Funded Program:
National Environmental Public Health Tracking - Network Implementation
Program Announcement # EH06-601

Program Description:
New York State’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (NYS EPHTN) is based on a three-tiered approach that allows different users varying access to the information in the network:

• The first tier is an internal system to conduct environmental health investigations; it is restricted to specific users within the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Center for Environmental Health.
• The second tier is a broader-access, secure system intended to provide data to professional staff in local and state health and environmental agencies.
• The third tier is an open-access system available on the NYSDOH Web site; it provides to the public relevant data and other information regarding environmental hazards and health outcomes.

The ultimate objective of the NYS EPHTN is to provide multiple levels of data access and security to a variety of users.

Ultimately, the NYS EPHTN will include the following nationally consistent core measures:

• Asthma and heart attack,
• Carbon monoxide poisonings,
• Cancer,
• Blood lead levels in children,
• Birth defects,
• Drinking water contaminants
• Air quality, and
• Vital statistics.

NYSDOH will continue work on the EPHT program as part of an ongoing mission to provide government agencies, researchers, and the public with health and environmental data that is responsive to their needs, that respects people’s privacy, and that furthers the state’s ability to protect and improve public health. The NYS EPHT program has proposed a number of initiatives for the 2008–2009 program year, including

• Updating the existing NYS EPHT Tier 3 public Web site to include an interactive query that provides data tables, maps, graphs, and downloadable data files.
• Developing an interactive fishing advisory site on the NYS EPHT Tier 3 Public Web portal that allows users to query fish consumption advice by water body.
• Developing online evaluation tools to obtain data on how well the NYS EPHT Tier 3 public Web site meets the key objectives of improving environmental health literacy and access to environmental health information.
• Collecting data from the New York State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) on the proportion of homes in New York State with carbon monoxide detectors to estimate the household prevalence of such detectors,
their power sources, and the proportion of people who, during power outages, intend to use portable generators.
• Implementing a new tool for spatial aggregation of health data to improve the resolution of health outcomes maps.
• Participating in the implementation of an electronic drinking water reporting system.
• Releasing new reports and publications from several data linkage projects supported by the NYS EPHT program, including
  • Investigations examining drinking water disinfection byproducts and birth outcome data,
  • Ambient ozone exposure and children’s hospital admissions,
  • School openings and asthma hospital admissions, and
  • Meteorological conditions and respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions.