The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has launched the Environmental Public Health Tracking Portal, giving the public user-friendly and transparent tools to explore the exposure and health outcome data that describe us (with no unique identifiers, of course). A 2001 report from the Pew Environmental Health Commission identified the lack of a linked, nationwide tracking system for environmental exposures and potentially related health outcomes as a barrier to closing important gaps in environmental health. As a result, the CDC has funded NYC and 16 states (including NY) through their national tracking program to create public data portals that draw together myriad data sets describing four core areas.
The Portal allows users to create charts, maps, reports and tables, follow trends across time, and explore relationships between exposures and outcomes. There is even a specific function to look at disparities between neighborhoods and income levels throughout the city, and data are comparable with the national and state portals.
It is a work in progress, but we can no longer feel adrift in a dearth of environmental data. And we will no longer have to shirk in fear of being asked to back up our policy recommendations with reliable (and awesome) data graphics. Rock on, DOHMH.
Jessie
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