Environmental Health

Land Use Planning | Food Safety | Environmental Health Policy |

Wastewater Treatment | Recreational Water Program

CDC's Environmental Health Services Branch

The overarching goal of the Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to enhance and revitalize environmental public health to address a range of environmental health issues. The branch strengthens the roles of local, state, tribal, and national environmental health programs and professionals to better anticipate, identify, and respond to adverse environmental exposures and their consequences for human health.

EHSB staff members work with environmental public health stakeholders in six areas identified in CDC's National Strategy to Revitalize Environmental Public Health Services. For more information on this strategy, click here.

Building Capacity

The Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) funds cooperative agreements to help local, state, and tribal health departments develop effective state-of-the-art environmental public health programs. Grantees implement interventions addressing issues related to inadequate environmental health services (e.g. services involving water quality, air quality, waste management, or vector control) that can potentially contribute to health disparities in the communities they serve. Get information about grantees and their products by clicking here.

Supporting Research

The Environmental Health Services Network (EHS-Net) exemplifies EHSB's support for research. EHS-Net is a collaborative forum of environmental health specialists whose mission is to improve environmental health. The network allows environmental health specialists to collaborate with epidemiologists and laboratorians to identify and prevent environmental factors contributing to foodborne illnesses, waterborne illnesses, and disease outbreaks. For more information about EHS-NET studies, click here.

Fostering Leadership

The Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute is a year-long program of seminars, workshops, special projects, and individual studies. The institute strengthens the country's environmental public health system by improving the leadership capabilities of local, state, and tribal environmental public health specialists. Download graduates' final projects by clicking here.

Communicating and Marketing

The EHSB website is a major channel for new tools and information. EHSB is stepping up efforts to post program information to its website, which now includes the 10 major content areas. Click here to visit the site!

Authors from EHSB publish a monthly column in the Journal of Environmental Health. Read the columns by clicking here.

Developing the Workforce

The Emergency and Terrorism Preparedness for Environmental Health Practitioners website is a clearinghouse of information resources related to emergency and terrorism preparedness for environmental health practitioners. Access the site by clicking here.

Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response (EHTER) - Introductory Level is a 10-module comprehensive pilot training that focuses on key environmental health issues and challenges for emergency response. Click here for more information about EHTER.

EHSB is working with the Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP) to address the shortage of environmental health professionals and the importance of accredited programs. Read more about AEHAP by clicking here.

Creating Strategic Partnerships

EHSB is collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, in partnership with state and local governments, to use a community-centered approach to build health communities. To find information about the collaboration, click here.

For questions or more information about CDC's Environmental Health Services Branch, please contact Carrie Hribar.

Page updated 7/22/2010.