Enumeration of the Environmental Health Workforce

Workforce enumeration is the foundation for identifying workforce needs. In 2000, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) sponsored an enumeration of the public health workforce (HRSA, 2000), but since then, no comprehensive enumeration has occurred. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and HRSA are now collaborating on an effort to determine the number and composition of the U.S. workforce at the federal, state, and local levels.

One of the more difficult groups to enumerate and categorize accurately is the environmental public health (EPH) worker because, of all the public health disciplines, they might be the group with the most diverse assignments. EPH workers in a state health department or in a state environmental protection agency might have similar job functions described within a state personnel system, but as with other public health professions, job titles for EPH workers vary widely and are difficult to enumerate precisely. This can also be observed at the local level and in large cities where EPH workers often are situated in agencies outside the traditional health department.

Given the complexity of the EPH workforce, in terms of the specialization of the occupations and workplace settings, conducting an accurate characterization of the workforce is imperative. One of the grandfathers of the EPH profession, Larry Gordon, drew an important distinction between EH professionals and professionals working in EH. Later, in 2009, a message from then president of the National Environmental Health Association, Welford C. Roberts, said, “There is a current need for a comprehensive enumeration of the environmental health workforce” (Roberts, 2009). Enumeration is important because it leads us to question why the EPH profession does not have a standardized curriculum or competency standards, and how broad job descriptions and titles can obscure identification of the actual EPH discipline. This stands in stark contrast with the medically based disciplines within public health, which tend to have required board certifications, competency standards, and distinct titles for practicing professionals. Students might perceive this as a barrier to entering EPH, leaving our pipeline supply diminished.