NYC DOHMH - Environmental Health

Information and Resources
For Your Health

Translate This Page

Print This Page

Email a Friend

Text Size :

Information for:

Health Department:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NYC Environmental Public Health Tracking Portal?

The Tracking Portal is a dynamic web-based system that tracks key environmental indicators and health outcomes across NYC.

Why was the Tracking Portal created?

The New York City Health Department participates in the national Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. The Network is an effort led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to share data and analyze trends in environmental public health across the nation.

How can the Tracking Portal be used?

The Tracking Portal improves access to data that can lead to public health interventions.
As a resource for environmental health staff and community leaders to use with the public to answer some basic environmental health inquiries.
Help target interventions for neighborhoods where data shows there are exposures to EH hazards and / or health outcomes exist that may be related to EH exposures.
Timely, integrated environmental and health data at the federal, state and local levels via the national and state tracking networks will provide a basis for early notification of pending environmental events.
Nationally and locally, it will help track environmental health progress. Currently, no standardized system exists for environmental health and there is a fundamental gap in our nation’s knowledge of how the environment affects health. For example, chronic disease accounts for 70 percent of deaths in the United States. And links between certain chronic diseases and the environment have been reported, however, many of these connections remain unclear.

What data are available on the Tracking Portal?

The data comes from a variety of sources on exterior and indoor environments, as well as selected acute and chronic health outcomes that may be associated with environmental exposures. These sources include:

National Transit Database

NYC Bureau of Vital Statistics

NYC Community Air Survey

NYC Community Health Survey

NYC Permit and Occupancy Data

NYC Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report

NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation Data

NYC Sustainable Streets Index

NYC Food Safety and Community Sanitation Tracking System

NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey

NYC Lead Poisoning Prevention Program

NYC Nicotine Patch and Gum Program

NYC PlaNYC Indicator Data

NYC Poison Control Center

NYC Planning and Land Use Tax Output

NYC Youth Risk Behavioral Survey

NY Harbor Water Quality Survey

NY Metropolitan Transit

NYS Cancer Registry

NYS Congenital Malformation Registry

NYS Pesticide Sales and Use Registry

NYS Safe Drinking Water Information System

NYS Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Census

Center For Disease Control and Prevention

How are data on the Tracking Portal organized?

Data are organized into 6 topic areas (PDF) with sub-topics that fall into each area.

What tools does the Tracking Portal offer users?

“Quick View” is a neighborhood-at-a-glance indicator summary report comparing the selected neighborhood to its borough and the city as a whole
“Map” and “Explore” data at the city, borough and neighborhood levels:
“Build A Table”: combine as many measures/indicators as desired
“Link Data”: create scatter plots that show the relationship between selected indicators and other indicators where a review of literature indicates there is reasonable scientific evidence that a causal relationship exists
Learn more about the data by checking out About this Data

How does the Tracking Portal differ from other DOHMH resources?

a dynamic web-based system pulling pre-aggregated data so confidentiality is always ensured
Tracks key environmental indicators and health outcomes across NYC
Includes data from a variety of sources on exterior and indoor environments, as well as selected acute and chronic health outcomes that may be associated with environmental exposures.

What is Metadata?

Metadata is a set of information that describes each source of data on the EPHT Portal, including publishing organization, purpose, access, quality, and date range available. Users can use key words to search Metadata to find out what data sources are available on the Portal and to learn more about them.