Biomonitoring
Biomonitoring is the assessment of exposure to environmental chemicals
or toxins through direct measurement of such substances or their
metabolites in human specimens such as blood or urine. It is an
essential component of the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network,
which collects data on environmental hazards, human exposures to those
hazards, and related health effects ...more
Birth Defects
In early 1998, Congress passed the Birth Defects Prevention Act of 1998.
This bill authorized CDC to (1) collect, analyze, and make available
data on birth defects; (2) operate regional centers for applied
epidemiologic research on the prevention of birth defects; and (3)
inform and educate the public about the prevention of birth defects ...more
Developmental Disabilities
Developmental disabilities activities at CDC include 1) studying how
common developmental disabilities are and who is more likely to have
them, 2) finding the causes of developmental disabilities and the
factors that increase the chance that a person will have one, 3)
learning how people with developmental disabilities can improve the
quality of their lives ...more
CDC’s Public
Health Information Network (PHIN)
Through defined data and vocabulary standards and strong collaborative
relationships, the Public Health Information Network will enable
consistent exchange of response, health, and disease tracking data
between public health partners. Ensuring the security of this
information is also critical as is the ability of the network to work
reliably in times of national crisis ...more
CDC Childhood
Lead Poisoning Program
The CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch was created, with
primary responsibility to 1) develop programs and policies to prevent
childhood lead poisoning, 2) educate the public and health-care
providers about childhood lead poisoning, 3) provide funding to state
and local health departments to determine the extent of childhood lead
poisoning by screening children for elevated blood lead levels, helping
to ensure that lead-poisoned infants and children receive medical and
environmental follow-up, and developing neighborhood-based efforts to
prevent childhood lead poisoning, 4) support research to determine the
effectiveness of prevention efforts at federal, state, and local levels
...more
Environmental Health
Services
The objective of Environmental Health Services (EHS) is to strengthen
the role of state, local, and national environmental health programs and
professionals to better anticipate, identify, and respond to adverse
environmental exposures and the consequences of these exposures to human
health ...more
National Asthma Control Program
CDC created its National Asthma Control Program in 1999 to help reduce
the burden of asthma through effective control of the disease. The goals
of the program are to reduce the number of deaths, hospitalizations,
emergency department visits, school or work days missed, and limitations
on activity due to asthma ...more
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Surveillance
Tracking occupational injuries, illnesses, hazards and exposures has
been an integral part of NIOSH since its creation by the Occupational
Safety and Health Act in 1970. NIOSH complements important statistical
or surveillance activities carried out by other Federal agencies
(including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and
the National Center for Health Statistics), state governments, and
private sector groups such as employers ...more
National Program of
Cancer Registries
CDC has administered the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR)
since 1994. Before NPCR was established, ten states had no registry and
most states with registries lacked the resources and legislative support
needed to gather complete data. CDC’s goal is for all states to maintain
registries that provide high-quality data on cancer and cancer care.
Data collected by state cancer registries enable public health
professionals to better understand and address the cancer burden ...more