Newsletter Archive

The CDC's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (National Tracking Program) hosted its ninth annual Tracking Awareness Week with the theme "Be a Data Explorer".

Throughout the week, we shared information about unique data and tools on our website, the network of people and partners we work with, and how we use data to inform public health action.

Tracking California partnered with Comite Civico del Valle and Universidad Popular from 2020 - 2023, to conduct the Brawley Health ACTION Environmental Study - a multi-phased study aimed at addressing community concerns.

This newsletter highlights the project's:

• oral history collection
• soil sampling
• community resources

We also highlight our Program Director quoted in the news about emergency response and warning systems, a video by our partners Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and social media posts developed for Valentines Day by the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program.

Tracking California and Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians recently launched a new program called Climate Health Adaptation and Resilience Mobilizing (CHARM) in Lake County to establish the first county-wide coordinated action plan to address the impact of extreme heat events and harmful algal blooms (HABs).

New publications on tap water contaminants and sickle cell disease:

• Microcystins at the tap: A closer look at unregulated drinking water contaminants
• Case Ascertainment of Sickle Cell Disease Using Surveillance Administrative Database Case Definitions

• Tracking California has characterized the prevalence of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the Latinx community in California.

• In this analysis, we found that:

  • 7% of SCD cases in CA are Latinx, and 11% of babies born with SCD in CA are Latinx
  • Most Latinx with SCD live in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the Bay Area
  • Both Latinx and non-Latinx SCD patients rely heavily on Medicaid for health care coverage

• Tracking California and partners at UCSF recently published research results that found that 9% of COVID-19 deaths would have been prevented if all California met the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2.5

• Compared to those living in neighborhoods with the lowest exposure, we found that individuals living in neighborhoods with the highest long-term PM2.5 were:

  • At 20% higher risk of SARS-Co-V-2 infections
  • At 51% higher risk of COVID-19 mortality
  • More likely to be Hispanic and more socioeconomically vulnerable

• Tracking Awareness Week is a national social media and awareness campaign that highlights the unique work of CDC's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program.
• Each day we will be posting on Facebook and Twitter about how "Decisions Through Data" is considered throughout our work, check out a few of the projects we highlight.

• We highlight the work of our valued Research Associate, Isadora Nogueira, who will be leaving us to start law school at the end of summer.

  • Isadora wrote a summary of results from her analysis of CalOSHA Ventura County inspections data for reported heat-related violations with the ARC project.
  • Isadora helped develop a more comprehensive surveillance system to track reported illnesses in humans and animals from HABs with the California Department of Public Health with the Cal-WATCH project.

• NEW PUBLICATIONS:

  • Fire and Water: Assessing Drinking Water Contamination After a Major

  • Returning Individual Tap Water Testing Results to Research Participants after a Wildfire Disaster

  • Are socio-economic factors related to emergency department utilization for Californians with sickle cell disease?

• Introducing the Filtration for Respiratory Exposure to wildfire Smoke from Swamp Cooler Air (FRESSCA) Study

• Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) stories of resilience/historias de resiliencia

• Publication: Improving Outcomes for Patients with Sickle Cell Disease in the United States. Making the Case for More Resources, Surveillance, and Longitudinal Data

• Publication: Concurrent use of hydroxyurea and deferasirox in Californians with Sickle Cell Disease

• Publication: Incidence of and Mortality from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in National Football League Athletes

• Heat monitoring and air pollution alerts in Ventura County
• Surveying about Harmful Algal Blooms in Clear Lake

It's Tracking Awareness Week! The five days in July where we join the other CDC Environmental Health Tracking grantees to share our work. Each day this week is dedicated to an environmental health tracking theme: unique data, expanding partnerships, COVID-19, environmental justice, and celebrating successes.

• In 2020 Tracking California worked with AIRE Collaborative members and StoryCenter to plan a digital storytelling workshop for AIRE members.

• To highlight the videos, Tracking California staff created The Road to Clean Air, a StoryMap "virtual road trip" through California that highlights the stories and hometowns of AIRE members

• Other update: COVID-19 and Air Pollution Study

• Announcing the California Water: Assessment of Toxins for Community Health (CalWATCH) project
• New funding for Sickle Cell Disease surveillance
• Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) Project
• Hormones and Meat: Does Beef Under-Regulation Generate Estrogenic Residues?
• New Trackers!
• New publications on COVID-19 and Sickle Cell Disease

• This week's theme is "Powered by Tracking" to draw attention to the ways that Environmental Health supports healthier communities across the United States.

• Retiring the Water Boundary Tool

• Three new publications on Community Air Monitoring

Tracking California believes that Black Lives Matter. We believe the mistreatment of Black and African Americans is unacceptable. We stand in grief, anger, and solidarity with all whose lives have been harmed or lost due to police brutality, of which Black and Brown communities are too often the victims. We support those exercising the right to peacefully protest in efforts to publicly condemn and demand an end to systemic racial injustices

• Updates on sickle cell surveillance
• New climate change indicators from Cal-BRACE now on our website
• Announcement for Pesticide Mapping Tool Webinar
• Four new staff members!

• Presenting new maps built in ArcGIS displaying PFAS measurements across CA water systems
• Two new publications on our community air monitoring work in Imperial County
• More program updates: 2017 pesticide data now available, Tracking at APHA, two new drinking water contaminant studies

• Unique data
• Expanding partnerships
• Affecting policy
• Faces of tracking
• Celebrating success!

• Community air monitoring updates
• Presenting the Sickle Cell Data Collection project
• Tracking harmful algal blooms
• The utility of the Water Boundary Tool
• Looking ahead?

• Announcing Tracking Awareness Week
• Advancing community air monitoring
• Improving efforts to collect drinking water system data,
• Assessing the economic costs of pollution on health:
• Sharing data on our website

• New findings show high costs of premature birth
• Premature birth is still a problem
• Air pollution is linked to premature birth

• Some natural algal blooms produce harmful toxins
• Harmful algal blooms are increasing
• Impacts go beyond recreational activities
• How to identify a harmful algal bloom
• HABs are dangerous to humans and other animals
• CEHTP will track human and animal HABs deaths and illnesses
• Multi-agency effort to increase HABs awareness and coordination
• More HABs Resources

• It's National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week
• The need to #LeadTestInTheWest
• Activities for Lead Poisoning Prevention Week
• Ways to get involved!

• What's your top 10? Check out the new feature on our Pesticide Mapping Tool
• Register for our Pesticide Mapping Tool webinar
• New article on our work with pesticide use report data "Environmental Health Tracking Improves Pesticide Use Data to Enable Research and Inform Public Health Actions in California"

• DPR modifies regulations on pesticide use near schools. Comments due April 4th.
• New research on childhood cancers due to the environment
• New community air monitoring project in
• the Eastern Coachella Valley
• Help inform California's Biomonitoring Program
• Updated data on CEHTP website

• Community Air Monitoring Website Launched at the Border
• Information for action
• Community and scientific priorities
• Community-generated data to support regional change

• Public Comment Period through November 17th
• Tracking Pesticide Use Near Schools
• The Need for Better Data
• Additional Pesticide Resources

• Describe the state of EHR use in California
• Identify challenges in EHR adoption and data reporting
• Analyze the practicality, validity, and surveillance utility of glycohemoglobin as a marker for diabetes prevalence or control
• Describe the potential utility and barriers for use of EHR in public health surveillance

• The report describes the economic costs due to the environment for four childhood health conditions
• We found that:
  • Preventable environmental hazards cost California $254 million every year
  • Lead exposures had the greatest overall financial impact of the four health conditions
  • Asthma had the greatest financial impact on an annual basis
  • In California the environment contributes to 30% of the childhood asthma burden and 15% of the childhood cancer burden

• Workshop: GIS for Community Impact in Breast Cancer
• CDPH Launches Open Data Portal
• Nationwide Successes in Environmental Public Health Tracking
• Virtual Conference on Environmental Public Health Tracking
• New Tool: Regional Opportunity Index

• CEHTP Completes ALS Surveillance Project
• New Data on CEHTP Portal
• New Data on National Environmental Health Tracking Program Portal
• Community Health Studies Website in Spanish

• Using CEHTP data and other resources used to prevent and mitigate some of the most severe effects of the drought
• Health risks from wildfires: a growing public health concern
• CEHTP prepares for geocoding service transition

• Agricultural pesticide use near schools
• CEHTP conducts study to track pesticide use near schools
• Overall, we found that:
  • Most schools did not have any pesticides of public health concern used nearby
  • A small percentage of schools had many pounds of these pesticides used nearby
  • Hispanic children were more likely to attend schools near the highest pesticide use
• Results can inform future research and decision-making
• Study indicates the need for better data

• Planning: What's Health Got To Do With It?
  • (Re)convergence of Planning and Public Health
  • Long-Range Planning for Healthy Communities
  • Evaluating Health Impacts of New Developments
  • Planning for Climate Change and Public Health
  • Using Environmental Health Data for Planning
• CEHTP Contributes to New Research on Pesticides and Birth Defect

• CEHTP provides data analysis and linkage services
• CalEnviroScreen uses CEHTP data
• CEHTP data services have also been used by other organizations to study heat alerts, the relationship between agricultural pesticides and birth defects, and the relationship between traffic pollution and asthma
• New Data Available on National Tracking Portal

Craig David Wolff, Geospatial Sciences Director for the California Environmental Health Tracking Program, passed away from an aortic aneurysm on April 30th, 2013 at age 40. Craig's enthusiasm and dedication to providing timely information about and resources to vulnerable communities in California will be remembered as one of his primary legacies.