Monitoring environmental disease--United States, 1997

One of the national health objectives for 2000 (HP2000) is to establish and monitor nonoccupational "sentinel" environmental diseases, including asthma, heatstroke, hypothermia, heavy metal poisoning, pesticide poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, acute chemical poisoning, and methemoglobinemia, in at least 35 states (baseline: 0 states in 1990) (objective 11.16). To assess progress toward this objective, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), the Association of Schools of Public Health, and CDC conducted a telephone survey of environmental epidemiologists in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico during June-August 1997. This report summarizes the results of that survey, which indicate that progress is being made toward the HP2000 objective.