About Environmental Health Data
Links are provided for exploring information about the environment and human health. Each provides some information about chemicals in the environment, exposures and health outcomes.
- Environmental data
- Tell us about chemicals and radiation in the environment. Some provide good exposure information (concentrations of chemicals that people might breathe, eat or touch).
- Exposure data (e.g. biological monitoring data)
- Tell us about the concentrations of certain chemicals inside people's bodies (such as blood lead levels).
- Health data
- Show the rates of certain diseases or conditions.
- Other data
- Help to explore relationships between exposures and health effects. These are data that describe people (age, race and sex), behavior or lifestyle choices that also can affect the likelihood that people are diagnosed with a particular health condition.
Unless we have evidence that people were exposed to a chemical, there is no way to examine whether it is related to a health effect. More information is available about the levels of chemicals in the environment than the levels of chemicals in people's bodies, so environmental data are often used to estimate human exposures. And often we use other data that describe people (age, sex, lifestyle or residence) to get a better picture of how chemicals in the environment might affect human health.