Environmental Health
A safe and healthy environment is preventive medicine that you can't buy at the drugstore or get from your doctor's office.
Our Environmental Health Specialists provide the following services:
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Public education
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Routine inspection
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Investigation of complaints
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Enforcement of laws relating to safety and sanitation
Food Service: Inspections of food service facilities such as schools, childcare centers, hospitals, nursing homes, bars, lounges, institutional and other establishments are conducted regularly. Each year, thousands of people become ill after eating contaminated or unwholesome food. Prevention of food-related illness is an essential service we provide.
Water Services: Through testing, we ensure public and private drinking water supplies are safe and acceptable for human use.
Swimming Pools are inspected to reduce transmission of waterborne illness and injuries. This program establishes a clear and comprehensive policy for reviewing plans, construction, and modification of public swimming pools and bathing places. Routine inspections are conducted to assure compliance with these standards.
Sewage and Waste: Everyone who installs or repairs a septic tank system must first obtain a permit, approval and specifications from the health department. This ensures systems are installed and repaired in a manner that ensures reliability and reduces the chances of pollution of ground and surface water supplies. Our mission is to protect the public health by eliminating the potential for the spread of infectious disease, by protecting the ground and surface water from improperly built or maintained onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems.
Biomedical Waste: Biomedical waste (needles, syringes, blood, etc.) can carry HIV, Hepatitis B or other disease-causing agents. Facilities such as hospitals or nursing homes that generate potentially infectious materials are monitored to make sure their biomedical waste is properly handled and packaged in red "biohazard" bags and sharps containers. Proper management of biomedical waste reduces the risk of exposure to health care workers, environmental service and treatment facility personnel, transporters, and the general public.
Community Hygiene: Sanitary nuisances injurious to the public health, like overflowing septic tank systems, rats and vermin, improper garbage disposal and other conditions that may affect the health of the community, are investigated and abated by our staff.
Tanning Salons: Just like sunlight, tanning beds and booths can increase your risk of skin cancer. These facilities are inspected to make sure timers are accurate and the right tanning bulbs are used to make sure the public are not being over exposed.
Group Care Facilities: Children, elderly and ill persons living in group care facilities are at a high risk to diseases. Inspectors ensure good sanitary and safety practices related to the construction, operation and maintenance of group care facilities in order to reduce the risk of transmitting disease to residents, workers and visitors.
Mobile Home and RV Parks: Because of the temporary nature of water and sewer connections in Mobile Home & RV parks, water supplies and sewage disposal systems can be overloaded. In addition to inspecting water and sewer systems we also check animal control, garbage disposal, and unit spacing.
Migrant Labor Camps: Migrant farm workers are often subjected to poor sanitation levels and substandard housing. Our staff permit and inspect migrant labor camps and harvest fields to ensure that minimum health standards are maintained.
Mosquito Control: Environmental Health staff monitors mosquito hatches and implements ways to control the population. We also perform surveillance of arboviruses such as West Nile Virus (WNV), Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE)
Rabies Control: We investigate animal bites and other possible rabies exposure. As people move into undeveloped areas, exposure to animals carrying rabies will continue to increase.
Other Program Assistance:
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Radon Detection
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Indoor Air Quality
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High levels of lead
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SUPER Act Petroleum Tanks
Notice - Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing.
For information send chd07-enviro-web@doh.state.fl.us or call (850) 674-5645 Extension 237 or 231