APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY CONCERNS - APPLIED PUBLIC-HEALTH

Public health workers are challenged to address community health conce rns believed to be related to environmental exposures. The challenge i s heightened when there are multiple potential exposures and numerous health concerns. In a community in Washington State, we employed diffe rent approaches depending on the specificity of diagnosis and the rela tion of the disease to environmental exposures. For diseases with spec ific diagnoses and questionable associations with environmental exposu res, we began by determining whether rates of disease were higher than expected. Different approaches were needed for three different health concerns. Major limitations were estimating community population coun ts and obtaining comparison rates from published literature. Despite l imitations, epidemiologic data developed at a relatively low cost were useful in assisting the community in understanding its health status.