Effective environmental public health tracking utilizes environmental hazard, human exposure, and health outcome data to paint a picture of the relationship between the environment and health. Analyzing patterns and trends in health outcomes and environmental factors and their interaction is critical for identifying actions that will improve the health of communities.

Indicators for environmental hazards, human exposures, and health outcomes were developed by the national EPHT Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include asthma and acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) hospitalizations, cancer, vital statistics (birth weight), birth defects, childhood lead poisoning, air pollution, and water quality.

Nationally consistent data and measures (NCDMs) for each indicator are being generated for inclusion in the national EPHT Network. NCDMs for New Hampshire are available on the Environmental Health Data Integration Network (EHDIN).

• Environmental Hazards Data
• Exposures Data
• Health Effects Data

Metadata

All data included in EHDIN contains metadata. Metadata are often described as "data about data". Descriptive metadata include information that describes the content, quality, and context of a data resource for the purpose of facilitating identification and discovery. It may reference additional information like quality assurance documents and data dictionaries. By providing information about the data, descriptive metadata helps a user decide if a data resource is appropriate for the intended use.

Metadata provides the following information:

• Why the data created or collected
• How the data created or collected
• Who created or collected the data
• When the data was last updated
• How the data cab be obtained

Available metadata for NH EPHT:

• Public Drinking Water, Arsenic
• Public Drinking Water, AllKeyContaminants
• Public Drinking Water, DisinfectionByProducts
• Hospitalizations, AsthmaAMI