EPHT Background and Acknowledgements
In 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission detailed an "environmental health gap," a lack of basic information needed to document links between environmental hazards and chronic disease. "When the Pew Commission report came out, everyone- the press, the public, Congress- couldn't believe that a Tracking Program didn't already exist," says Shelly Hearne, Founding Executive Director for Trust for America's Health. "While overt poisoning from environmental toxins has long been recognized, the environmental links to a broad array of chronic diseases of uncertain cause are unknown," concluded the report. To close this gap, the Pew report called for integrating tracking systems for environmental hazards, bodily exposures, and diseases; linking data to allow swift analysis; and using the results to prevent disease and save lives."The Pew report stimulated new thinking and specific proposals to overcome the split between environment and health. In response, Congress provided CDC with funds in 2002 to develop the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. CDC in turn asked scientists, managers, and policy specialists from two dozen state health and environmental departments, medical societies, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and federal agencies to serve on workgroups addressing Tracking issues. Four workgroups were created to address the following topics: organization issues, information and technology tracking methods, tracking system needs assessment and how to provide tracking data to health agencies, elected officials, and the public. CDC then selected pilot programs around the country to build tracking capacity and demonstrate exactly what a tracking network could do. The knowledge gained would open new avenues of discovery, new paths of prevention, and new hope for long-term health for all Americans.
Currently, there are 25 state health departments and one city health department in the National Tracking Network.