Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology

Environmental contaminants affect our health; and our actions affect the environment. Understanding how health and the environment are connected is an essential step in our efforts to protect the health of our communities. 

Colorado is one of 24 state and city partners funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a national tracking network to better understand the complex relationships between health and environment.  In 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued a report that identified a gap in our knowledge about how environmental contaminants contribute to the national chronic disease burden.  CDC’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program is designed to fill that gap.

The Colorado Environmental Public Health Tracking (COEPHT) program is building a web-based surveillance system that features health and environmental data, contributes data to the national network and makes information accessible to public health workers, researchers, policymakers, healthcare providers, environmental practitioners and the public.

Why tracking matters to Colorado

A state environmental public health tracking system that integrates existing health and environmental data in a standardized format allows for a better understanding of the relationship between environmental hazards, environmental exposures and health outcomes.  Having accurate and timely tracking data makes it easier to investigate disease impacts and trends, recognize patterns of disease and identify populations and geographic areas most affected. Improved data collection and linkage has many benefits:

• Public health workers can respond more quickly to environmental health concerns.
• Policymakers can have more complete information when they make decisions.
• Researchers can learn more about connections between health and environment.
• Healthcare providers can improve prevention and treatment plans.
• Community members can find out how the environment may be affecting their health and how to avoid environmental hazards.

The tracking program expands and improves Colorado’s environmental public health surveillance capacity through improved data linkage, display, and analysis, as well as communication of outcomes.  Tracking supports Colorado’s goal of evidence-based public health action.

Key Features of the Tracking Network

Colorado’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program guides development of standardized state-level data that is consistent with national data standards and measures.  These nationally consistent data and measures (NCDMs) make it possible to compare data collected from different states. Colorado contributes this data to the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. The Network currently includes data and measures in eight different content areas:

• Air quality (ozone and particulate matter)
• Drinking water (arsenic, nitrate, disinfection by-products)
• Hospitalizations (for asthma, heart attack)
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Vital statistics/Reproductive Health Outcomes
• Birth defects (12 reportable conditions)
• Cancer outcomes (5 cancer types, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia)
• Childhood lead poisoning

A public web portal provides searchable databases as well as tables, charts and maps to make it easier to compare environmental and health data. A secure web portal will allow researchers to submit a request to access more detailed data. This will help support research that can answer questions about how environmental factors affect our health.

Building the Network in Colorado

Colorado’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program was funded by CDC in 2009. A strategic planning group and technical advisory committee have been convened to help understand user needs and Colorado priorities. These groups also guide the development of tracking measures for environmental health issues that are of particular interest to Colorado.  Radon is the first of these state specific measures, and others will be added over time.

A public web portal with Colorado specific environmental public health data is now available, with more topics to come.   In 2012, a secure web portal will be added to allow researchers to submit a request to access more detailed data.