Environmental Health Practice

Source: National Center for Environmental Health — Content from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (public domain).

Key Points

* The environmental health workforce is critical to protecting public health and the environment.
* These professionals help ensure healthy communities through the practice of environmental health.

Did you know?

About 1 in 4 environmental health professionals plans to retire within 5 years1, presenting recruitment and workforce development needs.

Describing the workforce helps us identify gaps in staffing and training and prepare to meet future challenges.

Why it matters

Building a stronger environmental health practice is important because

* Environmental health professionals commonly work in multiple program areas, requiring unique technical and scientific expertise.
* Environmental health professionals can leverage data to increase the impact of their services and inform best practices.
* Environmental health efforts often go unnoticed until problems occur (for example, foodborne outbreaks, vector-borne diseases, contaminated water supplies, disasters).