Chapter 8 - Environmental Health Surveillance System

California Health and Safety Code — §§ 104324-104324.5

Sections (5)

Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 538, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.

(a)It is the intent of the Legislature to establish an Environmental Health Surveillance System (EHSS) in accordance with this chapter. The purpose of the EHSS shall be to establish ongoing surveillance of the environmental exposures and diseases affecting Californians, with a focus on prevalence and determinants of chronic diseases. The Regents of the University of California are requested to cooperate with the division and the office in establishing the EHSS.

(b)The objectives of the EHSS are as follows:

(1)To track and evaluate a variety of chronic diseases in relation to environmental exposures.

(2)To allow both government and university investigators and public health officials to assess the impact of environmental contaminants on the human body.

(3)To provide information to the relevant board, department, or office within the California Environmental Protection Agency and to the relevant branch or division within the State Department of Health Services for the development of appropriate preventive strategies.

§ 104324.2

Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 664, Sec. 150. Effective January 1, 2003.

(a)On or before July 1, 2002, the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control in the State Department of Health Services, in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, shall create a working group of technical experts, including experts who have knowledge of the sensitivity and exposure of children, women of childbearing age, seniors, and disparately affected populations to environmental hazards, to do all of the following:

(1)Develop possible approaches to establishing the EHSS, including an estimated cost for each approach.

(2)Prepare and submit a report to the State Department of Health Services, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and appropriate legislative committees, by July 1, 2003, on the possible approaches to establishing the EHSS, including an estimated cost of each approach, and the recommended approach to establishing an EHSS for California.

(3)Develop the health and environmental measurements needed to do both of the following:

(A)Obtain an ongoing picture of the health of Californians.

(B)Establish a database that may facilitate the examination of the relationship between chronic diseases, including birth defects, and the environment.

(b)The Regents of the University of California are requested to cooperate with the division and the office in creating the work group described in this section.

§ 104324.25

Added by Stats. 2003, Ch. 407, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2004.

(a)On or before July 1, 2004, the State Department of Health Services, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the University of California shall jointly develop and sign a memorandum of understanding to assess the feasibility of both of the following:

(1)Integrating existing environmental hazard, exposure, and health outcome data.

(2)Describing how these data correspond to recommendations in the final report of the expert working group established under this chapter regarding the establishment of an environmental health tracking system.

(b)The California Environmental Health Tracking Program in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control of the department shall obtain all the following information:

(1)A description of the relevant laws, regulations, and policies that authorize or mandate environmental hazard and disease surveillance.

(2)A comprehensive description of California’s public health surveillance and environmental hazard, exposure, and health outcome monitoring information systems, including, but not limited to, the purpose, scope, contents, and capabilities of each system.

(3)A description of the current sources of financial support for public health surveillance, environmental hazard, exposure, and health outcome monitoring information systems, and related funds.

(c)The California Environmental Health Tracking Program may collect any relevant information, including information related to other priority data systems identified by the working group established under this chapter, from any state agency, board, department, or office.

(d)(1)

The Legislature finds and declares that the activities requested under subdivisions (a) and (b) are within the scope of existing contracts and funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the State Department of Health Services and the University of California, and are provided to support the planning and development of an environmental health tracking system in California.

(2)Subdivisions (a) and (b) shall be implemented only to the extent that federal funds remain available for the activities specified in those subdivisions. No General Fund moneys shall be used to implement subdivisions (a) and (b).

§ 104324.3

Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 538, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would require the adoption and implementation, by specified dates, of one of the approaches recommended by the working group pursuant to Section 104324.2.

§ 104324.5

Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 538, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.

This chapter shall only apply to the University of California to the extent that the Regents of the University of California make it applicable by appropriate resolution.