Hazardous Site Health Evaluation Program
Environmental Disease and Surveillance
 
The Hazardous Site Health Evaluation Program has looked at patterns of certain diseases and adverse health outcomes related to environmental exposures when exposures were known to or were likely to have occurred, and when the health outcome was reported to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.  Reports of those studies are found here. 

Recent discoveries in science and medicine, new information on disease occurrence, and more and better environmental  monitoring and modeling are giving us the opportunity to look at environmental exposures and human diseases in new ways.  This page will give you information on our current and future studies, links to other states that are involved in similar activities, and discuss their implications for public health.

Project Description
Linkage of Asthma Morbidity and Hazardous Air Pollutants in New Jersey Under this cooperative agreement the NJDHSS is developing and implementing research protocols to:

1) examine relationships between New Jersey asthma hospitalization rates and National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) estimates at an appropriate geographic scale;

2) conduct temporal analyses of asthma morbidity and air toxics monitoring site data in four select New Jersey locations; and

3) work with communities involved in the proposed cooperative agreement project to provide assistance and information related to project findings.

Hazardous Substances Emergency Event Surveillance The Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) system was established by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to collect and analyze information about releases of hazardous substances that need to be cleaned up or neutralized according to federal, state, or local law, as well as threatened releases that result in a public health action such as an evacuation. The goal of HSEES is to reduce the morbidity (injury) and mortality (death) that result from hazardous substances events, which are experienced by first responders, employees, and the general public.
Environmental Public Health Tracking:  Linking Disease and Environmental Data Sources Under this cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the NJDHSS and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection are conducting a series of analyses of the temporal and spatial patterns of the incidence of select cancer types and birth defects in relation to historic air and water pollution in New Jersey.
Drinking Water The Drinking Water Project examines the relationship between low-level contamination of drinking water and adverse health outcomes.  It provides information to the public as well as federal, state and local agencies on the human health effects of chemical and microbial contaminants in community drinking water systems. The project:
conducts epidemiologic investigations (some of which are found under the Health Studies listing),
contributes to the process of toxocologic standards development,
provides health information through consultations and by development and distribution of educational materials.