Health Effects Data

The EPHT Program is looking at how our health is affected by hazards in our environment, but making the connection between environmental threats and chronic diseases is not easy. Environmental hazards can have subtle effects on human health and they rarely cause immediate illness. Their effect on the human body can go unnoticed and years or decades may pass before symptoms appear. A single exposure or a single chemical may not trigger an illness, but an accumulation of exposures over time can take its toll. Many hazards may influence the appearance of one disease, while a single hazard may influence many outcomes, and genes and behavior may also affect how environmental hazards cause disease in individuals. Only by systematically measuring environmental hazards, tracing their geographic distribution, documenting their residues in human tissues, and understanding their connection with illness can we help prevent suffering and disease caused by environmental hazards.

Currently, the NH EPHT Program is tracking the following source data for health effects:

• Asthma Hospitalization Data
• Birth Defects Registry Data
• Cancer Registry Data
• Childhood Blood Lead Level (BLL) Data
• Heart Attack Hospitalization Data (Acute Myocardial Infarction)