Environmental Public Health Tracking

Does your organization need assistance with environmental public health activities? The Environmental Public Health Tracking Program has a wide variety of resources available. You may request a speaker, display, and/or materials for your public health event. Complete the request form and we’ll contact you to discuss your event.

The environment plays an important role in health and human development. Research links specific diseases with exposures to environmental hazards. We know from research, for example, that one cause of lung cancer is exposure to asbestos. Another example is the link between exposure to lead and the decreased mental function of children. Other suspected links remain unproven without adequate data and research. Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is one way to collect data for analysis and research to establish other links between disease and exposure to environmental hazards. The goal of EPHT is to provide information that can be used to plan, apply and evaluate ways to prevent and control environmentally-related diseases. As a result, scientists, communities, policymakers, and the public are now better equipped to answer fundamental questions about the relationships between environmental exposures and health effects and can use this information to plan, apply, and evaluate public health actions to prevent and control environmentally related diseases.

Data on this site is used for a range of public health policy development and program planning purposes, including hazard and disease surveillance (e.g., estimating the magnitude of a problem, analyzing trends over time, identifying high-risk groups), identifying and targeting effective interventions, and for public health research. Data and information on this network also serves as a "knowledge base" of critical monitoring and surveillance systems, and information resources.

 

The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program
Missouri Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is a program within the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EPHT is part of a larger initiative to establish Environmental Public Health Tracking systems at the national and state levels.