February 8, 2024

About New Jersey Tracking Program

The New Jersey (NJ) Tracking Program collaborates to enhance the state's environmental and public health data, infrastructure, and expertise to improve the health of residents.

Background

NJ is the 4th smallest state by area, but the 11th most populous with nearly 9 million residents. It is the most densely populated state in the United States.

NJ is divided into 21 counties and 565 municipalities. Unlike other states, all NJ land is part of a municipality. Twenty-two of NJ's municipalities have populations over 65,000.

About 12% of NJ residents obtain their drinking water from a private well.

Core Goals

Creating indicators that combine data and context for health and environmental datasets which can be used for ongoing surveillance, targeting activities, and evaluation
Providing easy online access to user-customized datasets, charts, tables, and maps
Conducting outreach and education to expand the use of health and environmental data at the local and county level

Accomplishments

Outreach Partnerships Increase the Radon Testing Rate

To coincide with Radon Action Month, the New Jersey Tracking Program (NJ Tracking) conducted an awareness campaign in January 2017. NJ Tracking partnered with the state's Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health to promote radon testing and mitigation in over 500 cities. With their partners' help, NJ Tracking sent informational mailings, posted a variety of social media messaging, produced and shared a podcast, participated in a radio interview to help increase awareness about the importance of testing homes for radon. In addition, NJ Tracking and partners gained the support of the Governor, who issued a proclamation encouraging testing homes for radon. Due to the outreach program, the state’s radon database showed nearly a 40% increase in homes tested for radon during the month of January 2017, compared to the previous month. This marked the first increase in NJ radon testing rates in three years.

Aiding in Disaster Response during Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy, a severe storm in October 2012, affected 24 states. The superstorm caused severe damage in many areas, especially in New Jersey, New York City, and other parts of New York State. Before the storm hit NJ, the state Tracking team and its partners quickly created and activated a real-time surveillance tool to track hurricane-related emergency room visits throughout the state. Additionally, NJ added a hurricane-related data feature to EpiCenter, the state health department’s existing real-time surveillance system. The efforts of the tracking staff, in partnership with other health department staff and other agencies, informed emergency and public health responses to meet residents’ needs after Hurricane Sandy.

Unique Data

All state and local tracking programs collect and display a set of standard data. But individual programs may host other data that are important to their populations. New Jersey's unique data include the following.