Developing integrated multistate environmental public health surveillance

Environmental exposures cause substantial morbidity and mortality in the United States. A major goal of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Public Health Tracking program is the development of a national network of health and environmental data with analytic tools for rapid evaluation of specific national or regional environmental health concerns. A six-state collaborative project in the northeast United States was established to assess the feasibility of such a system, assessing the possible association between ambient air quality and adverse birth outcomes. For this regional surveillance project, issues were discussed surrounding the design of a mutually acceptable protocol, obtaining human subjects' protection approvals, obtaining and organizing both the exposure and outcome data, analyzing the data both locally and regionally, and planning subsequent interventions to address identified public health concerns.