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A Review Of Public Health Air Surveillance Evaluation Project
V Boothe2, F Dimmick1, V Hale3, C Paulu4, M Bekkedal5, D Holland1, T Talbot3, A Smith4, M Werner5, E Baldridge1, D Mintz1, T Fitz-Simons1, T Bateson6, T Watkin1
(1) US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC.
(2) Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA.
(3) New York Department Of Health, Albany, NY.
(4) Maine Department Of Health, Augusta, ME.
(5) Wisconsin Department Of Public Health, Madison, WI.
(6) Apex Epidemiology Research, Baltimore, MD.
Background
CDC, EPA, and the health departments of New York, Maine, and Wisconsin, have been collaborating on an evaluation of different air characterization methods for use in Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT).
Approach
The three public health departments collected health tracking data associated with cardiovascular and respiratory health events. In doing so, the states developed consistent case definitions and addressed spatial qualities of the health data. EPA provided air quality data based on four different approaches of estimating exposure. With these air quality data sets, the three states applied a “case-crossover” analysis technique to evaluate the associa-tion between the health and air quality data.
Discussion and Conclusions
These results are one piece of a larger evaluation of air characterization methods by the Public Health Air Surveillance Evaluation (PHASE) team to select a method that could be routinely used in a sustainable EPHT Network. Note that all of these methods provide only surrogate measures of true personal exposure. The PHASE collaboration demonstrated the ability to link air quality and surveillance health data. This will enable State public health departments to assess the impact of air pollution in rural and urban populations and to take appropriate action at the community level. The techniques have been evaluated and implementation activities are underway. Next steps include: a menu-driven software tool to link health and air quality data and readily available air quality data available. This will enable health department professionals to link and analyze air quality and health data routinely.
Disclaimer: Although this work was reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.