Health Data

Environmental health data are collected and analyzed to better understand relationships between people’s health and the environment, promote health and well-being, and foster safe and healthy communities.

Making connections between health problems and environmental hazards can be challenging. There is a lot that isn’t well understood. Health data can provide one piece of information about how an illness may be related to environmental hazards or exposures. Some adverse health effects, like carbon monoxide poisoning, can have quick short-term harmful results and a clear cause. Other adverse health outcomes, like certain cancers, may take years or even decades to develop or may have multiple contributing factors.

Environmental Public Health Tracking Core Conditions

• Asthma
• Birth Defects
• Blood Lead Levels
• Cancer
• Carbon Monoxide
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Myocardial Infarction
• Reproductive Outcomes

Other Environmental Health Conditions

• Hyperthermia
• Hypothermia
• Tickborne Disease

Wastewater Surveillance

Wastewater from communities is being monitored for genetic indicators of viruses and other disease pathogens. This surveillance approach is helping to track the prevalence of respiratory disease in communities across the state.

• SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza

Additional Resources

• Community & Infrastructure
• Health, Environment & Community Profiles
• Occupational Health
• Podcasts: Environmental Health Chat Link
• Syndromic Surveillance

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.