Research Environmental Health Threats

Fund research on and data collection of environmental health threats. More research is needed to link information on environmental contaminants with specific health outcomes. Currently, Oregon has a few model programs that are beginning to deepen our understanding of environmental health threats. In some areas though, such as birth defects tracking, there is a noticeable lack of information.

Oregonians do not have the complete picture of rates of birth defects because Oregon has not established a birth defects monitoring program. Birth defects monitoring programs would provide communities and public health researchers with information to help prevent future birth defects. A state wide birth defects registry could be integrated into the current environmental public health tracking system, improving the system’s efforts to track chronic and infectious diseases and conditions. A birth defects registry is a vital tool to help protect communities from the chronic illnesses that account for 70% of all deaths in this country.

In 1995, Oregon established the Oregon State Cancer Registry (OSCaR), which collects information on all cancers diagnosed in Oregon. The annual reports on cancer in Oregon provide helpful information on cancer rates, but there are currently no data in these reports linking environmental exposures (excluding smoking) to specific cancer incidences.

Oregon is one of eight states nationwide participating in the CDC’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. The aim of the Oregon Environmental Pubic Health Tracking Program is to collect data on asthma and myocardial infarction hospitalizations, ozone and particulate matter levels, drinking water contaminants, childhood blood lead levels, vital statistics, birth defects and cancers. Once data have been collected, the program will develop, implement and assess an outreach plan and risk communication strategy.

Integrating exposure data with more complete information on rates of diseases caused or aggravated by pollutants would enable Oregon to focus its regulatory programs and disease prevention efforts on actual risks to public health.

For these programs to be effective in reducing environmentally attributable disease, Oregon needs to provide long term funding and develop a cohesive strategy to provide health officials, communities, and policy makers information on where and when diseases such as cancer and asthma occur, in addition to providing information on potential links to environmental factors.