This may vary from providing environmental health services in communities impacted by a natural disaster, working with the FDA to determine the source of contamination of imported vegetables, or assisting a county health department investigate a disease outbreak related to recreational water use. Research and development is another important activity of the branch. A critical role of state and local environmental health programs is to identify environmental factors contributing to disease outbreaks, monitor environmental conditions known to be associated with disease outbreaks, and ultimately develop interventions that prevent disease by addressing the environmental factors. The EHSB is developing methods to describe the role of the environment in disease causation. It is through partnerships that we learn the needs of the state, local, and tribal environmental health professionals.
Partnerships exist with state, local, and tribal environmental health programs.
Partnerships have also been established with national associations. We have also developed partnerships with academic institutions both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The mission is preparing state, local, and tribal environmental health professionals for the 21st century. These projects study the environmental factors contributing to the occurrence of disease. Two areas of interest are identifying the environmental antecedents associated with food borne illness and diseases related to recreational water use.