Planning and Capacity Building Activities
| Grantee: | New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Jessica Leighton, PhD, MPH |
| Telephone: | 212-676-6323 |
| E-mail: | jleighto@health.nyc.gov |
| Address: | Bureau of Environmental Disease Prevention New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 253 Broadway, 12th Floor, Box CN58 New York, NY 10007 |
| Web site: | http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/home.html [external link] |
| Funded Since: | September 30, 2002 |
| Funded Program: | National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Part A |
Program Description:
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) plans to assess, evaluate and enhance current health effect, exposure, and hazard surveillance systems in New York City. Its program, Environmental Connections, will build on the existing environmental public health tracking systems of the DOHMH and its sister agencies: The NYC departments of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) and Housing Preservation and Development (NYC HPD) and the New York State departments of Health (NYS DOH) and Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC). New York City will also work with partners from local academic institutions, community-based organizations, private sector employers, unions, and federal agencies.
The NYC DOHMH has long recognized the need for environmental health tracking, and has developed individual surveillance programs for many environmental health issues, including childhood lead poisoning and asthma. However, two recent events highlighted a need to continue to fill gaps in its existing environmental public health infrastructure: the attack on the World Trade Center and the emergence of West Nile virus in New York City.
The objectives of Environmental Connections are to:
- Formalize existing working relationships between DOHMH and DEP
- Evaluate current data systems for air, food, water, pesticide use,
and the indoor environment as they relate to existing health-related
data systems in NYC
- Establish an inventory of tracking systems
- Convene a planning consortium of local data-using stakeholders
- Assess needs for environmental public health in NYC
- Offer technical training in surveillance and tracking to DOHMH and
sister agency staff
- Prioritize areas of focus for environmental public health in NYC
- Assess the need for changes to current regulations and legislation
to facilitate environmental health tracking
- Develop the plans for and components of a local standards-based
integrated environmental public health tracking system
- Participate in the development of a national plan.
Data Linkage Demonstration Project
| Grantee: | New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Jessica Leighton, PhD MPH |
| Telephone: | 212-676-6323 |
| E-mail: | jleighto@health.nyc.gov |
| Address: | New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 125 Worth Street, Room 623, Box 45B New York, NY 10013 |
| Funded Since: | September 15, 2003 |
| Funded Program: | Environmental and Health Effect Tracking; Program Announcement #3074 |
Program Description:
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is developing a comprehensive Environmental and Health Effects Tracking Program (EHETP) that will link hazard, exposure, and health outcome data in two areas of critical concern for the health of New York City residents: heavy metals and pesticides. The EHETP will be coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure compatibility with the developing National Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Network.
The overall purpose of the effort is to demonstrate and evaluate methods for linking data from existing health effects surveillance systems with data from existing human exposure and environmental hazards surveillance/monitoring systems in New York City. Methods, tools, and best practices developed through this project will be used to advance the development of an environmental public health tracking (surveillance) network at the state, local and national level.
Childhood lead poisoning affects almost 5,000 children annually in New York City, and awareness of the insidious effect of low level exposure to mercury is raising concern about the degree to which this and other heavy metals may affect children, pregnant women, and other adults. Pesticides are heavily used in urban areas, and evidence suggests that significant chronic exposure occurs to New York City residents.
For this project, the New York City DOHMH will collaborate with other municipal agencies, the New York State Department of Health, a variety of academic and advocacy experts in heavy metals and/or pesticides, and community-based organizations concerned with these subjects. DOHMH will:
- Develop the personnel and organizational infrastructure to conduct
the project
- Develop the technologic architecture for carrying out data linkage,
analysis and reporting
- Collaborate with stakeholders to identify, analyze, and evaluate
relevant databases
- Set standards and protocols for data sharing
- Link child and occupational blood lead data, blood mercury data, and
pesticide poisoning reports with environmental data for heavy metals and
pesticides
- Plan for completion of the analysis and interpretation of data
- Report the findings to various interest groups
- Conceive and plan appropriate public health interventions in response to the findings.
New York City will build on already substantial resources and infrastructure to link the many data sources that describe these hazards, human exposures, and known health effects. By carrying out ongoing surveillance on these environmental and health concerns, New York City will be better able to publicly report these data, intervene to reduce health risks and improve environmental quality, and evaluate progress toward reduction of these environmental and health concerns. The lessons learned and the infrastructure developed will enable New York City to expand its EHETP into other health concerns.
This project will increase the value of current data systems by facilitating:
- Creation of tools and calculation of rates of overexposure to
pesticides and heavy metals and potentially associated diseases or other
medical conditions
- Enhancement of the mapping capabilities, specifically the capacity
to map linked data to assess potential spatial relationships, and
creation of an interactive query tools for data users
- Improvements in the effectiveness of public health interventions by
identifying environmental hotspot, high-risk neighborhoods, and
potential point source of exposure
- More accurate estimates of the burden of environmental exposure and disease by data cross-reference.
DOHMH has completed a preliminary inventory of data related to heavy metals and pesticides, convened a stakeholder advisory panel, and begun assessing needs for a technical infrastructure for storing and reporting data.
In addition, the state of New York is funded for (1) an infrastructure enhancement and data linkage demonstration project (with a planning and capacity building component), and (2) a second data linkage demonstration project in environmental public health tracking. A description of the state's activities is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/tracking/projects/contacts/ny.htm.
