ATSDR's Partnership to Promote Local Efforts To Reduce Environmental Exposure

archived

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR’s) Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposure (APPLETREE) Program is critical to ATSDR’s success in accomplishing its mission in communities nationwide. The Program previously funded 25 state health departments. ATSDR’s awardees will use Cooperative Agreement Program funding to advance ATSDR’s primary goal of keeping communities safe from harmful environmental exposures and related diseases. The APPLETREE Program’s primary goal is to give partners the resources to build their capacity to assess and respond to site-specific issues involving human exposure to hazardous substances in the environment. The Program helps ATSDR’s partners identify exposure pathways at specific sites; educate affected communities and local health professionals about site contamination and potential health effects; make recommendations to prevent exposure; review health outcome data to evaluate potential links between site contaminants and community health outcomes; and document the effects of environmental remediation on health.ATSDR Technical Project Officers (TPOs) are significantly involved with APPLETREE partners in developing workplans, reviewing site-specific documents, and providing technical and programmatic guidance. TPOs connect partners with subject matter experts at ATSDR headquarters as needed for sites with complex or unique issues. In addition to, ATSDR regional staff are available to provide support and coordination for our awardees, especially for sites with strong community interest, or where liaison with EPA is specifically needed. The APPLETREE Program enhances ATSDR's communication with state, local, and federal health and environmental agencies. Because the APPLETREE awardees are located nationwide and require less travel times, this program enhances the capability of ATSDR to conduct its site-specific activities in a timely fashion. By being geographically closer to the site-related issues, the APPLETREE awardees tend to be more accepted by local communities than federal staff. Public health assessment activities conducted by APPLETREE awardees contribute a large percentage of the site-specific environmental health evaluations completed by ATSDR annually.

High