The Vermont Tracking Program created a new spotlight fact sheet on private drinking water and provided free arsenic drinking water kits to a high risk region in Vermont. The Health Department is halfway to its Healthy Vermonters 2020 goals. And with the help of data stewards from Vermont'sCancer Registryand Health Surveillanceteam, data were added to the portal.
Private Drinking Water Spotlight
The latest installment of the Environmental Health Spotlight series is on private drinking water.
A map developed by Tracking staff revealed high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water in Southwestern Vermont, which is characteristic of the Taconic Allochthon geologic formation in that area. Tracking staff worked with the Rutland District Office, Health Department Lab, and Wells and Castleton town clerks to distribute the spotlight and offer 115 free arsenic test kits to local well owners in seven Southwestern Vermont towns.
In 2016, the Vermont Department of Health reviewed all Healthy Vermonters indicators as part of it's Halfway to Healthy Vermonters 2020 (HV2020) initiative. After gathering input from programs and partners across the department, the original 122 HV2020 indicators have become 134 indicators - 30 indicators were added, 17 were adjusted to align with a data source or change in national guidance and 18 were dropped due to changing guidelines or lack of data. Check out the HV2020 Scorecards for statewide trend data and to learn more about each indicator.
A 3-4-50 community profile was released as part of the Health Department's chronic disease prevention campaign. A community profile for Birth Defects and a community profile for Alcohol, Tobacco, Other Drugs will be coming soon.
Upgrades to the public community water display of data by water system include updating the design to better reflect the number of tests that were sampled and more accurately depict years where water systems had all samples be "non-detects" for that particular year. In addition, map symbology better reflects the relationship of testing results to the maximum contaminant level (MCL) or state drinking water standards.
Vermont is one of 25 states and one city funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a state and national tracking network of environmental and health data for the public, policy makers, researchers, and agencies. The
VT Environmental Public Health Tracking portal provides these data in maps, charts, and tables as a part of the State's continuing effort to help Vermonters better understand the relationship between their environment and their health. Topics include air quality, climate change, public and private drinking water, asthma, birth defects, cancer, carbon monoxide, heart attack, childhood lead poisoning, reproductive health, blue-green algae, and radon.
