National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit membership organization serving nearly 3,000 local health departments nationwide. NACCHO provides education, information, research, and technical assistance to local health departments and facilitates partnerships among local, state, and federal agencies to promote and strengthen public health activities.

During the first year of their new five-year cooperative agreement with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), NACCHO will continue to work in three main project areas:

• Training for local health departments in community needs assessment and implementation of community health education activities related to Superfund sites;
• Enhancing capacity of local health departments to play larger public health roles in community revitalization and economic redevelopment activities related to Brownfields properties; and
• Improving communication and collaboration between all government agencies working at hazardous waste sites.

Each of these three areas is described more specifically as follows:

• NACCHO will train local health departments at hazardous waste sites to work more effectively with affected communities. This training will include risk communication and community involvement principles, and will enable local health departments to conduct community-based environmental health needs assessments and educational activities.
• NACCHO will continue to work with ATSDR to develop and test a Brownfields exposure algorithm for use by local health officials. NACCHO will also hold a regional training in the Year 2000; distribute its guidebook, Community Revitalization: Identifying Roles, Improving Relationships; and act as a technical consultant for the health departments funded by ATSDR as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency' (EPA's) “Showcase Cities” program.
• NACCHO proposes to hold a third regional “Public Health Partnerships at Hazardous Waste Sites” workshop in 2000 in ATSDR/EPA Region VIII, based on the pilot workshops held in EPA/ATSDR Regions IV and V.

ATSDR/NACCHO Cooperative Agreement Project Sites

For further information, please contact:

NACCHO
1100 17th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: (202) 783-5550
Fax: (202) 783-1583
Website: http://www.naccho.org/

or

Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
4770 Buford Hwy, NE (Mail Stop F-32)
Atlanta, GA 30341-3717
Phone: (770) 488-3490
Fax: (770) 488-4178