Neal Lustig, MPH, Director of Health

The Pomperaug District Department of Health is an independent division of government created in 1986. The Health District is committed to improving the health and well being of the residents in its constituent towns of Southbury, Woodbury, and Oxford.

The Pomperaug Health District carries out its mandated responsibilities in the areas of Environmental Health, Health Promotion, and Disease Prevention. There are presently seven full-time and one part-time employees. Each community ap points members to the Board of Directors, which is the gov ern ing body of the Health District. Southbury and Oxford have two members, and Woodbury has one member. The town representatives are appointed for three year terms, and each town is allowed one representative per 10,000 population. The Pomperaug Health Dis trict is com mit ted to protecting the public's health in all our communities and this report refl ects our efforts.

Fiscal year 2006 was, once again, a busy year for local public health agencies in Connecticut. The Health District continued to work on its Public Health Preparedness Project (grant funded) in order to be better able to respond if a natural or man-made disaster occurrs. Toward that goal we sponsored a Point of Dispensing (POD) Drill on April 19, 2006. This major effort, involving more that 230 volunteers, was a full scale test of our emergency preparedness capabilities. During the drill we distributed more than 500 prescription medications from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). The Health District continued development of the Health Alert Network (HAN). This network will enable the Pomperaug Health District to communicate at any time with all members of our emergency response community including schools, political bodies, police and fire departments, private physicians and numerous other entities, The HAN would be used to distribute important Public Health Information pertaining to natural and man-made disasters, disease outbreaks, and health advisories of all types.

In the environmental health arena, the District approved 155 new houses, 198 drinking water wells, 535 building additions for code compliance, and 66 new building lots for subdivision purposes. This level of activity represents a substantial slow down in construction from previous years. The reduction in activity correlates with the national drop in home construction and increases in mortgage costs. The Health District, in addition to above, has primary responsibility for inspection of food service establishments, day care centers, public pools and private well water supplies.

We continued many of our existing community health programs in high blood pressure control, diabetes self care and skin cancer screening. In summary, it has been my pleasure to serve all the residents of Southbury, Woodbury and Oxford.