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Welcome to Kentucky's Environmental Public Health Tracking Website

Our overall health is the result of several factors. The genes we inherit make us more or less susceptible developing some diseases. Our choices, like what we eat or drink and how much exercise we get, affect our health as well. In addition to our genes and making healthy choices, the environments we live, work, and play in also affect our health.

Venn The environment is our air and water, as well as the all of our natural and built surroundings. Environmental causes of diseases are often hard to identify. Here at EnviroHealthLink, we try to better understand environmental causes of disease by tracking environmental factors and health outcomes. Tracking is type of health surveillance that includes how we collect, interpret, and report data about hazards in the environment, populations that may have been exposed to these hazards, and health problems that may be related to these exposures.

Different types of data are used to learn how the environment affects people's health. EnviroHealthLink provides information about the following types of data:
  • Health Effect Data: Data about health conditions and diseases, such as asthma and birth defects
  • Environmental Hazard and Exposure Data: Data about chemicals or other substances such as carbon monoxide and air pollution in the environment or the amount of a chemical in a person's body, such as lead in the blood.
  • Community Data: Data that helps us learn about the communities in which we live, work, and play. Indicators like age, sex, race, poverty, and education can potentially help us learn about the relationship between environmental and health indicators. These factors can also help inform which methods of health promotion and prevention may be most useful and beneficial.

By establishing and maintaining the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network in Kentucky, we can help gain valuable information about the health of our population and the environment. This information can then be used to improve guide intervention and policy to improve the places we live, work, and play and the health of our population across the commonwealth and nation.

Tracking 101 - Learn more about the National EPHT Network and earn FREE continuing education credits.


Content updated: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 12:59:49 EST