Environmental Health Practice

Build capacity to use data to address environmental hazards and improve services

People working together to build a puzzle.

Environmental health practice is critical to the public health delivery system because environmental health professionals are strategically positioned to assess, control, and prevent emerging threats. 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.
About 1 in 4 environmental health professionals plans to retire within 5 years, presenting recruitment and workforce development needs.

Environmental Health Capacity

Learn about CDC’s program to detect, prevent, and control environmental health hazards through data-driven, evidence-based approaches.

Response and Recovery Activities

Find environmental health response activities for all-hazards emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.

Vector Control

Improve your program’s capacity to control vectors and public health pests with our free resources.

Using Informatics to Improve EH Practice

Learn about our efforts to support using informatics to improve environmental health practice.

National Environmental Public Health Internship Program (NEPHIP)

Learn about an internship that links environmental health students with health departments.

EH Practice Resources

Improve the performance and quality of the services your program offers with our free resources.

Featured EH Practice Resources

Environmental Public Health and the 10 Essential Services – Identify how environmental health programs help deliver the 10 Essential Public Health Services in their communities and link to and support broader public health initiatives such as public health accreditation.
UNCOVER EH – Learn about our initiative to assess the current state and future trends in environmental health.

Additional Resources

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) Rodeo Project – Read about EHS technical assistance in 2012 to develop and implement a dog collaring program on reservations in Arizona to halt disease spread by dogs, the main source of exposure to disease-transmitting ticks.
Community Environmental Health Assessment (CEHA) – Learn how CEHAs can strengthen environmental health programs.
Lead Exposure Reduction Plan in La Oroya, Peru – Read about EHS technical assistance in 2004 on an integrated plan to address lead pollution problems in La Oroya, Peru.