child smoke stack
Start Year: 2017

Building Tools to Support Community-based Environmental Health Efforts

The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (EPHT) brings together health and environment data from national, state, and city sources and provides supporting information to make the data easier to understand. New Jersey is one of 26 states that receives federal funds to develop a state program that feeds into the national network.  EPHT is a single source of data for the public to use in better understanding the relationship between the environment and health.  EPHT data provides communities information that can be used to inform local planning and public health activities.  EAC worked in partnership with the New Jersey Departments of Environmental Protection and Health to use data developed as part of New Jersey’s participation in the National EPHT Network to better understand ways in which environment and health data can be intersected to inform community-based efforts including among residents, community leaders and local officials such as public health officers, planners, and environmental commissions.  The project was designed to inform next steps of the NJDEP and NJDOH collaborative efforts to further enhance the New Jersey EPHT program and to develop a proactive outreach component to communities.