Interactive Map: Pinpointing New Jersey’s Polluters

The amount of toxic chemicals released into New Jersey’s air and water has increased from 12.9 million pounds in 2009 to more than 16 million pounds in 2010(USEPA). According to Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey,

 ”Our air-based cancer risk is already well above the federally set risk.”

TRI is a public database containing information on the release and disposal of more than 650 toxic chemicals by some 20,000 facilities across the country. Jaborska said Tri is an important way to provide the public with a look at the cumulative amount of pollution for numerous sources.

Source: NJspotlight

JinGu Lee, VERTICES research Intern. gis@verticies.com

 

Clean Up America with Google Maps

Pick Up America’s mission is to pick up trash across the country and, in the process, educate, and encourage a transition toward zero waste. Their homepage features a Google Map showing the route of their clean-up tour, upcoming events, and links to blog posts about events already completed.

Source: Google Maps Mania

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

EPA Releases New Tool on Water Pollution Across the U.S.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of a new tool that provides the public with important information about pollutants that are released into their local waterways.  The Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool brings together millions of records and allows for easy searching and mapping of water pollution by local area, watershed, company, industry sector, and pollutant. Developed under President Obama’s transparency initiative, Americans can use this new tool to protect their health and the health of their local communities.

Source: EPA

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

Malaria maps show global pattern of disease

A new suite of malaria maps has revealed for the first time. The new maps, which indicate the current global pattern of the disease, have allowed researchers to see how malaria has changed over a number of years.

According to Dr. Simon Hay, who leads the Malaria Atlas Project(MAP) group in Oxford, “one-size-fits all approach to controlling is not appropriate”. He believes that the new maps will provide a practical guide to help target resources.

The maps have been made freely available, along with a wide range of other malaria resources via the launch of a new online portal at www.map.ox.ac.uk.

Source: The Times of India

JinGu Lee, VERTICES research intern. gis@vertices.com

Missouri Health Data

The Missouri Hospital Association launched www.MissouriHealthMatters.com. The site contains quality of care and patient satisfaction data filtered through GIS technology with hospital specific information.

The reports contain the same data as reported to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services with an interface is more user-friendly and locally-focused. It uses ArcGIS Explorer Online.

Source: Columbia Tribune

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

Health gap between north and south in British Columbia

The second edition of the online British Columbia Atlas of Wellness shows that the northerners are more likely to smoke, eat unhealthy food, and die sooner than their counterparts in Vancouver and Victoria.

Source: Times Colonist

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

Comparing Maps of Car Travel and Obesity

An article examined visually, through a series of maps, the association between obesity, diabetes, and sedentary transportation.

The authors, Anne Price and Ariel Godwin, conclude, “the relationship between sedentary travel and health outcomes can be misleading when additional contributing factors are not taken into account. While it is not our intent to claim a direct causal link between transportation modes and obesity rates, it is hard to deny the existence of some geographic patterns.”

Source: Planetizen

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

Harvard provides web platform for data sharing

Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis developed and released WorldMap, a cloud-based open source software platform aimed to make publishing and sharing maps, and other geospatial data easier.

The system is designed to support the research process, allowing information to initially be made private, before being opened to larger groups for refinement, and finally to be published or released to the public.

Source: Harvard

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

Top 10 Developments in Health IT in 2011

Dr. Farzad Mostashari from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology  released a list of the top 10 developments in health IT in 2011.

To see the list, click here.

Source: Nextgov

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com

 

Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak started, but geography and good surveillance came to the rescue. Thomas Haupt, an epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, explains how the disease was tracked to a hospital waterfall.

“Well, it started off with our routine surveillance for Legionnaires’ disease in Wisconsin. We did notice that within a four week period in this small area we had at least eight cases of Legionnaires’ disease. Our follow-up is to ask questions as to where they may have been in the 10 days prior to their onset of illness. At least six of the patients identified that they had been in one particular hospital,” says Thomas.

Source: NPR

Sachiye Day, VERTICES research assistant. sachiye@vertices.com