The Great Lakes center's health hazard evaluation program: Promoting community environmental health through partnerships between academic and public health departments

The Great Lakes Center of Excellence in Environmental Health (GLCEEH),an innovative capacity-building component of the University of Illinois, performs health hazard evaluations in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health and local health departments. GLCEEH has provided state and local health departments with faculty, industrial-hygiene expertise, and research expertise to help them investigate a variety of environmental health issues. This article describes health hazard evaluations performed with support from the National Center for Environmental Health, lessons learned, and recommendations for successful collaboration between academic and public health departments. From the academic perspective, health hazard evaluations are beneficial because they provide faculty and students with the opportunity to engage in public health practice and encounter new issues that advance the science of environmental health through research. From the perspective of a public health department, health hazard evaluations are beneficial because they address priority environmental health concerns and build the capacity of department personnel to conduct health hazard evaluations with internal resources. A collaborative health hazard evaluation program increases public health capacity by developing new approaches to environmental health problems and by sharing limited resources.