The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has released a new draft Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool titled CalEnviroScreen Version 2.0.  CalEnviroScreen is a tool that identifies portions of the state that have higher pollution burdens and vulnerabilities than other areas.  CalEnviroScreen uses existing environmental, health, demographic, and socioeconomic data to create a screening score to assist CalEPA and its Boards, Departments, and Office, to focus available time, resources, and programs to improve the environmental health to those areas most burdened by pollution.   

Version 2.0 has revised the tool by incorporating additional indicators of contaminants in drinking water and unemployment rates, modifying the geographic scale by using census tracts instead of zip codes, and incorporating updated information for the original indicators where available.      

OEHHA and CalEPA will conduct three public workshops in Sacramento, Fresno, and Los Angeles to provide opportunity for verbal feedback on the draft. Full details on the tool, workshops, and public comment period can be accessed here. Comments and suggestions from stakeholder groups and the general public are due by Friday, May 23, 2014.