The environment plays an important role in health and human development. The Environmental Public Health Tracking Program at the Kentucky Department for Public Health provides information and data about how the environment affects human health. Our website, HealthTracking.ky.gov, helps answer questions about air quality, drinking water, cancer and a wide variety of other topics.
- Explore health and environmental data by topic, county and year.
- Generate custom tables, charts and maps.
- View reports for certain environmental hazards, exposures and health effects in Kentucky.
- View trends in data over time.
- Find links to national and Kentucky-specific resources on health and environmental topics.
A Brief History
In 2001, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued a report calling for the establishment of an environmental public health tracking network that would monitor the level of burden from environmentally related disease. In 2002, Congress appropriated funds to CDC to establish the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program.
The National Tracking Program collects, integrates, analyzes and disseminates non-infectious disease, environmental and socio-economic data from various sources. These include a collective of national, state, and local partners. This data and information can be found on the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network).
CDC funds 33 recipients through a cooperative agreement. These recipients build, maintain, and implement local tracking programs and data networks; grow public health capacity and expertise in environmental health surveillance; and modernize data systems.
View a complete list of funded recipient program profiles.
Our Purpose:
In support of the Kentucky Department for Public Health mission, the purpose of the tracking program is a Kentucky with healthy and informed communities. Our goal is to assemble and support access to environmental and health data to improve community health. To help achieve this task and carry out our purpose, the program has developed five goals:
- Sustain Kentucky as a member for the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network and help to contribute to the national data collections and development.
- Advance environmental public health science and research.
- Provide data to guide policy, practice and other actions.
- Enhance environmental public health tracking workforce and infrastructure.
- Foster Collaboration among health and environmental programs.