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        <TITLE>EPHT Background and Acknowledgements</TITLE>

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                In 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission detailed an  "environmental health 
                gap," a lack of basic information needed to document  links between environmental 
                hazards and chronic disease. "When the Pew 
                Commission report came out,  everyone- the press, the public, Congress- couldn't 
                believe that a Tracking  Program didn't already exist," says Shelly Hearne, Founding 
                Executive Director  for <a href="http://healthyamericans.org/">Trust for America's  
                Health</a>. "While overt poisoning from  environmental toxins has long been 
                recognized, the environmental links to a  broad array of chronic diseases of uncertain 
                cause are unknown," concluded the  report. To close this gap, the Pew  report 
                called for integrating tracking systems for environmental hazards,  bodily exposures, 
                and diseases; linking data to allow swift analysis; and using  the results to prevent 
                disease and save lives."
                <br/><br/>

                The Pew report stimulated new  thinking and specific proposals to overcome 
                the split between environment and  health. In response, Congress provided 
                CDC with funds in 2002 to develop the National Environmental Public Health 
                Tracking Network. CDC in turn asked scientists, managers, and policy specialists 
                from two dozen state health and environmental departments, medical societies, 
                nongovernmental organizations, universities, and federal agencies to serve on 
                workgroups addressing Tracking issues. Four workgroups were created to address the following topics:            organization issues, information and technology tracking methods, tracking system needs assessment and how to                   provide tracking data to health agencies, elected officials, and the public.    
                CDC then selected pilot programs 
                around the country to build tracking  capacity and demonstrate exactly what a tracking 
                network could do. The knowledge  gained would open new avenues of discovery, new 
                paths of prevention, and new  hope for long-term health for all Americans.
                <br/><br/>

                Currently, there are 25 state health departments and one city health department in the 
                National Tracking Network.
                <br/>

<img ibis:src="view/image/GranteeMap.jpg" width="495" height="428" alt="2014 Grantee Map"></img><br/><br/>

                <div class="Quote" style="">
                        "When the Pew Commission report came out,  everyone- the press, the public, 
                        Congress- couldn't believe that a Tracking  Program didn't already exist."
                        <div style="text-align: right;">
                                -<span Class="Bold">Shelly Hearne, Dr.P.H.</span> <br/>
                                Founding Executive Director, Trust for America's Health
                        </div>
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                <br/>

                <h2>National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network</h2>
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                In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established 
                its <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/tracking/default.htm">National 
                Environmental Public Health Tracking Network</a> (Tracking Network).

                The CDC was awarded funding which they then funded twenty state and local 
                health departments and three schools of public health.  
                
                Through these partnerships, (state, local and universities)
                the CDC wanted to build environmental public health capacity,  increase 
                collaboration between environmental and health agencies, identify and 
                evaluate environmental and health data systems, build partnerships with 
                nongovernmental organizations and communities, and develop model systems 
                linking environmental and health data. 
                <br/><br/>
                
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