Various programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) work to protect and improve the health of those living in the U.S.-Mexico border region. CDC’s Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Program (EHHE) addresses environmentally related health issues through the Border 2012 program and cooperative agreements with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP). With these programs and organizations, EHHE identifies environmental health issues, trains and develops human resources, and conducts environmental epidemiologic research in the U.S.-Mexico border area.
EHHE border activities include the development of an environmental health database. The database will provide information on environmental health problems in the area. EHHE also supports border activities such as environmental epidemiologic training for health professionals, environmental health workers, and students. Training focuses on hazardous waste, entomology, pesticides, basic epidemiologic research, and surveillance systems, such as air-quality surveillance. Improvements in health surveillance activities include creation of a Web-accessible virtual library of information about environmental health at the U.S.-Mexico border. Plans for Geographic Information System (GIS)-enabled maps that join U.S. and Mexican sister cities in a single display will help produce more integrated approaches to environmental health issues.
