Environmental Public Health Tracking

The environment plays an important role in health and human development. Research links specific diseases with exposures to environmental hazards. We know from research, for example, that one cause of lung cancer is exposure to asbestos. Another example is the link between exposure to lead and the decreased mental function of children. Other suspected links remain unproven without adequate data and research. Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is one way to collect data for analysis and research to establish other links between disease and exposure to environmental hazards. The goal of EPHT is to provide information that can be used to plan, apply and evaluate ways to prevent and control environmentally-related diseases. As a result, scientists, communities, policymakers, and the public are now better equipped to answercfundamental questions about the relationships between environmental exposures and health effects and can use this information to plan, apply, and evaluate public health actions to prevent and control environmentally related diseases.

Data on this site is used for a range of public health policy development and program planning purposes, including hazard and disease surveillance (e.g., estimating the magnitude of a problem, analyzing trends over time, identifying high-risk groups), identifying and targeting effective interventions, and for public health research. Data and information on this network also serves as a "knowledge base" of critical monitoring and surveillance systems, and information resources.

Missouri Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is a program within the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EPHT is part of a network of people and information systems which delivers a core set of health, exposure, and hazards data, information summaries and tools to enable analysis, visualization and reporting of insights drawn from data. Those insights are intended to help data drive actions and improve community health.

Last updated: June 2023