Sharing Is Caring: Nurturing the Tracking Network Through Multilevel Partnerships

As part of our continuing effort to highlight innovative approaches and tools to improve the health and environment of communities, the Journal is pleased to publish a bimonthly column from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network). The Tracking Network is a system of integrated health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and city sources. The Tracking Network brings together data concerning health and environmental problems with the goal of providing information to help improve where we live, work, and play. Environmental causes of chronic diseases are hard to identify. Measuring amounts of hazardous substances in our environment in a standard way, tracing the spread of these over time and area, seeing how they show up in human tissues, and understanding how they may cause illness is critical. The Tracking Network is a tool that can help connect these efforts. Through these columns, readers will learn about the program and the resources, tools, and information available from CDC's Tracking Network. The conclusions of this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of CDC. Jena Losch is a health communication specialist in CDC's Environmental Health Tracking Branch.