Current Environmental Public Health Tracking data sets include:
• Air Quality (ambient air particulate matter and ozone)
• Water Quality (drinking water contaminants include arsenic, uranium, lead, nitrate and drinking water disinfection by-products)
• Biomonitoring (blood, urine, hair; monitored contaminants include arsenic, uranium, lead, mercury and other metals)
• Respiratory Effects (measures include asthma hospitalization age-adjusted rates)
• Cardiovascular Effects (measures include heart attack hospitalization age-adjusted rates)
• Cancer (measures include age-adjusted incidence rates for various types of cancers)
• Birth Defects (measures include prevalence of infants with cleft lip with or without cleft palate)
• Population data (population migration, percentage poverty, etc.)
Environmental Public Health
Tracking System
Keeping Track. Promoting Health.
Environmental conditions and hazards have substantial impacts on public health. Chronic disease associated with exposures to environmental contaminants can be reduced by preventing pollution and reducing exposure to hazards.
The New Mexico Environmental Public Health Tracking (NMEPHT) system identifies links between environmental exposure and associated health effects. This tracking system improves surveillance to enable quicker responses to environmental public health issues and focused action to prevent disease.
NMEPHT is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. It aims to create better understanding of how the environment can affect health. The tracking network also supplies a mapping tool to identify exposure and potentially related disease patterns.
By connecting environmental information and health condition information statewide and nationally, this network combines essential information into one resource, giving public health workers and health researchers a starting point for environmental public heath services and research.
