The Utah Department of Health already has created a statewide database that would become part of a national effort under a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. and Hatch, a Republican.

For the past six years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have worked with a group of 16 states on pilot projects with the hope of expanding the effort nationwide.

Clinton said in a statement that the New York database helped lead to pesticide regulation reform in New York City.

The program in Utah, which has only recently become operational, allows employees to conduct searches in hours that used to take months.

Sam Lefevre, manager of the Utah Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, conducted a study of a possible cancer cluster in the West Valley City area during a flight to Atlanta. He found no cluster. Before the data was compiled and streamlined, such an examination took him at least half a year.

The tracking network combines data from already established programs and then standardizes it into one searchable database.

“There is considerable information out there that may reveal links of environmental exposures to health effects," Hatch said in a statement. "Only through coordination of this information at local, state, and federal levels will scientists be able to make important discoveries that will bolster America's public health defense.”

The bill would ramp up funding, with $100 million available in the next fiscal year. The original 16 states plan to start sharing data next September.

mcanham@sltrib.com