Keeping track of the history of past and present illnesses and the changes to the environment in any given are is important to the future of healthcare and well being of every individual in modern society. As the environment changes around us, so do the way illness progress and decline. Changes in the way we handle things that we interact with on a daily basis and where it comes from has helped improve and allowed for decreases in contamination. “Since 1900, safer and healthier foods have resulted from decreases in microbial contamination and increases in nutritional content.” (Public Health Achievements, N.d.)  When it comes to concerns in diseases that are caused by poor air quality, there are trackers that are in place in certain areas of the united states to collect data from the air itself. “Approximately 20% of counties in the United States have actual air monitors. With modeled data, the Tracking Network is able to create indicators for counties that do not have monitors (excluding Alaska and Hawaii)” (Outdoor Air., 2018, October 09).

The study of environmental diseases has been ongoing and studies are based by states in some cases “One of the national health objectives for 2000 (HP2000) is to establish and monitor nonoccupational “sentinel” environmental diseases, including asthma, heatstroke, hypothermia, heavy metal poisoning, pesticide poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, acute chemical poisoning, and methemoglobinemia, in at least 35 states.”(Monitoring Environmental Disease — United States, 1997, 1998). This study shows that there are systems put into place in order to monitor certain diseases in certain groups of people. “Surveillance systems should be simple, sensitive, representative, and timely to be most effective in preventing and controlling disease.” .”(Monitoring Environmental Disease — United States, 1997, 1998).  With more environmental surveillance systems in place, I believe with the constant change in environment, it may help with preventing more serious diseases from changing and needing to be monitors.

References:

Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900-1999. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm

Outdoor Air. (2018, October 09). Retrieved from https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showAirData.action

Monitoring Environmental Disease — United States, 1997. (1998). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 47(25), 522-525. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/stable/23308590