The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) has the long-term objective of participating in theforefront of data-based public health practice. The objective of this application is continued participation inthe national Environmental Health Specialist Network (EHS-Net) as a state-based EHS-Net site. TheConnecticut (CT) EHS-Net Program is applying to remain a collaborative effort involving DPH Epidemiologyand Emerging Infections Program, DPH Food Protection Program, DPH State Laboratory, and FoodNetlocated at the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. DPH willremain the lead agency for this cooperative agreement application. The objectives of EHS-Net are to: 1)identify environmental antecedents to foodborne illness and disease outbreaks; 2) translate findings intoimproved prevention efforts using a system-based approach; 3) offer training opportunities to current andfuture environmental health specialists; and 4) strengthen the relations among epidemiology, laboratory, andfood protection programs. The CT EHS-Net is applying to continue participating in all functional EHS-Netactivity areas including: a) outbreak and non-outbreak evaluations, b) denominator project, c) improvedreporting of contributing factors, d) ground beef study, e) hand hygiene study, f) EHS-Net questions on theFoodNet Population Survey, g) foodborne alert complaint system, and h) grocery store survey. CT EHS-Netis proposing to conduct several new projects including: a) outbreak and non-outbreak evaluations atinstitutions such as daycare centers and nursing homes, b) evaluating the certifiedfood managerrequirement, c) promotion of risk of ill food workers, and d) a tomato study. CT EHS-Net will continue towork with local health departments to improve the quality of environmental investigations of foodborne illnessoutbreaks and to offer training opportunities in environmental health to students to improve the public healthworkforce. CT EHS-Net will continue with the current staff which includes the PI and Senior Epidemiologistat the DPH Epidemiology and Emerging Infections Program; the Food Protection Program Coordinator andEHS-Net Environmental Health Specialist; staff at the DPH State Laboratory; and the FoodNet Director atYale University.
