AmericasEnvironmentalHealthGapWhytheCountry.PDFVIP

Americas Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network Companion Report September 2000 Sponsored by: The Pew Environmental Health Commission At the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health Report by: Environmental Health Tracking Project Team Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management 1 Foreword by Commission Chairman Lowell Weicker, Jr. With the mapping of the human genome, we are on the verge of a new wave of advances in health. With this remarkable achievement, researchers will be able to shed new light on the links between genetic predisposition and such factors as behavior and exposures to pollutants in the environment in order to prevent many of the chronic diseases that today cause so much suffering. But there is a catch. We must have the basic information about the health of Americans and our environment before we can make the fullest use of this exciting genetic knowledge. The way to get this basic data is to track it—systematically, comprehensively, on a coordinated basis at all levels from the local community to the nation as a whole. We have to track what and where the hazards are in the environment, whether people are at risk from exposures to these hazards, and the health of our communities. Our information about environmental factors must run as deep and comprehensive as our knowledge of the genome. This report examines our current public health response capabilities to environmental threats, and recommends the establishment of