One-Stop Shop for Environmental Public Health Data
This Web site provides a reference list of nationally funded data systems that have a relationship to environmental public health. This list is not meant to be a comprehensive inventory. Rather, it highlights the major data systems with a national scope where public health and environmental data can be directly downloaded from the Internet.
Childhood Lead Poisoning Data & Surveillance Resources NCEH’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program compiles state surveillance data for children age <72 months who were tested for lead at least once since January 1, 1997.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) BRFSS is a telephone survey conducted by all state health departments, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam with assistance from CDC. The BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted telephone health survey in the world. States use BRFSS data to track critical health problems and to develop and evaluate public health programs. The BRFSS is the primary source of information on the health-related behaviors of adults in this country. States use standard procedures to collect data through monthly telephone interviews with adults 18 or older. BRFSS interviewers ask questions related to behaviors that are associated with preventable chronic diseases, injuries, and infectious diseases.
National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) NAMCS is a national survey designed to meet the need for objective, reliable information about the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Findings are based on a sample of visits to non-federal-employed office-based physicians who are primarily engaged in direct patient care.
National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) The NHDS, which has been conducted annually since 1965, is a national probability survey designed to meet the need for information on characteristics of inpatients discharged from non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) The NHANES is a survey conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. This survey has been designed to collect information about the health and diet of people in the United States. NHANES is unique in that it combines a home interview with health tests that are done in a Mobile Examination Center.
National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) Established by Congress through the Cancer Registries Amendment Act in 1992, and administered by CDC, NPCR collects data on cancer occurrence (including the type, extent, and location of the cancer) and the type of initial treatment. Through NPCR, CDC supports central cancer registries in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Pacific Island Jurisdictions. These data represent 96% of the U.S. population. Together, CDC's NPCR and the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program collect data for the entire U.S. population. This national coverage enables researchers, clinicians, policy makers, public health professionals, and members of the public to monitor the burden of cancer, evaluate the success of programs, and identify additional needs for cancer prevention and control efforts at national, state, and more local levels.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses is a Federal/State program in which employers' reports are collected annually from about 176,000 private industry establishments and processed by State agencies cooperating with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Summary information on the number of injuries and illnesses is copied by these employers directly from their recordkeeping logs to the survey questionnaire. The questionnaire also asks for the number of employee hours worked (needed in the calculation of incidence rates) as well as its average employment (needed to verify the unit's employment-size class).
National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition (CDC’s Second Nutrition Report) The report showcases reference information about levels of 58 biochemical indicators in the U.S. population. CDC scientists measured these levels in the blood and urine of people who took part in CDC’s NHANES during all or part of the four-year period from 2003 through 2006. The information is presented by age, sex, and race/ethnicity.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) The NHANES is a survey conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. This survey has been designed to collect information about the health and diet of people in the United States. NHANES is unique in that it combines a home interview with health tests that are done in a Mobile Examination Center.
National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals CDC's National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals provides an ongoing assessment of the U.S. population's exposure to environmental chemicals using biomonitoring. The Fourth Report presents first-time exposure information for the U.S. population for 75 of the 212 chemicals included in the Report.
Acid Rain Emissions Tracking System The overall goal of the Acid Rain Program is to achieve significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the primary causes of acid rain. Under the Acid Rain Program, each unit must continuously measure and record its emissions of S02, NOx, and CO2, as well as volumetric flow and opacity. In most cases, a continuous emission monitoring system must be used. There are provisions for initial equipment certification procedures, periodic quality assurance and quality control procedures, recordkeeping and reporting, and procedures for filling in missing data periods. Units report hourly emissions data to EPA on a quarterly basis. This data is then recorded in the Emissions Tracking System, which serves as a repository of emissions data for the utility industry.
AirData The AirData website gives you access to air quality data collected at outdoor monitors across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. The data comes primarily from the AQS (Air Quality System) database.
National Emission Inventory (NEI) Data EPA prepares a national emission inventory with input from numerous state and local air agencies. These data are used for air dispersion modeling, regional strategy development, regulation setting, air toxics risk assessment, and tracking trends in emissions over time. Criteria pollutant emissions data for 1985 through 1998 are available in the National Emission Trends (NET) database. Hazardous air pollutant emissions data are available for 1993 and 1996 in the National Toxics Inventory (NTI) database. For 1999, criteria and HAP emissions data are being prepared in a more integrated fashion in the National Emission Inventory, which will take the place of the NET and the NTI.
Envirofacts Data Warehouse Envirofacts is a single point of access to select EPA environmental data. This Web site provides access to several EPA databases to provide information about environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. With Envirofacts, you can learn more about these environmental activities in your area or you can generate maps of environmental information. Topics include Waste, Water, Toxics, Air, Radiation, Land, Other, and Maps.
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) The TRI is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities.
Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Under the BEACH program, a survey of state and local agencies that monitor water quality at beaches was conducted. The information received was compiled and is listed by beach on the Beach Watch Web site. Although the database includes a significant number of coastal and Great Lakes beaches, it does not include all U.S. beaches. Only the beaches whose monitoring officials responded to our survey are included. This survey will be conducted each year and as new information becomes available, it will be added to the Beach Watch Web site.
Watershed Assessment, Tracking & Environmental Results (WATERS) WATERS is an integrated information system for the nation's surface waters. The EPA Office of Water has various programs that store data in associated databases. These databases are separately managed with little coordination among them. Under WATERS, the program databases are connected to a larger framework.
STORET (short for STOrage and RETrieval) EPA maintains two data management systems containing water quality information for the nation's waters: the Legacy Data Center (LDC), and STORET. The LDC is a static, archived database and STORET is an operational system actively being populated with water-quality data. The LDC contains historical water-quality data dating back to the early part of the 20th century and collected up to the end of 1998. STORET contains data collected beginning in 1999, along with older data that has been properly documented and migrated from the LDC. Both systems contain raw biological, chemical, and physical data on surface and ground water collected by federal, state and local agencies, Indian Tribes, volunteer groups, academics, and others. All 50 states, territories, and jurisdictions of the U.S. are represented in these systems.
Safe Drinking Water Information System/Federal Version (SDWIS/FED) SDWIS/FED is an EPA national database storing routine information about the nation's drinking water. Designed to replace the system known as FRDS (Federal Reporting Data System), SDWIS/FED stores the information EPA needs to monitor approximately 175,000 public water systems.
Safe Drinking Water Information System/State Version (SDWIS/STATE) SDWIS/STATE is a database designed by EPA to help states run their drinking water programs. Sharing a name with SDWIS/FED (Safe Drinking Water Information System/Federal Version), SDWIS/STATE is the state counterpart to EPA's federal drinking water information system. SDWIS/STATE houses three major categories of information: inventory, sampling, and monitoring. Inventory data include information on individual drinking water systems such as the system location, size, and population served. Sampling data include lab results for chemical, microbiological, and radiological contaminants regulated by EPA and the state. Monitoring information contains the schedule for sampling required under each EPA rule.
Flood Hazard Mapping (Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map [DFIRM] Database) A standard DFIRM database has been designed to facilitate DFIRM production. The new FEMA Geographic Information System (GIS) databases will store the digital data used in the map production process, as well as the backup engineering data for the floodplain studies. These databases will provide a standard, systematic method for FEMA to distribute comprehensive details of its flood studies to the public in a digital format.
Total Diet Study (TDS) The TDS, sometimes called the Market Basket Study, is an ongoing FDA program that determines levels of various contaminants and nutrients in foods. Since its inception in 1961 as a program to monitor for radioactive contamination of foods following atmospheric nuclear testing, TDS has grown to encompass additional radionuclides, residues of pesticides, industrial chemicals, toxic and nutritional elements, and folate. In all instances, analyses have been performed on foods that are prepared as they would be consumed (table-ready), so the final results can be used to provide a realistic measure of the dietary intake of these analytes.
National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) The NGDC provides scientific stewardship, products and services for geophysical data describing the solid earth, marine, and solar-terrestrial environment, as well as earth observations from space.
National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) The NADP/NTN is a nationwide network of precipitation monitoring sites. The purpose of the network is to collect data on the chemistry of precipitation for monitoring of geographical and temporal long-term trends. The precipitation at each station is collected weekly according to strict clean-handling procedures. It is then sent to the Central Analytical Laboratory where it is analyzed for hydrogen (acidity as pH), sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, chloride, and base cations (such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium).
National Water Information System The USGS investigates the occurrence, quantity, quality, distribution, and movement of surface and underground waters and disseminates the data to the public, state and local governments, public and private utilities, and other federal agencies involved with managing our water resources. These pages provide access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse The USGS node of the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse is a component of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. It provides a pathway to find information about geospatial or spatially referenced data available from USGS. The USGS node actually encompasses a distributed set of sites organized on the basis of the USGS's four principal data themes. The first, Geography, offers the familiar USGS topographic maps and other geographic products that have long been associated with USGS. These products typically are of general use across many disciplines for basemaps and other purposes. As Geographic Information Systems have come to play an increasingly important role in science, however, the biology, geology, and water disciplines also have produced important geographic data sets related to their themes.
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) The HCUP is a family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products developed through a federal-state-industry partnership and sponsored by AHRQ. HCUP databases bring together the data collection efforts of state data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the federal government to create a national information resource of discharge-level health care data.
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) The MEPS is a vital resource designed to continually provide policymakers, health care administrators, businesses, and others with timely, comprehensive information about health care use and costs in the United States, and to improve the accuracy of their economic projections. MEPS collects data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and available to the U.S. population.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) The BRFSS is a telephone survey conducted by all state health departments, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam with assistance from CDC. The BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted telephone health survey in the world. States use BRFSS data to track critical health problems and to develop and evaluate public health programs. The BRFSS is the primary source of information on the health-related behaviors of adults in this country. States use standard procedures to collect data through monthly telephone interviews with adults 18 or older. BRFSS interviewers ask questions related to behaviors that are associated with preventable chronic diseases, injuries, and infectious diseases.
Cancer Control Planet This PLANET portal is sponsored by CDC, NCI and other agencies/organizations. The PLANET portal provides access to data and resources that can help planners, program staff, and researchers to design, implement and evaluate evidence-based cancer control programs. It also provides access to Web-based resources that can assist in:
Assessing the cancer and/or risk factor burden within a given state.
Identifying potential partner organizations that may already be working with high-risk populations.
Understanding the current research findings and recommendations.
Accessing and downloading evidence-based programs and products.
TheDataWeb TheDataWeb is a network of online data libraries. Topics include census data, economic data, health data, income and unemployment data, population data, labor data, cancer data, crime and transportation data, family dynamics, and vital statistics data.
Work Related Injury Statistics Query System (Work-RISQS) Work-RISQS provides a Web-based public access query system for obtaining national estimates (number of cases) and rates (number of cases per hours worked) for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments. Users may interactively query based on demographic characteristics, nature of injury/illness, and incident circumstances for the years 1998, 1999, and 2000. Additional data-years will be added in future updates.
Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) WISQARS is the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's interactive, online database that provides customized injury-related mortality data and nonfatal injury data useful for research and for making informed public health decisions.
AirData The AirData Web site gives access to yearly summaries of U.S. air pollution data, taken from EPA's air pollution databases. The data include all fifty states plus District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. AirData has information about where air pollution comes from (emissions) and how much pollution is in the air outside our homes and workplaces (monitoring).
Air Information Retrieval System AQS The Air Quality System (AQS) is EPA's repository of ambient air quality data. AQS stores data from over 10,000 monitors, 5000 of which are currently active.
AIRNow EPA has developed the AIRNow Web site to provide the public with easy access to national air-quality information. The Web site offers daily air-quality forecasts as well as real-time air quality for over 275 cities across the United States, and provides links to more detailed state and local air-quality Web sites.
Envirofacts Data Warehouse Envirofacts is a single point of access to select EPA environmental data. This Web site provides access to several EPA databases to provide information about environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. With Envirofacts, you can learn more about these environmental activities in your area or you can generate maps of environmental information. Topics include Waste, Water, Toxics, Air, Radiation, Land, Other, and Maps.
EnviroMapper EnviroMapper is a powerful tool used to map various types of environmental information, including air releases, drinking water, toxic releases, hazardous wastes, water discharge permits, and Superfund sites.
MyEnvironment MyEnvironment is a powerful Web-based tool that provides a wide range of federal, state, and local information about environmental conditions and features in an area of your choice. This application is provided by EPA in partnership with federal, state and local government and other organizations.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information (RCRAInfo) Hazardous waste information is contained in RCRAInfo, a national program management and inventory system about hazardous waste handlers. In general, all generators, transporters, treaters, storers, and disposers of hazardous waste are required to provide information about their activities to state environmental agencies. These agencies in turn pass on the information to regional and national EPA offices.
Sunwise To help educators raise sun-safety awareness, EPA has developed the SunWise School Program, a national education program for grades K-8. SunWise Partner Schools sponsor classroom and schoolwide activities that raise children's awareness of stratospheric ozone depletion, ultraviolet radiation, and simple sun-safety practices. SunWise is a collaborative effort of schools, communities, teachers, parents, health professionals, environmental groups, meteorologists, educational organizations, and others.
TRI Explorer The TRI Explorer provides access to Toxics Release Inventory data to help communities identify facilities and chemical release patterns that warrant further study and analysis. Combined with hazard and exposure information, the TRI Explorer can be a valuable tool for risk identification.
National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute
Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) The SEER program currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from 11 population-based cancer registries and three supplemental registries covering approximately 14 percent of the US population.
