Vermont Tracking Program
Website: healthvermont.gov/trackingexternal icon
Email: AHS.VDHVTEPHT@vermont.gov
Facebook: VermontTracking
Unique Data:
In addition to the set of standard data collected and displayed by all state and local tracking programs, individual programs may host data that are important to their populations. Vermont Tracking hosts unique data important to their population including the following:
- Healthy Vermonters 2020 external icon
- Community Profilesexternal icon
- Heat Vulnerability Indexexternal icon
- Social Vulnerability Indexexternal icon
- Pollen in Vermontexternal icon
- Private Drinking Water Contaminantsexternal icon
- Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) Trackerexternal icon
- Radon Risk in Vermontexternal icon
- Tick Trackerexternal icon
- Sub-County Cancer Dataexternal icon
- Bladder
- Breast
- Colon and Rectum
- Lung and Bronchus
- Melanoma of the Skin
- Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- Prostate
Accomplishments:
- Lead Testing of Drinking Water in Schools and Child Care Facilities: In 2017, the Vermont Tracking Program provided testing supplies, analysis, follow-up testing, and outreach materials to 16 public schools participating in a multi-agency pilot projectpdf iconexternal icon to test for lead in drinking water. After the pilot project, Vermont passed a new lawexternal icon in 2019 requiring all Vermont school districts, supervisory unions, independent schools and child care providers to test their drinking and cooking water for lead. If lead is found in an amount at or above the action level of 4 parts per billion (ppb), the school or child care provider must immediately take the fixture out of service and take steps to eliminate or reduce the amount of lead to below 4 ppb. The Vermont Tracking Program continues to support the Health Department, which has been charged with helping schools and child care providers with the testing process, by providing water test materials, guidance and support.
PFOA Response: In February 2016, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was detected in the drinking water of several homes on private wells, launching a response from the state health department. Vermont Tracking staff helped organize a public health investigation to determine who may have been exposed to PFOA and how to stop or reduce further exposure. Read about the Health Department’s responseexternal icon and read the summarized investigation findings in this report. pdf iconexternal icon
- Birth Information Networkexternal icon: Vermont Tracking supports Vermont’s birth defects registry which conducts statewide, population-level surveillance of selected birth defects and documents possible links to environmental and chemical exposures.
- Private Drinking Water Testing: Vermont Tracking conducted statewide outreach about the importance of testing private drinking water for contaminants, and conducted targeted outreach to areas of the state known to have elevated risk of drinking water contamination. The number of private drinking water tests completed has more than doubled since 2012, and in 2019, a new state lawexternal icon was passed that will require testing on all newly drilled wells.