Environmental Public Health Performance Standards

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to supporting the adoption and use of National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) as the blueprint for strengthening the infrastructure that supports public health systems.

In keeping with this commitment, the Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services at CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health developed complementary draft Environmental Public Health Performance Standards (EnvPHPS).

These standards can be used to assess local, state, and tribal capability to perform the 10 essential services of environmental public health at all levels. The standards will also more clearly describe what environmental health programs need to do to perform the 10 essential services.

The standards have been drafted and were piloted by attendees at the June 2007 workshop. A free online continuing education course related to the standards is available through the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA-CERT) for continuing education credit for environmental health practitioners and students. CDC plans to begin nationwide implementation of the instrument in 2008.