ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Environmental Health Practitioner, Environmental Health Technician, Environmental Health Officer

The Sector
Environmental health practitioners (EHPs) work in a diverse range of organisations, from local councils to private companies, to consultancies and the armed forces. They may be enforcing environmental health legislation or providing advice on environmental health issues to local businesses, landlords and members of the public, or they may be ensuring that the organisation they work for complies with all the relevant legislation and observes high standards of environmental health. Others work overseas, helping developing countries improve their environmental health services. EHPs are highly qualified professionals whose work, as well as being varied and challenging, makes a real difference to people’s health and well-being. Along with environmental health technicians, they work to ensure food is safe to eat, to improve housing conditions, to safeguard standards of workplace health and safety, and to create a better environment, for example by tackling problems such as air, noise and water pollution.
 
Sector profile
There are approximately 10,000 registered environmental health practitioners (EHPs) working in both the private and public sector. Environmental health technicians work mainly in local government and will often hold specialist diplomas in relevant subjects areas such as food safety or health and safety inspection.

Issues and trends
The role of EHPs is expanding, as public health continues to move up the political agenda. As well as being a profession that makes a real difference on the ground to people and communities, EHPs are also using their specialist skills to influence policy development and coordinate its implementation. The outlook for the profession is excellent. New entrants have a good choice of jobs and there is an attractive starting salary too.

For more information, go to www.cieh.org