State health departments are lagging in planning for the replacement of retiring employees, according to a survey from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.Roughly 85 percent reported they have no plan.”The diminishing ratio of public health workers and high percentages of those eligible for retirement are of concern to maintaining an effective public health system,” said Amy Eyler, associate professor and principal investigator of the study, “Administrative Evidence-based Practices in State Chronic Disease Practitioners,” published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.