Monday, May 12, 2025
5/12/2025
ATSDR's Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposures (APPLETREE) - The Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) is requesting funding from ATSDR for its proposed program “Building Capacity to Reduce Environmental Exposures in CT.” The overarching goals of CT’s proposed program are to continue building capacity to identify pathways of exposure to hazardous substances in the environment and respond with appropriate public health interventions to reduce the exposures. Our proposed program is structured around the long-term outcome of reducing, preventing or eliminating exposures to hazardous chemicals in the environment. CT DPH has received funding from ATSDR for its Cooperative Agreement Program for 30 years. Over this time, we have built a program that is highly qualified, effective, coordinated and capable of responding to a wide array of hazardous site and general environmental health issues. We have also demonstrated the many positive public health impacts of our work. CT has a clear programmatic need for funding to continue its work. CT is one of the most densely populated states in the US and has one of the highest per capita number of hazardous wastes sites. CT proposes to continue housing its program within a single organizational unit to enhance integration and coordination of activities. We propose to maintain our current core team of highly skilled, trained, experienced staff of one health assessor/principal investigator (PI) at 100%, one health assessor at 100% and one health educator at 20%. These three staff have a combined more than 30 years of experience working directly in an ATSDR-funded capacity. CT's proposed program will continue to have a wide array of in-kind resources and expertise within CT DPH including toxicology, epidemiology, statistics and GIS. We will also continue to maintain partnerships with other units across CT DPH and with our partners external to CT DPH. All activities will continue to be planned in close coordination with the ATSDR Technical Project Team. We have prepared a robust work plan for year one containing 11 sites/projects, 7 of which are high priority (significant state, federal, community or media interest). We anticipate preparing at least 5 Health Consultations (HCs) and 20 Technical Assists (TAs). Our PI will continue to use ATSDR's systems for tracking our sites, activities and outcomes. We will continue to use the following strategies to ensure that public health issues are identified, evaluated, communicated and addressed: (1) conduct site-specific assessments to evaluate health risks posed by sites, chemical releases, hazardous materials or emergency response action, (2) provide recommendations to prevent, reduce or eliminate harmful exposures posed by hazardous chemicals, (3) identify, develop and maintain partner and stakeholder relationships to support activities, and (4) educate community, stakeholders and health professionals on exposure risks and recommendations. We will also continue to sustain our child care SAFER program to identify and address child care locations with potential environmental risks. The PI will ensure that all work products meet ATSDR policy and guidance and receive independent review, as appropriate. ATSDR-funded staff will continue to meet bi-weekly to set priorities and plan and coordinate projects. This planning will also include collecting performance measures to document our program's impacts and using evaluation findings to improve our program. We believe our application demonstrates a clear need for funding and a strong proposed program to address these needs.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).