Author: Kailee Curtis

Local Health Department

Environmental Health: General Services

Local health departments (LHDs) are responsible for a variety of services that help keep our environments safe and healthy. These services include inspections of daycares, schools, and body art facilities; radiation control and hazardous waste management; response to nuisance complaints; air and water pollution prevention; vector control; environmental contamination response; and land-use planning. These inspections, assistance in planning, and interventions help to ensure the environment is protected and homes are safe from hazards.

Key Positions
Environmental Health Sanitarians
Environmental Health Secretaries
Environmental Health Supervisors

Meets Public Health Standards:

ü	Michigan Public Health Code
	Michigan Local Public Health Accreditation
ü	Public Health Accreditation Board

Services:
Local health department sanitarians provide monitoring, inspection, regulation, and/or licensing services including:
School and daycare facility inspections
Smoke free air law/ordinances
Nuisance abatement and monitoring
Body art facility inspections
Lead inspections
Indoor air quality
Radiation control
Radon testing and outreach
Land-use planning
Hazardous waste collections
Pollution prevention and control
Collection of unused pharmaceuticals
Medical waste facility inspections

Goals:
Regulation, inspection, and licensing activities around recreational facilities are meant:
To ensure that homes and facilities in the community are safe and healthy
To protect our environment from pollution and contamination
To correct any potential health hazards in homes, and other facilities

Impact:
Maintaining a healthy environment is
central to increasing quality of life and
years of healthy life.

Created by the Barry-Eaton District Health Department for the Michigan Association of Local Public Health with funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. August 2018.
*41 of Michigan’s local health departments indicated that they participate in general environmental health activities (of 41 who participated in the survey). Participants might not have answered each question.

In 2017, BEDHD sanitarians investigated 98 public nuisance complaints.