Environmental Health Practice

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.
Hands holding puzzle pieces

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).
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Content Source:
National Center for Environmental Health
  1. Gerding JA, Landeen E, Kelly KR, Whitehead S, Dyjack DT, Sarisky J, et al. Uncovering environmental health: An initial assessment of the profession's health department workforce and practice. J Environ Health. 2019;81(10):24-33.