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Daniel E. Kass,¹ Audrey L. Thier,² Jessica Leighton,¹ James E. Cone,¹ and Nancy L. Jeffery¹

¹New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Environmental Disease Prevention, New York, New York, USA; ²Consultant, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract
In recent years, there have been substantial investments and improvements in federal and state surveillance systems to track the health effects from pesticide exposure. These surveillance systems help to identify risk factors for occupational exposure to pesticides, patterns in poisonings, clusters of disease, and populations at risk of exposure from pesticide use. Data from pesticide use registries and recent epidemiologic evidence pointing to health risks from urban residential pesticide use make a strong case for understanding better the sale, application, and use of pesticides in cities. In this article, we describe plans for the development of a pesticide tracking system for New York City that will help to elucidate where and why pesticides are used, potential risks to varied populations, and the health consequences of their use. The results of an inventory of data sources are presented along with a description of their relevance to pesticide tracking. We also discuss practical, logistical, and methodologic difficulties of linking multiple secondary data sources with different levels of person, place, and time descriptors. Key words: data linkage, epidemiology, New York City, pest control, pesticide use, poison control, surveillance. Environ Health Perspect 112:1419-1423 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7149 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 3 August 2004]

This article is part of the mini-monograph "National Environmental Public Health Tracking," which is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) .

Address correspondence to D.E. Kass, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, 253 Broadway, CN-34C, New York, NY 10007 USA. Telephone: (212) 442-2638. Fax: (212) 676-2911. E-mail: dkass@health.nyc.gov

We gratefully acknowledge the guidance provided by members of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Environmental Connections Advisory Panel.

This work was generously supported by cooperative agreements U50/CCU223290 and U50/CCU222455 from CDC.

This article was supported by an environmental public health tracking cooperative agreement from CDC. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 1 April 2004 ; accepted 3 August 2004.