SB 5495 - DIGEST

Declares that analysis of available data used to track and monitor chronic diseases is critical to all of the following: (1) Knowing where and how to put in place the most effective strategies to prevent diseases;

(2) Assessing the contribution of diseases to disabilities and premature mortality;

 (3) Measuring the effectiveness of prevention strategies; and

(4) Generating hypotheses that may lead to new scientific knowledge about the causes of, and most effective ways to fight, chronic diseases.

Declares it is the intent of the legislature in creating the environmental health tracking system to form a partnership to do all of the following: (1) Provide a continually updated data base, with linkages to the survey, biomonitoring, and disease data collected under section 3 of this act, in order to assess the impact of environmental contaminants on the human body;

(2) On an ongoing basis, track and evaluate a variety of chronic diseases in relation to environmental exposures, including state and local data on actual incidences of chronic disease;

(3) Make the data available to the public in an accessible and useful format; and

(4) Ultimately provide the data to the relevant board, division, or office within the department of health, the department of ecology, the department of labor and industries, and the University of Washington school of public health for the development of appropriate preventive strategies.