Our second environmental scan, conducted in 2008-2009, involved telephone interviews and an online survey.

In brief, medical officers of health, environmental health directors, and others again identified the following key needs:

• scientific evidence base for environmental health services and programs;
• evaluation of effectiveness of services/programs;
• scientific evidence in a usable form;
• people with advanced training in environmental health; and
• surveillance of environmental exposures and risk factors.

The top five topics selected by participants for additional review, guidance, and summary documents include:

• how to communicate environmental risk to the general public;
• the relationship between common cancers and environmental exposures;
• guidance on small water systems, seasonal in operation, and exceedances of short term exposure;
• interventions to reduce health impacts related to housing; and
• effectiveness of programs such as food safety, e.g., inspection vs. education vs. enforcement.

Participants also suggested that we continue to pull together information from a range of sources for posting on our website. Click for the final report.

If you would like to view the results of our first scan, click for the 2005-2006 report.

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