Developing integrated multistate environmental public health surveillance.
Environmental exposures cause substantial morbidity and mortality in the United States. A major goal of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Public Health Tracking program is the development of a national network of health and environmental data with analytic tools for rapid evaluation of specific national or regional environmental health concerns. A six-state collaborative project in the northeast United States was established to assess the feasibility of such a system, assessing the possible association between ambient air quality and adverse birth outcomes. For this regional surveillance project, issues were discussed surrounding the design of a mutually acceptable protocol, obtaining human subjects' protection approvals, obtaining and organizing both the exposure and outcome data, analyzing the data both locally and regionally, and planning subsequent interventions to address identified public health concerns.
Wartenberg
Daniel
D
Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.
Thompson
W Douglas
WD
Fitzgerald
Edward F
EF
Gross
Hillary J
HJ
Condon
Suzanne K
SK
Kim
Nancy
N
Goun
Barbara D
BD
Opiekun
Richard E
RE
D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004782:Environmental Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009511:New England; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D016730:Program Development; D011634:Public Health; D013219:State Government; D018511:Systems Integration