About Tracking
Tracking helps to understand how hazards in the environment, exposures to these hazards, and diseases change over time or across regions. Tracking might also help answer questions about the complex relationship between the environment and health. View the
Glossary for help with Tracking terminology. View a full listing of peer-reviewed Tracking publications.
New York State, New York City and 24 other states and are part of the national Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. Through thoughtful application of these data, consumers and communities may be empowered to take action to promote health and well-being within their communities.
What Tracking Can and Can't Tell Us
Tracking is an important tool in environmental health and public health. It can be used to:
- Respond to inquires about environmental hazards, exposures or health conditions.
- Identify unusual patterns and trends.
- Develop or evaluate public health programs, regulations or policies.
- Identify data quality issues and improve data.
- Explore relationships between environmental hazards and health outcomes.
- Generate hypotheses for research.
- Provide data to researchers for studies and environmental health investigations.
Tracking alone can't tell us if something in the environment is causing a disease or health condition in most cases.
Researchers can use Tracking data to identify trends and patterns and to pose questions for further research. So, a map showing disease rates, for example, is more likely a starting point. If we see major differences, we may pose additional questions such as:
- Are rates higher in any particular age or race/ethnicity group? Does the geographic pattern vary by age or race/ethnicity group?
- Do other factors correspond with higher disease rates? For example, are disease rates different in urban areas or rural areas? What about areas with higher or lower income or education?
- What about changes in disease rates over time? Maps are good for identifying geographical differences, but not so good at showing changes over time. Graphing disease over time may show if the rates are consistently getting higher or lower. Do rates vary from year to year? Are there seasonal effects within each year?
- What do we know from the scientific literature about factors that influence this disease? How do these factors vary geographically and over time?
The answers to some of these questions may lead us closer to understanding why some areas have higher disease rates than others. Or, they may help us identify where we need more information.
Tracking Partners
The Tracking program puts data and tools in the hands of people who help protect New York communities. Tracking partners include scientists, information technology specialists, environmental scientists, statisticians, policy makers, educators, healthcare experts, state and local government officials, advocates, academia and members of the public who use data to better understand the complex relationship between the environment and human health.
Tracking also brings together federal and state agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other state health and environmental agencies to focus on common goals and share data, technical guidance, and assistance. These partnerships are key to meeting today's and tomorrow's environmental health challenges.
Other Environmental Public Health Tracking Programs
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Environmental Public Health Tracking
