the CDC.
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