“Environmental public health... touches everyone’s life every day.”
Environmental public health addresses the interrelationship between human health and the environment. It has been described as the art and science of protecting against environmental factors that may adversely affect human health. Human health protection comes through the many national, state and local environmental public health services.
WHO’s definition of environmental public health www.who.int/phe/en/
Environmental public health services are essential to protecting the public from environmental threats, which are often in the news.
- click on links for more details:
Typical responsibilities of an
environmental health practitioner include:
- air quality
- safe drinking water
- water pollution control
- food safety
- radiation
- noise pollution
- disaster planning and response
- toxic chemical control
- pesticide control
- healthy housing
- biological and chemical terrorism
- global environmental issues
- solid waste (trash) management
- land use planning
- public education
- community environmental health assessment
- integrated pest management
- liquid waste management
- risk assessment
REFERENCE: CDC. A National Strategy to Revitalize Environmental Public Health Services. September 2003.
FACT:
About 76 million cases of foodborne illness occur in the U.S. each year with 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths and ailments.
The 30-year increase in life expectancy to 76.7 years from 1900 to 1998 has been attributed largely to environmental public health services.
Environmental public health services have been the backbone of public health in the U.S. since 1798.