ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DATA NEEDS
An Action Plan for Federal Public Health Agencies

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Public health and environmental agencies, on both the state and local levels, have shared a long-standing role in monitoring and communicating the human health hazards of environmental factors. These agencies have worked to mitigate the impact of environmental hazards on the public's health by managing waste and hazardous materials; monitoring lead, asbestos, radon, and other hazards; and improving food safety as well as water and air quality. A key component to the successful completion of these activities is an effective environmental health information system. Public health and environmental agencies must be able to collect, analyze, store, share, and react to information regarding the impact of environmental risks and active hazards on a community's health.

1.1 Environmental Health Policy Committee, Subcommittee on Data Needs

Federal financial resources for administrative or supportive activities such as data collection and dissemination of public health data are undergoing more intense scrutiny due to changing political priorities and an increasing anti-regulatory government culture. To offset potential deficiencies, new partnerships and collaborative efforts are now underway to obtain, analyze, and distribute information pertinent to protecting the public from environmental hazards.

Central to forging these creative new relationships is the Environmental Health Policy Committee (EHPC). Established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the group helps to coordinate federal-state-local government agency partnerships. One potential benefit of these collaborative efforts is to facilitate acquisition and accessibility of appropriate environmental health and related data. To that end, the EHPC formed a Subcommittee on Data Needs.

The Subcommittee's main task is to evaluate both existing and proposed data systems within and outside of HHS with regard to their environmental health relevance. It is charged with learning what information on environmental health exists at the federal level, assessing which of these data systems are used at the state and local levels, and determining what information is needed. Another Subcommittee task is to help HHS integrate data systems across the federal level and among federal, state, and local levels. From such activities, the Subcommittee makes recommendations about data needs for environmental and occupational health policy decisions. (For further information on the Subcommittee, see Appendix A.)

In FY '96, funds were made available to the Subcommittee for "inventorying" federal data projects and systems, and for obtaining relevant information from states and localities about their information capabilities and needs. As part of its ongoing research, the Subcommittee, through the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), commissioned the Public Health Foundation (PHF) to undertake a project aimed at assisting public health agencies in improving community health through enhanced environmental health information.

In early 1997, PHF convened an intensive workshop of individuals with expertise in environmental health information. Participants representing local, state, and federal agencies; schools of public health; and national public/environmental health associations, convened March 3-5, 1997, at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. State and local participants were identified by PHF with assistance from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Association of Schools of Public Health, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the National Environmental Health Association, and the Environmental Council of the States. (A list of the workshop participants can be found in Appendix B.)

1.2 Workshop Objectives

Workshop participants were charged with identifying opportunities and possible strategies for the Federal Government, under the auspices of the Environmental Health Policy Committee, to improve state and local environmental health information capabilities. To that end, the specific objectives of the workshop were to:

1. Identify environmental health information needs common to state and local public health agencies.
2. Identify the types of environmental health information currently available and the sources of that information, including current and planned surveillance systems.
3. Compare information needs to existing sources of information and identify gaps in environmental health information.
4. Identify barriers to obtaining environmental health information and the contributing causes of the barriers (i.e., deficiencies in human, fiscal, capital, technological, or organizational resources).
5. Identify opportunities, in partnership with the Federal Government, for bridging state and local environmental health information gaps and removing the barriers. (For further information on the workshop overview, objectives, and agenda, see Appendices C and D.)