From dspecter@co.jefferson.wa.us Thu Oct 8 14:05:42 1998 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id OAA32756 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 14:05:41 -0700 Received: from jeffco-bo.co.jefferson.wa.us (jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us [198.239.124.2]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.1+UW98.09/8.9.1+UW98.09) with ESMTP id OAA28847 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 14:05:41 -0700 Received: by jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us with Internet Mail Service (5.0.1460.8) id <4P83RT8S>; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 14:05:19 -0700 Message-ID: <5EEA774F2317D2119D6F006097CEE9A00BEF77@jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us> From: David Specter To: ph-assess@u.washington.edu Subject: RE: CDC grant to DOH for asthma surveillance Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 14:05:16 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.0.1460.8) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Steve also called me about this last week. We talked about it briefly at the WSALPHO Steering Comittee in Yakima on Sunday and agreed to see if we could get some volunteers from the assessment coordinators to represent WSALPHO in this project. I don't know how many volunteers are needed, but if anyone would like to participate please let me know via the ph-assess list or directly and I'll pass the names on to Steve Macdonald. Thanks. David David A. Specter WSALPHO Chair and, in my spare time - Director, Jefferson County Health & Human Services Castle Hill Center, 615 Sheridan Port Townsend, WA 98368 360/379-9406 dspecter@co.jefferson.wa.us > ---------- > From: Macdonald, Steven C.[SMTP:scm0303@doh.wa.gov] > Reply To: ph-assess@u.washington.edu > Sent: Thursday, October 08, 1998 11:58 AM > To: Washington public health assessment coordinators > Subject: CDC grant to DOH for asthma surveillance > > Colleagues - Below is a news item drafted for the DOH internal > newsletter. (Please note that a similar description of this grant award > was posted last week on the WSALPHO list.) --Steve > > Steven C Macdonald PhD, MPH > Office of Epidemiology > Washington State Department of Health > Phone: 360-236-4253 > Fax: 360-236-4245 > Email: scm0303@doh.wa.gov > ************************************************************************** > ************ > Department awarded CDC grant for asthma surveillance > > The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has > awarded the Department of Health a $63,000 grant to enhance public health > surveillance of asthma and to evaluate current data systems used for such > surveillance. > > The department will also join with the CDC National Center for > Environmental Health and the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood > Institute to develop a national strategy for asthma surveillance. > > To enhance the current data system, the department will be working with > the American Lung Association of Washington to disseminate data on asthma > mortality, hospitalization, and prevalence through the lung association's > web site. > > Concern about asthma as a public health problem is growing nationally > because of increases in asthma prevalence and emergency room visits. > Asthma is often linked to both outdoor air pollution (from industrial > emissions and from domestic sources such as woodsmoke) and indoor air > quality concerns (such as environmental tobacco smoke and allergens). > > Like most public health prevention efforts, asthma prevention is > multi-faceted. Community health educators and public health nurses > deliver information on prevention of asthma attacks to parents, daycare > centers, and schools. Work-related asthma, such as in metal-working > shops and bakeries, is a focus in occupational health. More recently, > attention has focused on health services delivery issues such as the > quality of medical care and access to adequate ambulatory primary care. > > In its letter of support for the grant application, the Washington State > Association of Local Public Health Official (WSALPHO) said, "We look > forward to the presentation of asthma surveillance data on the webpage to > be established by American Lung Association of Washington. It will be > useful to program planners in local health jurisdictions to have > county-specific data readily available." > > The letter continued: "WSALPHO also looks forward to the evaluation of > the data systems currently available for asthma surveillance. In > particular, we anticipate participating with DOH in the proposed survey > of data users. We expect that WSALPHO members will be able to provide > DOH with special input into selection of queries for the survey, in order > that the survey responses will tell us what we need to know about the > data needed for asthma program planning and evaluation." > > The Washington State Board of Health (BOH), in its letter of support for > the grant application, cited its 1998 Washington State Public Health > Report, which recommended that DOH "Establish new surveillance activities > for environmentally induced diseases and conditions in children, eg, > asthma ..." [emphasis added]. > > The proposal was also strongly supported by the state Department of Labor > and Industries (L&I), which referred to the long-standing DOH-L&I > collaboration on public health surveillance of elevated blood lead > levels, and cited another 1998 BOH recommendation, for DOH and L&I to > "Implement mandatory reporting of selected occupational conditions (eg, > occupational asthma) as part of the revision to the state's notifiable > conditions surveillance system." > > The grant period is one year, starting October 1. Steve Macdonald, the > principal investigator, will soon be seeking volunteers from WSALPHO > members to help design the survey. He is in the Office of Epidemiology > at 360-236-4253. > .