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Jason W. Sapsin, JD, MPH, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Room 582, Baltimore, MD 21205-1996, 443 287-6274, jsapsin@jhsph.edu, Patricia I. Elliott, JD MPH, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), 1275 K St NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005, and Thomas A. Burke, PhD, MPH, Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Room 484, Baltimore, MD 21205.
As recently as 1995, state governments across the U.S. routinely tracked only two environmental health conditions in the general population: lead and pesticide poisoning. At least 12 states have considered new legislation related to environmental health tracking since January 2001, following publication of the Pew Environmental Health Commission’s report entitled America’s Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network in September 2000 and CDC’s provision of grant support. But the development of consistent approaches to public health legislation and regulation – whether related to environmental health, infectious disease control or injury prevention – presents significant challenges for U.S. public health policymakers and practitioners and successful models can be difficult to identify. Our research focuses on identifying effective policy, legal and regulatory approaches for supporting and implementing environmental public health tracking programs. Using qualitative research methods, we interview leading experts in public health policy and practice and then describe existing legal and policy frameworks for traditional environmental health surveillance to suggest (1) characteristics of successful policy and/or legal frameworks or approaches to support environmental public health tracking; (2) state and/or national program “models” for the development and promotion of environmental public health tracking; and (3) recommendations for effective implementation of robust, sustainable national environmental public health tracking programs. We believe that this research offers a new contribution to the growing literature in environmental public health tracking, particularly as it relates to policy and practice.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to
Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Surveillance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.