- Serve the public through responsive public health actions to promote healthy and safe environments and prevent harmful exposures.
- ATSDR is directed by congressional mandate to perform specific functions concerning the effect on public health of hazardous substances in the environment. These functions include public health assessments of waste sites, health consultations concerning specific hazardous substances, health surveillance and registries, response to emergency releases of hazardous substances, applied research in support of public health assessments, information development and dissemination, and education and training concerning hazardous substances … (full text about ATSDR).
Homepage;
A-Z Index; Data Resources; Education; Emergency response; Calendar; Employment; Funding; Regionals; Publications; Accessibility; e-Government; CDC-FOIA;
Address: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA;
Contact.
Vision, Mission, Goals, & Core Values:
- Vision: Safer, healthier people in a safer, healthier environment.
- Mission: Serve the public through responsive public health actions to promote healthy and safe environments and prevent harmful exposures.
Goals:
1. Protect the public from environmental hazards and toxic exposures:
- Investigate and prevent health effects related to human exposures to environmental hazards.
- Prepare for and respond to emergencies, man-made disasters, and natural disasters.
- Investigate and respond to acute hazards and exposures.
- Promote prevention, control and elimination of long-term hazardous exposures.
2. Promote healthy environments:
- Promote safe and healthy environments in homes, schools, communities, and transportation means, through best practices, technical assistance, education, partnerships, and other approaches.
- Promote safe air, water, food, waste management, and energy production to improve human health.
3. Advance the science of environmental public health:
- Collect, analyze, and summarize data on environmental exposures and health.
- Develop analytical methods that identify, monitor and address environmental public health threats.
- Conduct research to identify associations between environmental exposures and health risks.
- Undertake translational research to study the effectiveness of interventions to minimize hazardous exposures and promote healthy environments.
4. Support environmental public health practice:
- Develop, implement, and evaluate environmental public health programs.
- Expand collaborations to build environmental public health capacity nationwide.
- Provide technical assistance to state and local health departments, communities and other partners.
- Strengthen the environmental public health workforce through training and other capacity building efforts.
5. Educate communities, partners, and policy makers about environmental health risks and protective measures:
- Develop proactive communication and education products to reach a variety of audiences.
- Respond to inquiries on environmental health topics from the public, partners, the media, and policy makers.
- Promote behaviors and practices that enhance healthy environments and reduce environmental health risks.
6. Promote environmental justice and reduce health disparities associated with environmental exposures:
- Identify populations that are particularly vulnerable to environmental exposures.
- Ensure that environmental public health programs address environmental justice principles.
- Build partnerships with organizations focused on reduction of health disparities.
7. Provide unique scientific and technical expertise to advance public health science and practice:
- Conduct collaborative laboratory research that yields critical population-level data, contributes to greater understanding of adverse health outcomes, and provides information to evaluate public health interventions.
- Assure quality laboratory analyses for priority public health programs.
- Provide public health and epidemiologic expertise to the aid of populations affected by complex humanitarian emergencies.
Core Values and Guiding Principles: … (full text).