144.996 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TRACKING; BIOMONITORING.
In cooperation with the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency, the commissioner shall establish an environmental health tracking program to:
(1) coordinate data collection with the Pollution Control Agency, Department of Agriculture, University of Minnesota, and any other relevant state agency and work to promote the sharing of and access to health and environmental databases to develop an environmental health tracking system for Minnesota, consistent with applicable data practices laws;
(2) facilitate the dissemination of aggregate public health tracking data to the public and researchers in accessible format;
(3) develop a strategic plan that includes a mission statement, the identification of core priorities for research and epidemiologic surveillance, and the identification of internal and external stakeholders, and a work plan describing future program development and addressing issues having to do with compatibility with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program;
(4) develop written data sharing agreements as needed with the Pollution Control Agency, Department of Agriculture, and other relevant state agencies and organizations, and develop additional procedures as needed to protect individual privacy;
(5) organize, analyze, and interpret available data, in order to:
(i) characterize statewide and localized trends and geographic patterns of population-based measures of chronic diseases including, but not limited to, cancer, respiratory diseases, reproductive problems, birth defects, neurologic diseases, and developmental disorders;
(ii) characterize statewide and localized trends and geographic patterns in the occurrence of environmental hazards and exposures;
(iii) assess the feasibility of integrating disease rate data with indicators of exposure to the selected environmental hazards such as biomonitoring data, and other health and environmental data;
(iv) incorporate newly collected and existing health tracking and biomonitoring data into efforts to identify communities with elevated rates of chronic disease, higher likelihood of exposure to environmental hazards, or both;
(v) analyze occurrence of environmental hazards, exposures, and diseases with relation to socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity;
(vi) develop and implement targeted plans to conduct more intensive health tracking and biomonitoring among communities; and
(vii) work with the Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Agriculture, and other relevant state agency personnel and organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate preventive measures to reduce elevated rates of diseases and exposures identified through activities performed under sections 144.995 to 144.998; and
(6) submit a biennial report to the chairs and ranking members of the committees with jurisdiction over environment and health by January 15, beginning January 15, 2009, on the status of environmental health tracking activities and related research programs, with recommendations for a comprehensive environmental public health tracking program.
The commissioner shall:
(1) conduct biomonitoring of communities on a voluntary basis by collecting and analyzing biospecimens, as appropriate, to assess environmental exposures to designated chemicals;
(2) conduct biomonitoring of pregnant women and minors on a voluntary basis, when scientifically appropriate;
(3) communicate findings to the public, and plan ensuing stages of biomonitoring and disease tracking work to further develop and refine the integrated analysis;
(4) share analytical results with the advisory panel and work with the panel to interpret results, communicate findings to the public, and plan ensuing stages of biomonitoring work; and
(5) submit a biennial report to the chairs and ranking members of the committees with jurisdiction over environment and health by January 15, beginning January 15, 2009, on the status of the biomonitoring program and any recommendations for improvement.
Data collected under the biomonitoring program are health data under section 13.3805.