Hello all! My name is Zohir Chowdhury, and right now we will discuss about careers in
environmental health this is a topic that students are particularly interested in
as they study this field they want to know what they can do with the knowledge that they gain
by learning more about environmental health
so where do environmental health professionals work they work in various settings and you can
see in here that state county city health and environmental agencies are one of the main
employers of environmental health professionals uh environmental consulting companies is another
place where uh professionals can work the federal government is another big employer
uh including local water districts air quality management districts
private industries corporation as well as research organizations uh and universities and not to
forget that international organizations also hire environmental professionals
some of the job titles that are common in this field are food inspector or food safety specialist
toxicology toxicologist industrial hygienist or occupational safety manager
or occupational safety specialist communicable disease investigator
air quality manager or engineer or water treatment operator engineer or manager
hazardous waste manager or solid waste specialist as well as environmental advocate educator
are some of the specific titles that you will probably see as you look for jobs in this field
one
specific place where a lot of professionals work is essentially an industrial hygienist or
occupational health and safety specialist and there are various titles that um are
you can see depending on the specific industry where you're working
in uh if you're working in a hospital you may be your title maybe occupational health physician
occupational health nurse if you're working in a specific industry where you're trying to modify
the working conditions your job title may maybe environmental
health and safety manager or engineer um and so let's go over them uh briefly um
in here so the these job titles and job responsibilities as i just mentioned are very
similar with some over with a lot of overlap and the uh job title varies depending on the specific
employer or workplace so occupational health and safety specialists and technicians or managers or
industrial hygienists are responsible for control of hazards that affect workers and the community
they collect data on and special and analyze many types of work environments and work procedures
their work setting they work in a variety of settings such as offices
or factories and job often involves considerable field work and travel
you do require a bachelor's in occupational or environmental health safety or related
scientific or technical field and mph would also be definitely very useful
occupational health physician and occupational health nurse are involved with prevention and
treatment of occupational related illnesses and injuries they investigate hazards in work
environment and develop procedures for the abatement they also conduct health education
programs for prevention of oracle diseases and finally environmental health and safety
managers or engineers combine knowledge of health safety and engineering to develop procedures and
design systems to protect people from illness and injury and property from damage their work their
work environment is typically in offices but they may also spend time at work sites when necessary
which requires travel again a bachelor's degree in environmental health and safety
or an engineering discipline is required mph or ms may also be needed depending on the discipline
in all of these cases i do want to mention that rehl certification
really are is really helpful and this is something that we may talk we will talk in a subsequent
outcome presentation another very popular um job track is food inspector food safety specialist
they're involved with the cleanliness and safety of foods and beverages
consumed by public they inspect restaurants dairies food processing plants and other food
preparation venues in order to control biological hazards from sources such as
e coli salmonella and other food-borne agents they're also responsible for examining methods
for handling processing serving of food to ensure compliance with sanitation rules and regulations
within these fields there may be other job type titles such as restaurant inspectors consumer
safety inspectors import inspectors restaurant inspectors are responsible for overseeing the
safety of food served in local restaurants on the other hand consumer safety inspectors working
privately on meat poultry and egg processing plants ensure the plant is operating safely by
following all safety regulations and they also conduct regulatory oversight activities inside
the plants in matters relating to to other areas of consumer protections example misbranding import
inspectors work at ports and other points of entry to the united states they make sure
that products imported from other countries are as safe as those produced domestically
continuing on with different with environmental careers environmental health inspector is another
job category and they primarily work for state and local governments responsible for monitoring and
enforcing government regulations for environmental quality and this includes pollution inspectors
noise inspectors water quality inspectors sewage inspectors they may also visit toxic waste dumps
factories and other sources of pollution in order to collect air water waste samples for testing
the professionals that are working here they may be sent out to follow up on complaints from the
community attempt to determine the sources and nature of environmental pollution and provide
necessary background data for enforcement actions and there are quite a few fields and
categories within this job title for example drinking water storm water pollution control
ocean water cultural control are all possible job titles and job duties that
environmental professionals or inspectors they might be working on
you must understand relationship between water quality and disease in our modern era the risk
that we that the this risks are subtle but do require a greater commitment to monitoring
also we must evaluate stormwater pollution control techniques storm water can directly affect
ocean water quality and this is a major concern for environmental health wastewater contamination
is another track the potential threat to human health posed by sewage discharge is significant
understanding contamination between sources of wastewater and drinking water are very
common and it's very important to understand that um and it is definitely preventable
indoor air quality uh it's another important field monitoring and immediating mold or other sources
of indoor pollution it's another job track that environmental health professional can specialize
vector control specialist this is also
pretty popular they're responsible for enforcement of various public health laws sanitary codes and
other regulations related to the spread of disease by vectors such as mosquito-borne diseases rabies
or other zoonotic diseases at the local government level maybe they may be responsible for conducting
community education program monitoring animal bites collecting specimens for testing etc
environmental toxicologist is a very popular field as well that requires significant knowledge
of chemicals and how chemicals affect human body the field of environmental toxicology
specializes in the effect of toxic chemicals upon the environment and living creatures such
as human beings and wildlife on the other hand the field of ecotoxicology is concerned with
the effect of pollutants on ecosystems broadly speaking ecotoxicology investigates dispersion
of pollutants into the physical environment that impact upon biological chains such as food chains
and the toxic effects within the ecosystem the work environment of toxicologists are
typically offices and laboratories they're employed by pharmaceuticals hospitals private
industry settings as well as government agency in academia as well as in research and the job
outlook is actually really good you can browse these websites to learn more about the job
outlooks of toxicologists um beside environmental toxicologist we also have occupational industrial
toxicologists medical toxicologists a veterinary toxicologist and forensic toxicologist
occupational industrial toxicologists investigate the effects of chemicals found in the workplace
upon the health of workers medical toxicologist specialized in the prevention evaluation treatment
and monitoring of injury and illness from exposure to drugs and chemicals as well as biological and
radiological agents important areas of medical toxicology include acute tract poisoning
adverse tract effects drug abuse addiction and withdrawal chemicals and hazardous materials as
well as terrorism preparedness venomous bites and stings and environmental and workspace exposures
the medical toxicologists also inform and educate health professionals and the public
about toxicological hazards to pets uh livestocks and wildlife i apologize so that's veterinary
toxicology they work in academia in veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory poison control
centers and government agencies including industry research laboratories and private consulting firms
veterinary toxicologists they study
naturally produce toxins that come from plants animals and bacteria fungi and phytoplanktons and
the toxins that are a result of pharmaceuticals feed additives radiation and environmental agents
one of the main things that a veterinary toxicologist does is help people understand
the toxicological hazards that affect pets livestocks and wildlife and finally forensic
toxicology is a multidisciplinary field involving the detection and interpretation
of the presence of drugs and other potentially toxic compounds in bodily tissues and fluids
moving on to research position in environmental health so environmental health researchers or
analysts they must specialize is a specialized field they must have specialized training in
environmental health and be able to conduct basic research on the risks associated with
exposures to certain specific hazards and conducts statistical analysis of the impact
of such exposures on human populations they may also work in universities and research units
and the job may be in laboratory as laboratory scientists and or laboratory technicians there may
be epidemiologists or biostatisticians as well who can be hired as environmental health researchers
and another very important environmental health
career track is environmental law so environmental lawyers specialize
in the field provide input to government agencies assisting the formulation of environmental
policies and may be involved in litigation concerning environmental health problems
other environmental health discipline our solid and hazardous waste response uh like deals with
solid hazardous respond deals with lead paints or biomedical waste as well as underground storage
tanks and you can see that uh professionals that are involved in solid hazardous response they need
to manage solid waste and prevent problems that it can have with our air water and other areas of
our environment let paint uh professionals deal with lead lead does remain one of the biggest
environmental health threats to children and these professionals play an active role in this issue to
prevent further spread of lead in environment and exposure to children biomedical waste
specialists on the other hand they manage biomedical waste and underground storage tanks
they need to be properly designed so that it doesn't leak in and and contaminate the soil
and ground water so monitoring the health of this underground storage tanks whether they are intact
is very important and environmental professionals do play a role in this as well so i hope that
this set of slides and this discussion was helpful to understand the various environmental health
professionals and the various tracks that environmental professionals can
can take thank you for listening and again please do not forget to subscribe thanks