Surveillance

Missouri is one of ten state partners currently participating in ATSDR’s National Toxic Substance Incidents Program (NTSIP). MHMIS collects information on toxic substance releases in Missouri and enters the data into ATSDR’s database. This national level of surveillance allows MHMIS to monitor hazmat incident trends across states, leading to adoption of best practices for incident response, surveillance, and prevention.

Data Sources

MHMIS works with a number of resources to learn about incidents and to supplement initial reports with additional information. Data sources include:

Case Definition

MHMIS tracks uncontrolled or illegal acute releases of toxic substances. “Acute” may refer to the duration of the incident or to the consequences.

A toxic substance includes, but is not limited to, any element, substance, compound, or mixture including disease-causing agents, which after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food chain, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, physiological malformations including malformations in reproduction, or physical deformation in such organisms or their offspring. Toxic substances include chemical, biological, radiological, and medical materials.

Data Collection

MHMIS continuously collects data on hazardous substance releases to monitor trends and identify ways to reduce associated human health impacts. Data that are collected include, but are not limited to:

  • Event date, time, and duration
  • Event location
  • Site description (general land use, associated industries)
  • Cause of release (equipment involved, type of error, etc.)
  • Substance information (name, quantity released, extent of release)
  • Human health impacts (victim count, injury description & severity, treatment, etc.)
  • Decontamination
  • Area restriction, evacuation, sheltering
  • Response activities (personnel involved, duration of emergency phase)

If you can provide MHMIS with information on an incident (and have already reported it to the appropriate authorities), contact:

HAZMATIncidentSurveillance@health.mo.gov
Bureau of Environmental Epidemiology
(573) 751-6102
Toll Free: (866) 628-9891