CEHA Point Source Newsletter
Spring 2011 Edition

Welcome!

President's Corner
Dan Collins, CEHA President

Thank you for giving me a few minutes to share some thoughts with you and how they relate to what the CEHA Board has been planning for 2011. It is amazing to me that I am already half way through my presidential term.  It seems like just yesterday I was getting the gavel from Carmen Vandenbark. In some ways the CEHA related activities (Board, planning team, Alliance, etc.) that keep me busy parallel what I enjoy about working in Environmental Health (EH). Specifically, I hope you also enjoy the fact that no two days will be the same and every day brings a new challenge.

Speaking about variety and challenges, when I first started working in this field I happened to be reading the series of books by James Herriot. If you are not familiar with them, the series is an autobiography of his life as an English county veterinarian in the years prior to World War II. The books chronicle his experiences, good and bad, detailing the honored veterinary profession and the humorous side of the country folk he served. In All Creatures Great and Small, he was conversing with the owner of the veterinary practice he had joined right out of school. The conversation was about their noble profession, how it goes unrecognized by the masses (unless something bad happens), the higher education required for the position and the low salary they receive for their lifetime of services to the community. Sound familiar?

The wise old vet summed up what I feel is a very good analogy of our EH experience when he said, “You will never get rich, but you will lead a life of infinite variety.” To me that quote always meant that while money is important, having a job that is rich in providing challenges is sometimes equally valuable. I often reiterate that quote to interns and new students when I am providing orientations to the profession. 

There are parallels between the profession in the story and how they apply to the current day EH professional. For example, we conduct very important work protecting and preventing disease transmission from environmental sources. Our profession goes largely unnoticed unless something bad happens to someone. To do our work an advanced degree is required and continual learning is needed to keep up with technological advances that are identifying new illness or new ways to monitor or prevent them. His point about salaries was that you will live comfortably and secure but not ever become rich, which is certainly true for me and probably you too. What I find meaningful and hope you take away from Herriot’s quote is that, as EH professionals we see a variety of issues and challenges every day and will all enjoy a secure positions in our careers.  However, we also will never become rooted in routines, will have the opportunity to grow and be challenged to learn new things and we can reach new heights if we challenge ourselves to continually improve our skills, competencies and experience levels.

Being that CEHAs’ primary mission is to provide education services to help you reach your goals as an EH professional, let me give you an update on what CEHA has planned for 2011. I am happy to say the AEC planning team recently finalized the agreement with the Fort Collins Hilton for the September 28-30^th 2011 AEC. Mindi Ramig and Lynn Robbio Wagner the AEC co-chairs and the planning team have been meeting monthly in preparation for another excellent conference. Please see their update later in this newsletter.

On March 10^th, CEHA joined for the first time with the Regional Institute for Environmental Health Leadership (RIHEL) and co-sponsored a seminar on Facilitating Conflict. For those of you that were not able to attend, this seminar was a very interesting discussion on identifying the root causes of conflict and managing them in order to communicate both sides of an issue. This program will hopefully be the first in a long series of co-sponsored leadership related workshops with RIHEL. On May 13^th, an 8-Hour OSHA Refresher class will be taking place in the new Tri-County Health Department Administration office. Please see the website for the location and if you are interested in registering for this class. CEHA will be hosting a second OSHA Refresher class later in the fall in a location to be determined, hopefully in the mountains for our western slope colleagues. In addition we are looking at planning training opportunities on the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act in the spring and a Body Art one day class over the summer months to be held in the Loveland area.

If you have any questions regarding these educational opportunities please feel free to contact me or any board member via the website. Please have a safe summer and I will see you at the AEC in Fort Collins this September.

Sincerely,

Dan Collins

Congratulations to the current Sustaining Members of CEHA!
Carmen Vandenbark, Sustaining Membership Committee Chair

In 2010, CEHA’s sustaining membership grew by 100% to 28 members!  The opportunity to network with so many industry companies was a great benefit to all.  The Sustaining Membership Committee has set goals to increase this membership category again for 2011and to increase the diversity of this membership to include other environmental health areas and disciplines. The benefit for all members has been tremendous as this sustaining class has grown. 

Congratulations to the fifteen members that have already renewed their 2011 memberships.  They are able to use their membership benefits all year long!

The current members that have been involved with CEHA the longest are as follows:

• Infiltrator Systems Infiltrator Systems, Inc. (ISI) is the world’s leading manufacturer of plastic leach field drainage chambers for environmental onsite wastewater solutions.  Company contact is:  Eric Berquist; eberquist@infiltratorsystems.net, (888)292-7075.

• SCG Enterprises SCG Enterprises, Inc. provides wastewater treatment products and services throughout Colorado, southern Wyoming, and northern New Mexico. SCG specializes in smaller (less than 100,000 gallons per day), innovative and alternative onsite wastewater systems.  Company contact is:  Roger Shafer; rshafer@scgenterprises.com, (303) 697-9404

• Valley Precast Valley Precast manufactures precast products and provides service in the onsite wastewater industry.  They strive to be a leader through innovation, education, and certifications.  Company contact is:  Derrick Eggleston; frontdesk@valleyprecast.com, 719-395-6764

• Regional Institute for Health and Environmental Leadership (RIHEL) The Regional Institute provides leadership training, builds linkages among leaders, and strengthens the relationships among health professionals, environment professionals, the academic community, the public sector and the private sector.  Agency contact is:  Dr. Kathy Kennedy; kkennedy@du.edu, 303-871-3483

Recent members of CEHA include:

• BioMicrobics With a worldwide emphasis on environmental concerns and innovative ideas with proven products, Bio-Microbics manufactures wastewater and storm water treatment systems for decentralized homes, communities, and commercial properties located around the globe. Company contact is:  Tim Petz; tpetz1@comcast.net, (303) 908-7823.

• Clearwater Cleanup is a small, family business, which pumps grease traps, septic tanks, sand traps, lift stations, parking garage drains, storm drains and treatment plant sludge.Solving wastewater problems they pump and repair septic tanks, grease traps and sand traps of all sizes.  Company contact is:  Doug Michener; clearwatercleanup@hotmail.com, (970) 453-8875.

• Timberline Plastics Timberline Plastics is a leading distributor of industrial plastics including plastic pipe, valves, fittings, pumps, tanks, filters, tubing, and hose for every size of commercial & residential project.  They carry 17,000 different fastener products as well as designing and manufacturing a wide array of heavy-duty racking and conveying equipment.  Company contact is:  Charles Folsom; cfolsom@etimberline.com, (303) 289-2557x439.

• Tundra Specialties Tundra Specialties is a leading distributor of restaurant equipment, restaurant supplies, and equipment parts for the food service industry.  They also specialize in commercial plumbing, food safety, janitorial, and food safety supplies for restaurants and other segments of the food service industry.  Company contact is:  Lenny Douglas; ldouglas@etundra.com, 303-440-4142x127.

Our newest members that have become sustaining members in the last few years include:

• Denver Environmental Health Their mission is to promote healthy communities. With their partner Denver Public Health, they provide essential public health services for Denver's residents through five different divisions.  Agency contact is:  Celia VanDerloop; celia.vanderloop@denvergov.org, (720) 865-5458.

• Eljen Eljen provides innovative environmental products and solutions for the onsite wastewater treatment, erosion control, and storm water industries.  Their products are made from 96% recycled materials and have become the green product of choice by public health officials, designers, contractors, and homeowners around the world.  Company contact is:  Jim King; jking@eljen.com, 800-444-1359.

• GloGerm Glo Germ™ is a product sold both in liquid and powder form that contains proven safe ingredients formulated to be the same size as bacteria, basically 5 microns in size. When used in either the powder or liquid-based form, with the use of an ultra-violet light, it simulates the spread of germs, teaching how quickly and broadly germs can be spread in a short period of time.  Company contact is:  Joe Kingsley; moabking@gmail.com, 435-259-5693.  

• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Office of Planning and Partnership (OPP) OPP develops a strong infrastructure with state, local, and private public health partners, provides technical assistance to local public health, internal leadership for the department’s annual strategic plan, fosters collaboration and leveraging resources across and within various levels of government, communities, and non-profit organizations and leads Colorado’s health assessment and planning system for local and state public health.  Agency contact is:  Kathleen Matthews; kathleen.matthews@state.co.us, 303-692-2361.

• Waste Management Waste Management, Inc. is North America’s leading provider of integrated environmental solutions.  They partner with customers and communities to manage and reduce waste from collection to disposal, while recovering valuable resources and creating clean, renewable energy.  Company contact is:  Bruce Clabaugh, bclabaug@wm.com, 303-486-6034. 

• Red Rock Environmental Services Red Rock Environmental Services, LLC (RED ROCK) provides scientifically-sound, cost-effective solutions for clientele in the commercial, municipal and federal sectors. The company was established with the goal of providing clients with technical and professional consulting services at a fair price.  Company contact is:  Ben Noller, bnoller@redrockenviro.com, 303-217-0082.  Ben is also the Secretary on the Board of Directors of CEHA.

• Pikes Peak Tattoo Established in 1978, by “Uncle” Bud Yates, Pikes Peak Tattoo® offers their very best to each and every client. They specialize in wide variety of tattoos, piercings, permanent cosmetics, tattoo removals and cover-ups.  They have nine artists that all have a different specialty.  Company contact is:  Brinda Yates; brindayates@gmail.com, 719-339-5240.  Brinda is also the Industry Representative on the Board of Directors of CEHA.

To become a sustaining member or for more information, please visit www.cehaweb.com or contact Carmen Vandenbark at carmenv@nchd.org or 970-522-3741, 1261.

Colorado's Public Health Improvement Plan Forges On

Kathleen Matthews, Director of Office of Planning and Partnerships, CDPHE

The forces are aligning…improving efficiency and effectiveness are the key words at the national, state and county levels. Colorado’s governor has also added “elegant” to the other “e” words to drive change and improvement. The intent of the Public Health Act of 2008 was to improve the performance of the public health system through statewide planning. Many members of the environmental health profession in Colorado were key members in getting this Act passed and it is time for an update.

Statewide plans are due every five years with local public health improvements to follow. The first plan, Colorado’s Public Health Improvement Plan – From Act to Action, 2009 was conceived as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for an institutionalized, statewide planning process. The recommended goals, strategic priorities, and action steps were identified from a review of previous public health improvement initiatives in Colorado.  Many of you were involved in that process, during the summer/fall of 2009, in providing valuable input to fully develop the recommendations for improvement. The plan identifies methods for increasing the capacity of Colorado’s state and local public health agencies in order to ensure that public health goals are effectively and efficiently met.

As with any state with a high number of rural or frontier counties, the geography and distribution of population adds complexity to the delivery of services. While the Public Health Act of 2008 called for a uniform system of agencies, the current challenge is how to operationally ensure the provision of efficient, quality services throughout the state. In nine counties, there is still no direct provision of environmental health services. In the other counties, there are different standards and levels of services ranging from providing food safety inspections to providing a fuller component of environmental health services, including participating in “built environment” activities to promote health to conducting health impact assessments. 

The Office of Planning and Partnership together with Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials (CALPHO) are in the midst of a system-wide baseline review of the current capacity for providing core public health services throughout Colorado- i.e. who does what where.  These baseline data will be used to formalize the core public health services that should be provided or assured by each LPHA, as well as gain an understanding of what other services, including shared services, are being provided. This work will both inform and support the intent of the Act to strengthen statewide infrastructure and capacity.

Planning should be data-driven and the need for environmental health data is now being met through the Colorado Environmental Public Health Tracking (COEPHT). Funded by CDC, this national environmental public health tracking network brings together data about environmental hazards, environmental exposures, and health effects important to Colorado communities. COEPHT will provide a web-based surveillance system featuring county level health and environmental data in a standardized format. A beta version of this public website will be launched this spring, and COEPHT staff will be meeting with interested groups to provide training.

The Office of Planning and Partnerships is working with seven pilot sites (El Paso, Mesa, Weld, Boulder, and Pueblo) and two regional planning partnerships (West Central and Northwest) to develop Colorado’s Health Assessment and Planning System (CHAPS).   Joe Malinowski’s article on the progress will give you a taste of the process (from Boulder).

As some of you may know, the Office of Planning and Partnerships has been recruiting for an Environmental Health Planner position to help build environmental health services in counties with few resources, improve our local/state connections, and ensure that environmental health is part of public health improvement planning.  Sharon Adams, our new Environmental Health Planner, joined the Office of Planning and Partnerships in early April.  A recent transplant from Indiana, Sharon served as Environmental Health Director for 14 years, developing and implementing a broad range of environmental health programs at Boone County Health Department.   With a population of 55,000, on the outskirts of Indianapolis, Boone County has both urban and rural characteristics.   As an active member of the Indiana Environmental Health Association, she chaired the General Environmental Services Committee for several years. She is looking forward to building partnerships to strengthen environmental health throughout Colorado.   Thank you to Jim Rada, Tom Butts, Joe Malinowski, Martha Rudolph, Patti Klocker, Jeff Lawrence, Lori Gerzina, Mark McMillan, Andy Putnam, and Phyllis Woodford who helped develop, screen, and interview for this position.

Colorado’s Public Health Act, the consensus building statewide plan, and the national efforts to strengthen public health systems, all provide the traction needed to achieve sustainable improvements to the public health system in Colorado. Click to view 2010 COPHIP Timeline and 2011 COPHIP Projected Activities. For more information on our office visit our website www.cdphe.state.co.us/opp. Contact information E-mail: CDPHEEDPlanningandPartnerships@cdphe.state.co.us Phone: (303) 692-2350

Improved Cookstove Intervention to Assess Changes in Woodsmoke Exposures and Health Status among Nicaraguan Families

Stephanie Minnaert, CEHA Student Representative

More than half of the world’s population relies on biomass combustion to meet basic domestic energy needs. Indoor cook stoves can result in extremely high levels of indoor air pollution, and the World Health Organization estimates that pollution from these stoves kills over 1.5 million people worldwide each year.  Improved stoves designs have the potential to substantially reduce pollutant emissions and indoor air pollution exposures; however, evaluations of improved stoves are limited. Studies quantitatively assessing both indoor air pollution levels and health effects are needed to fully evaluate the effectiveness of stove interventions.

Colorado State University students and faculty in the Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences department are undertaking a community cook stove intervention project in a neighborhood called El Fortin, just outside of Granada, Nicaragua. CEHA contributed money to each other three trips taken by CSU students and faculty.  The baseline evaluation of a population using traditional cook stoves was completed during the summer of 2008. The participating families then received the improved wood-burning stoves in August and September 2008. In summer of 2009, the group returned to El Fortin to study the same population after having the improved, cleaner burning stoves for one year. For this study, the group quantitatively assessed indoor air pollution levels (indoor particulate matter [PM] and indoor and personal carbon monoxide [CO]), as well as levels of exhaled CO, a biomarker of CO exposure. Also, the group assessed several respiratory and cardiovascular health outcomes, including lung function, inflammatory markers from dried blood spots, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, and respiratory symptoms. Ongoing is a comparison of baseline and post-intervention exposure and health measures in order to evaluate the efficacy of the implemented improved cook stove.

A new group of students and volunteers returned to El Fortin in December 2010 / January 2011 to continue the project; during this trip we focused on some validation measures for the PM measures (comparing a light-scattering device to a filter monitor). This project is addressing a critical global environmental health problem by building community partnerships with Trees, Water, and People (Fort Collins, CO), PROLENA (Managua, Nicaragua), and Casa de la Mujer (Granada/El Fortin, Nicaragua).

Five undergraduate students from Environmental Health, or EH, and Microbiology joined EH doctoral student Judy Heiderscheidt, CSU Research Associate Bevin Luna, and project volunteer Bill Marquardt to fill out the field research team. Undergraduate students included:

• Katie Fromuth- EH

• Stephanie Minnaert - EH

• Grant Quiller - EH

• Laylaa Ramos - Microbiology

This project is also contributing to the education and training of undergraduate and graduate students. The project sent six undergraduate students, one graduate student, and one post-doctoral fellow to complete the baseline field work (summer 2008). In 2009, eight undergraduate students, one graduate student, and one post-doctoral fellow went to Nicaragua. The undergraduate students are selected from a competitive pool of applicants from throughout the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, including many Environmental Health majors. The students involved in this project have presented results at the annual CEHA conference, and we expect that they will participate again in 2011. This project is a unique and valuable experience for the students, who use the experience as an internship and/or receive research credits for their work. The students are involved in every aspect of the study, including design, fundraising, equipment purchasing, IRB approval, field data collection, data entry and analysis, and results communication. They also obtain hands-on experience in using various exposure and health equipment. Additionally, the students have presented the results at various professional conferences and meetings.  There will be a follow-up story in the July 2011 CEHA newsletter detailing the events that occurred during the December 2010 / January 2011 Nicaragua trip. 

Information for this story was obtained from Dr. Jennifer Peel, Associate Professor Epidemiology, Colorado State University, and Dr. Maggie Clark, Postdoctoral Fellow Epidemiology, Colorado State University.

Onsite Wastewater System Rejuvination...Fact or Fiction?

Tim Petz, CEHA West Slope Representative
All Service Septic, LLC

Onsite Wastewater Systems (OWS) are utilized by approximately 25% of the United States. OWS are necessary when typical sewer pipes and sewer plants are not available. Colorado has over one million OWS in the ground. Typical OWS will last decades, although will eventually fail. A failing OWS means the drain field or leaching field, and more specifically the soil in the drain field, looses the ability to treat effluent (effluent is the sewage after passing through the septic tank) due to excessive Biomat development around the soil paritcles. Biomat is a bi-product of effluent/sewage treatment. Heavy biomat development will hinder effluent moving through the soil. The effluent gets trapped in the soil, due to decreased void space, and increased biomat mass, hence the biomat clogs the soil.

Effluent has considerably less oxygen than air, which in turn fails the drain field at a faster rate due to decreased oxygen needed to serve bacteria. Therefore once drain fields begin to fail, the failure rate increases each day.

There are two options to consider upon drain field failure:  1) Construct a new drain field; and/or 2) Attempt to repair existing drain field. These options are valid, assuming there is available area to construct a new drain field. The second option is the subject of this article….OWS Rejuvination…fact or fiction.

To rejuvinate a drain field, oxygen and surface area need to be restored within the drain field. Effluent must have the ability to slowly pass through the soil to allow treatment to take place. The biomat mass must be reduced for this to take place.  

Products such as a RetroFAST™ (BioMicrobics) or an Aquaworx™ (Infiltrator) may be implemented into the OWS to provide additional treatment of effluent AND, more importantly, introduce liquidfied oxygen into the effluent and then, into the drian field (See picture of RetroFAST™ being installed into an existing septic tank). The oxygen will allow bacteria to ‘work’ more efficiently and reduce biomat mass. The retro-fitted unit will decrease organics, total suspended solids, oxygen demand, and nitrogen within the septic tank so the drain field does not have to ‘work’ as hard.  Reduced biomat mass provides void space within soil particles, and brings back a treatment environment.

Both of the remediator Units listed above have proven track records, and will enhance the functioning and life of a septic system. The range in cost depending on product, bedroom count, and location is from $1 to $3 thousand. Typically local county permitting is required to install a remediation unit and should only be done by a qualified person.

RetroFAST™ is distributed by ITS, Inc. (303-908-7823) and the Aquaworx Remediator is distributed by Infiltrator™ (888-292-7075).

Support Your Organization's Sustaining Members

Ben Noller, CEHA Secretary

Red Rock Environmental Services

As one of CEHA’s five categories of membership, sustaining membership is vital to the health of the organization.  As EH professionals and health departments, we should strive to support our sustaining members. Sustaining membership is defined as “any business, company, corporation or association of such firms with a general interest in CEHA and its objectives, and which has a desire to contribute to its success.” 

As a result of a concentrated effort to expand both the numbers of sustaining members as well as the diversity of the represented organizations, the number of CEHA sustaining members grew 100% in 2010.  Historically our sustaining membership has reflected industries of concern to individuals representing county or state health departments, primarily food safety and onsite wastewater systems (OSW) or individual sewage disposal systems. The industry representation has expanded over the last year.

It is apparent that OSW has been, and will to continue to be vital to CEHA’s success.  However, as evidenced by the technical tracks offered at each CEHA Annual Education Conference (AEC), health department representatives must be able to address concerns relating to food safety, drinking water, wastewater, air, solid and hazardous waste, sustainability and emergency preparedness.  CEHA’s sustaining members can assist with addressing many of these concerns.

Sustaining members also play a pivotal role in the financial health of CEHA.  In 2010, sustaining members accounted for 11% of the total CEHA membership, but sustaining memberships and sponsorships accounted for approximately 20% of last year’s budget.  Sustaining membership fees are nine times those of active members.  However, most of the sustaining members believe that their monetary investments in CEHA are very worthwhile.  The membership fees and exhibition booth rates are very reasonable compared to many other organizations and the opportunity to meet and interact with individual CEHA members is outstanding.  The organization also does a good job of promoting and recognizing its sustaining members during the AEC.

However, sustaining members would benefit from greater support from the CEHA membership body on a year-round basis.  Lack of support is the reason some past sustaining members chose not to return and why we risk losing some of the sustaining member diversity that we currently enjoy.  Companies primarily choose to support an organization because there is potential for business expansion or they believe and support the organization’s mission.  In some fortunate cases, both hold true.  CEHA presents this type of opportunity!

CEHA’s boards and committees are comprised of wonderfully talented and giving volunteers who work hard to bring scholarship, training and educational opportunities to the membership.  The organization has done a tremendous job of incorporating health department personnel and private industry representatives into these key roles. 

As a volunteer organization, people donate their time and talents to make CEHA a success.  For health department personnel, this often means getting permission to spend a portion of their working hours on CEHA-related business, only to have to complete their “regular” work either before or after the CEHA commitments, or having others in their department help with covering their absences.  For private industry, individuals investing in CEHA can be faced with the same challenges as their public servant counterparts, but will likely also have to justify the marketing funds expended (for memberships, exhibition booths, sponsorships, etc.) as well as the lost utilization on billable projects. 

Given that a majority of CEHA’s sustaining members are for-profit companies, if a return on their investment is not realized (regardless of being involved in a worthwhile cause), they will pull their support of CEHA and look to invest those dollars elsewhere.  Unfortunately, we have seen this happen in the past and, if we are not cognizant of it we are susceptible to it happening again.

So, how can CEHA support its sustaining members year-round?  Keep the sustain members in mind for any upcoming procurements or projects that you may have.  As public entities, many of us are subject to open and fair competition for procurement processes.  However, please make sure that your sustaining members are aware of upcoming opportunities.  Does your department allow sole-source awards for projects that do not exceed a certain monetary threshold?  Do you know of someone else that may benefit from the services that your sustaining members offer?

For the continued health of CEHA, I encourage all members, active, sustaining and otherwise to work together in a manner that is mutually beneficial to all.  By maintaining a strong organization, we can continue to grow and expand our offerings and services for the benefit of all membership.

Ben Noller is the owner of Red Rock Environmental Services, LLC, a sustaining member of CEHA and a member of the Board of Directors.

Health Department Inspection Reporting Program

Dale Yamnik, REHS, RS
Manager, Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs - Western Region, YUM! Brands

› Download the YUM! Brands Newsletter

NEHA Region 3 Report

Roy Kroeger, NEHA Region 3 RVP

The NEHA Board of Directors just wrapped up an intense two day board meeting in Fort Collins, Colorado.  During the two day meeting the board discussed over thirty agenda items and 545 pages of information.  In the annual meeting, it became evident that NEHA is excelling in many different aspects.  Your professional association is being asked to participate in more policy debates and have a seat at the table on more boards and committees than ever before.  NEHA has also witnessed an upturn in membership numbers during the past year as membership has increased by approximately 15%.  NEHA has also been strongly involved in finding new opportunities for both the association and it members.  I have included a few of the items that were on our agenda during the annual spring meeting below, and as always if you have questions about these or others please fell free to contact me.

2011 AEC in Columbus

NEHA recently released information on the Keynote Address for the 2011 AEC.  Dr Ted Wymyslo, who is the Director of the Ohio State Department of Health will be presenting on the “New Normal”.  Dr. Wymyslo's presentation will focus on the "New Normal" emerging in government and what the implications of that are for the future practice and shape of environmental health. As budgets and resources dwindle, environmental health is adapting and finding its way toward a new equilibrium. What will that look like and what can we do to help shape that future now? Ohio is one of our nation's largest states; it is also often a bellwether state for trends that ultimately take root in other states. Dr. Wymyslo's presentation is meant to give the profession as a whole a better understanding of what the future of environmental health is likely to look like – given the emergence of “New Normal” in government.  Join us for the 2011 AEC in Columbus OH, June 18-20, 2011.  More information and registration is available on the NEHA website.

NEHA BOD approves Sustainability White Paper               

Given the growing interest in sustainability, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) assembled a committee to identify NEHA’s role in sustainability. The charges for this committee were: (1) develop resources for regulators (2) develop resources for the general public, and (3) identify and document how sustainability is connected with environmental health.  The goal of this report was to address the above charges, and provide information on the relationship between sustainability and environmental health. This report discusses environmental health’s role in several topics regarding sustainability including energy, water use, agriculture, waste management, urban design, built environment, and climate change.  Many thanks go out to Tom Gonzales and his committee, for all their hard work.  The recently adopted report will be available to all environmental health professionals in the very near future.  Keep a look out for it.

NEHA Food Safety Work

As many of you know the Food Safety System in our country has been undergoing a major change even before the FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act).  NEHA is committed to playing a large role in that change through the Partnership for Food Protection (PFP).  The PFP was established by the FDA with it partners (CDC & DOA) in 2008 at the 50 State Workshop and was given the ultimate task of creating a complete integrated food safety system for the country at the 2010 50 State Workshop. NEHA has also been playing a major role in the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) and the FDA Rapid Response Team (RRT) Program.  The FDA Food Protection (RRT) and Program Infrastructure Improvement Prototype Project cooperative agreement is designed to strengthen state food program infrastructure and to develop capabilities for responding to potential threats to the food/feed supply, from farm to fork. The RRT project engages partners throughout the food safety system, including state departments of agriculture, health, and emergency; FDA field offices; laboratories; local health departments; and other federal partners and national initiatives to identify, implement, and share best practices in emergency response (using Incident Command System (ICS) concepts) for food/feed incidents.

Industry-Foodborne Illness Investigation Training

With the success of NEHA’s Epi-Ready Team Training workshop, NEHA is currently in the final course development phase of I-FIIT.  The purpose of the Industry-Foodborne Illness Investigation Training (I-FIIT) is for industry to establish and implement control measures based on model practices that rapidly and effectively prevent further transmission of illness in response to a foodborne disease incident. This will be accomplished by bringing together retail food service representatives, government food safety officials and other involved personnel to improve foodborne disease outbreak response by identifying industry and regulatory roles and responsibilities during a foodborne disease incident.

NEHA has worked closely with Kroger Company (King Soopers/City Market/Loaf & Jug) in the development of this training program and has several other well known companies expressing an interest to participate in the training.  NEHA will launch this training opportunity at the Columbus AEC as a pre-conference workshop. 

Center for Priority Based Budgeting

Communities across America today are struggling to develop meaningful and fiscally-prudent budgets under financial pressures previously unknown in modern times.  Within the Entrepreneurial Zone at NEHA, a new program is emerging that offers its services to help local governments address budget shortfall concerns.  The Center for Priority Based Budgeting™ proudly offers its research and advisory services to help local government organizations address their fiscal realities both in the short term (Fiscal Health) and long term (Fiscal Wellness) through a new and creative process that is actively being implemented across the country. The Center for Priority Based Budgeting has developed the Fiscal Health and Wellness© process to help cities and counties find the answers to the most relevant questions of the day:

• How do we “stop the bleeding”?

• How can our organization “spend within its means”?

• How do we allocate scarce resources to top priority programs?

• How can we link the budget with our strategic goals/objectives and with performance measures?

• How does our organization head down a path of long term financial sustainability? 

For more information on this program see the NEHA website and click on “Center for Priority Based Budgeting”              

NEHA members elect a new 2^nd Vice President

Members recently completed voting for the 2^nd Vice President position on the NEHA Board of Directors and you have elected Dr Carolyn Harvey.  Dr. Carolyn Harvey is currently a full Professor of Environmental Health at Eastern Kentucky University, before joining the world of academia; she worked for the Galveston County Health Department in Texas, and has also been employed in the private sector working in environmental health.  Harvey began her education at East Tennessee State University, and went on to get a Masters in Environmental Management from the University of Houston, and then her Ph.D. from the University of Texas, School of Public Health. She currently resides in Richmond, Kentucky. All election results will be posted on the “Members Only” section of the NEHA website soon.

Credential information

This fall NEHA will be updating both the REHS/RS and CP-FS credentials.  To keep a credential relevant it is necessary to reflect the most current science and technology available and also relate the credential to current policies and codes.  Study guides are now available for either credential in both book and online versions.  Take a look at the NEHA website for more information.

Tri-County Health Department Receives CPPW Initiative Grant

Elizabeth W. Kay Marchetti, AICP
Built Environment Policy Coordinator, Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) Initiative
Tri-County Health Department

Over the past several years, collaboration between public health and community planning professionals has increased; both groups are bringing attention to the link between public health and the built environment.  Back in 2003 American Planning Association (APA) teamed up with the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) to strengthen the connection between community design, planning, and public health.  Whether it is the Planning for Healthy Places with Health Impact Assessments Online Course or the Jargon Fact Sheet (both developed by APA and NAACHO and meant to create a common language and practice between the two professions), the collaboration is going in new directions to advance the concepts of healthy eating and active living.

Evidence of this is the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) Initiative grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of which Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) is one of fifty recipients. This Federal grant supports local health departments’ efforts to work with local governments to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes that support healthy eating and active living; TCHD took this opportunity to bring city planners onto its staff to advance this work.  In addition, some of TCHD’s grant funds were distributed among ten local governments and one library district to assist those entities in completing a wide range of community planning activities. (See the press release below for summaries of each community grantee effort.)

TCHD has been in the vanguard of local health departments that recognized the broad link between built environment and public health. For years it has focused its work with local planning agencies both on protecting the public from environmental hazards and on promoting community designs that encourage healthy behaviors. TCHD is using the grant to expand its Land Use Program service and has assembled a CPPW grant team that includes four planners with long-range planning, urban design, landscape architecture, policy development, community outreach and organizing skills. This planning team is reaching out to TCHD’s jurisdictions by offering assistance with community planning efforts that have the potential to improve residents’ access to healthy food and a wide range of physical activity and transportation choices.

TCHD’s model of bringing on planning professionals is being closely watched by the public health community. As planners and public health professionals share more knowledge and assist each other in reaching goals related to healthy eating and active living, it may become common practice for local health departments to include community planners in their ranks. 

Here is a portion of the press release that announced TCHD’s sub grants and provides brief summaries of all the community grantee planning efforts:

Tri-County Health Department issues $3 million in grants to school districts and local governments to promote healthy eating and active living

Adams County Parks and Community Resources

Renovate an existing community garden area adjacent to the Adams County Head Start (ACHS) Sunshine Center and facilitate gardening by children, parents and community volunteers.

City of Aurora

Project A: Update the City’s 1998 Bicycle Plan, expanding and building upon recommendations of the Northwest Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.

Project B: Incentivize a grocer to offer fresh produce in a neighborhood where access to fresh produce is limited.

Town of Bennett

Project A: Create walking infrastructure at the Community Center through a walking perimeter trail; provide accompanying signage; update the Comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.

Project B: Stripe a portion of the Town’s streets leading to the school to provide a safe section for children and adults to walk or bicycle safely; install signage.

City of Commerce City

Develop a comprehensive city-wide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and install way-finding signage for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Douglas County

Develop two agriculture demonstration orchards (Lowell Ranch and Hidden Mesa Open Space) that exhibit a variety of high nutritional value fruits and nuts that can be grown in Douglas County at various agricultural scales and install interpretive signage at demonstration orchards to encourage residents to select healthful, locally-grown foods.

City of Englewood

Project A: Identify ways to redesign key corridors with pedestrian-oriented infrastructure and amenities to encourage pedestrian movements between and throughout Downtown and Medical Districts.

Project B: Conduct a follow-up to the City’s 2004 Master Bicycle Plan by providing a citywide comprehensive bicycle route and trail system that will connect to trails in adjacent municipalities and the region. Also, purchase and install route multilingual signage and miscellaneous bicycle infrastructure.

City of Englewood Parks and Recreation

Develop two community gardens with the City of Englewood located at Charles Hay Elementary School and Clayton Elementary School.

City of Glendale

Provide city residents and users of the regional trail system opportunities for recreational and functional walking, bicycling and other forms of physical activity by creating a trail connection across Cherry Creek joining city pathways to the regional trail/park system.

City of Littleton

Develop a Comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for the City; install improvements on a prioritized basis to begin implementation of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan

Rangeview Library District

Develop, construct, organize and plant two community gardens, one each at the Commerce City and Perl Mack Libraries.

City of Sheridan

Establish connectivity to a local and regional trail/path network, identifying additional park/open space development opportunities.

City of Thornton/Mapleton School District

Purchase play equipment and install playground for York International School to serve the school’s younger children (K-6) and families in the surrounding area and install program signage in Spanish and translate promotional materials into Spanish to encourage playground usage by Hispanic residents.

City of Thornton

Conduct a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) that focuses on improving access to physical activity and nutritious foods among the residents population in the South Thornton Revitalization (STaR) area.  "These projects will create change that will endure and have lasting impact long after the grant period is over," explained Dr. Richard Vogt, TCHD Executive Director.  “We are happy to have the opportunity to work in partnership with our communities, and provide the resources to make these important changes happen,” he added. 

Tri-County Health Department represents the 1.3 million residents of Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties. To learn more about Tri-County Health Department’s CPPW grant program, visit www.tchd.org.  

To learn more about Communities Putting Prevention to Work, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery and www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/recovery.

The NEHA Experience

Janine Bennett, Tri-County Health Department

At the 2009 CEHA Annual Education Conference I won the Knowledge Bowl and the prize was a paid registration to go to the NEHA AEC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This conference allowed me the opportunity to network with vendors and fellow environmental health professionals throughout the country.  I attended educational sessions in the following areas: Food Safety and Protection, Vector Control and Zoonotic Diseases, and Environmental Health Leadership and Development.

Foodborne illness complaints are one of the many tasks that I handle at work. One of the talks in the Food Safety and Protection track was “A Contemporary View of Food Safety.” The presenter was William Marler, an attorney with Marler Clark out of Seattle, Washington, who has been very involved in representing victims of foodborne illnesses. Mr. Marler discussed many different recalls within the meat industry and the impact that foodborne illnesses have had on his clients. The last part of his presentation impacted me the most as an EH professional because he showed us the faces of his clients – those that have lived and have long term effects from foodborne illnesses and those that have died. This presentation will have a lasting impact on me whenever I investigate foodborne illness complaints. I do not believe there is anything more powerful then seeing the pictures of those that have been affected by a foodborne illness.       

The theme that stood out at me when attending the Vector Control and Zoonotic Diseases sessions was BEDBUGS! One of my favorite work activities is dealing with housing complaints when bugs are involved. I have a fairly good working knowledge of insects and enjoy finding them, trying to help the citizen’s in my inspection area, and teaching my fellow coworkers about bugs. I attended all of the sessions in this track and learned an enormous amount about searching for the elusive bedbug. A few of the notable items that I learned were that they can be hiding in alarm clocks, smoke detectors, bed frames, and a number of other items; some pest control companies are using dogs to detect the bedbugs which can be an excellent tool.  There are also some health risks even though they are not a biological disease vector. Bedbugs can cause considerable psychological problems for those infested with them and can cause allergic reactions, secondary infections after the bite wound, and possibly mechanical transmission of diseases.  Bedbugs are a public health nuisance. There is still a debate on whether or not they are a public health pest.

Throughout the conference I had the opportunity to network with EH professionals and private industry. The first day of the conference my coworkers and I sat with a group of EH professionals from Ohio. Throughout the conference I kept running into one of them. At one of the breaks we started comparing work stories. I was amazed at the similarities of our stories and the different types of struggles that her area had compared to my area in Colorado.

NEHA was an excellent experience!  I am grateful to CEHA and Tri-County Health Department for the opportunity to attend NEHA and look forward to sharing my knowledge with my coworkers. 

Public Health Improvement Planning in Boulder, Colorado

Joe Malinowski, CEHA President-Elect

What a great opportunity for environmental health in Colorado!

As most of you are aware in 2008 the Public Health Act (SB 08-194) was signed into law. The primary purpose of the bill is to assure that a core set of public health services, including environmental health services, are available to every person in Colorado with a consistent standard of quality.

While the core services will need to be implemented broadly, each community in Colorado will have its own local public health needs and priorities. Anticipating this, the Act requires each local health department to conduct a health assessment of their community and develop a plan to prioritize and address the identified health needs. The community assessments require a broad look at the overall factors that can affect the health of the community. Environmental health factors will be a key component in the statewide public health improvement plan.

As one of the five local public health agencies to pilot the improvement plan, Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) has been working closely with the CDPHE Office of Planning and Partnership over the last two years to develop and pilot a process for local agencies to meet the assessment, planning, implementation and reporting required under the Act.

Community Assessment

To assess the overall health of a population or a community, available public health and environmental health data or indicators are used to measure specific health outcomes. Health indicators are useful tools for monitoring the health of the population and communicating with the public and partners in the public health system. The community health outcomes based on the leading causes of morbidity and mortality represented by these health indicators point to real opportunities for the public health system to take action.

To gather indicators for the community health assessment, BCPH utilized the CDPHE list of public health indicators and indicators specific to Boulder County.  The Boulder County indicators were gathered through staff and community input and will allow for monitoring of health outcomes and for further monitoring of public and environmental health specific to Boulder County. To date, BCPH has identified over 300 possible indicators to assess its community’s health. Some of the final environmental health indicators at the State and Boulder County include number of foodborne illness outbreaks, incidence of West Nile Virus, number of residences on a private well, homes tested for radon, number of ozone days above standard, amount of waste diverted from landfills, and access to public transportation. I am really excited to see the number of environmental health indicators on the current CDPHE list of indicators.

The health outcomes were taken from sources such as Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Winnable Battles, Healthy People (HP) 2020, and Colorado State (CDPHE) Health 2010 Objectives. These include health outcomes such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease, infectious diseases, mental health, infant mortality, and unintentional injury. These outcomes now need to be prioritized by a larger group of partners in the Boulder County public health system.

Prioritization

The identified health indicators will be presented to the community and public health partners in a series of facilitated discussions to further prioritize the population based health outcomes.  The prioritization will be based on criteria such as severity, prevalence, and actionability, with the result of identifying 5 or 6 strategic priorities that the health system in Boulder County should use as a common goal and focus on over the next five years.

Health System Capacity Assessment

Once the strategic priorities are identified BCPH must determine the capacity, both strengths and challenges, of the health system in Boulder County to address these priorities. With community partners BCPH will complete the Local Public Health Performance Assessment Instrument for the overall health system and for each priority. This instrument uses National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) to assess local provisions of the 10 Essential Public Health Services.

Strategic Planning

Once the public health system capacity is determined, a strategic plan must then be developed to address each of the priorities. This strategic plan will identify who in the public health system is best positioned to address the priority and how the individual and social determinants of population health outcomes will be addressed. Action will then be taken by BCPH and the identified partner in the public health system to “operationalize” each strategy into their agency objectives and applicable program operational plans.    

Evaluation

Once the strategic plans are developed and implemented BCPH will need to regularly communicate and evaluate both the progress in meeting the strategic plan and its effectiveness in meeting the strategic priorities. To complete the future evaluation, BCPH is currently working to ensure that programs have the technology to capture and report the data needed in the evaluation. This data will also be important in sharing the health status of Boulder County with the community and partners in the public health system. The strategic priorities/indicators will be displayed on the BCPH website in an easily viewable format that will clearly identify the health priority and the local, state and national levels in meeting the improvement objective. The evaluation will also identify areas where additional resources or better strategies are needed.

The overall intent of the Public Health Act is to improve the performance of the public health system in order to improve the health outcomes of Colorado’s residents and visitors. This historic effort in Colorado will not be realized without a healthy environment. What an awesome opportunity to emphasize, promote and measure the work and contribution we as environmental health specialists make to the public health system every day. Environmental health is core public health!

Advancing Practices in Environmental Health Resilience

Greg Rajnowski, APC Project Manager
Mesa County Health Department Advanced Practice Center (APC)

In the fall of 2009, the Mesa County Health Department was selected as an Advanced Practice Center (APC) by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO.) Over the past 7 years, APC sites around the nation have created 130 toolkits. Of those, 19 address issues related to environmental health emergencies.  

The Mesa County APC has begun an evaluation process of the 19 toolkits that include “usability” reviews, subject matter expert (SME) analysis, toolkit user input, and a quality improvement review. The goal of this evaluation process is to identify tools that can be used to improve gaps in a local health department’s emergency response capabilities.

When beginning this quality improvement process, four questions that the Mesa APC team asked were:

1. What are the gaps in environmental health programs nationally and in Colorado?

2. What tools and resources address these gaps?

3. What guidance is there for addressing environmental health community resilience?

4. How does this information benefit rural health departments with limited resources and staff?

Addressing the gaps, resources, and limitations of rural health departments

In order to identify the gaps the Mesa County APC launched an Environmental Health Gaps survey to gather feedback from environmental health professionals regarding the programmatic gaps in their jurisdiction. This data will be shared at the June 2011 NEHA Conference and the CEHA AEC in September 2011. You are encouraged to take the survey by visiting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ehgaps to help us produce a strong Colorado dataset.

The Mesa County APC will compare this data to the 19 environmental health resources produced by the NACCHO APC program. The gaps, corresponding toolkits and resources identified by the Mesa APC will be shared on the Mesa APC website.

The National Health Security Strategy and its companion document, the Biennial Implementation Plan, state that communities will work to “Ensure prevention or mitigation of environmental and other emerging threats to health”. Meeting this objective depends on the ability to develop:

• Enhanced risk analysis and research to improve understanding and anticipation of environmental and emerging threats

• Improved mechanisms to prevent and mitigate existing and novel environmental and emerging threats, including those relating to food safety and resulting from the misuse of life sciences information and technology

• Enhanced ability to detect and report environmental and emerging threats early and to characterize them fully

• Improved ability to respond and recover effectively and efficiently to health incidents caused by environmental and emerging threats¹

The Mesa County APC is obtaining locally available data from hazard mitigation planning, vulnerability assessments, historical documentation, and RTK (“right-to-know”) information in order to develop models for developing a rural environmental health community resilience program using APC toolkits.

Getting involved in future developments

Toolkits are always available at the NACCHO APC website and by linking to them from the Mesa APC page, which contains a list of the Environmental Health toolkits currently under review.  NACCHO is always accepting Subject Matter Experts (SME) feedback from environmental health professionals that have used APC toolkits. If you have some expertise in the area of environmental health and have used APC tools before you can get involved by contacting the Mesa APC at MesaAPC@mesacounty.us .

For the most up-to-date information regarding the Mesa County APC, the toolkits, the evaluation process, or steps the Mesa County APC is taking to address community resilience in environmental health, visit the Mesa APC webpage. A White Paper summarizing an environmental health community resilience program will be available Fall 2011.

¹National Health Security Strategy (NHSS), Biennial Implementation Plan (BIP),  July 19, 2010 DRAFT,

Objective 7 (pg 50-57.)

The Future of Public and Environmental Health: 2011 Annual Education Conference and Exhibition (AEC) - September 28-30, 2011

Mindi Ramig, CEHA Metro Representative & Education Committee Chair

NEHA’s famed Nelson Fabian, That Eighties Band, Clickers technology, Exhibitors Session, pre-conference training and possibly another World Rabies Day walk … just a taste of what’s in store for this year’s Annual Education Conference (AEC).  The AEC will be held September 28-30 right next door to Colorado State University (CSU) at the Fort Collins Hilton. The Colorado Environmental Health Association’s (CEHA) AEC Planning Committee has been busy creating a dynamic conference with strong educational tracks and plenty of opportunity for networking and fun.

We’re very excited about the Fort Collins Hilton which offers an excellent location and fabulous layout at a low cost to attendees. It will be extremely beneficial to be adjacent to CSU, home of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences including the accredited Environmental Health program and many other incredible resources. We plan to take full advantage of this wealth of knowledge to share with all attendees.  We are looking forward to another very successful conference this fall. Please help to shape our future and think about what topics you could share with your peers - submit your abstract ideas via the CEHA website. 

Networking opportunities are also a valuable aspect of our annual conference. Similar to last year we’re planning an exhibitor reception, environmental health knowledge bowl, awards banquet, and silent auction. We found that having the exhibitors in the main hall at last year’s venue was beneficial for both networking and educational experiences since they were all right amidst the heart of the conference. This year the exhibitors will be in an atrium area in the center of the lobby, just in front of the main conference rooms; so will again be in a prime location.

Thank you to all our members, attendees, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and FDA for such a great 2010 conference!   As a recap, Leadership, Partnership and Collaboration were the focuses for the 2010 CEHA AEC which was held in collaboration with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Southwest Region Food Safety Seminar. This theme was highlighted throughout our extremely successful conference. The opportunity to network with FDA staff during the CEHA AEC was invaluable to many attendees and the venue in Colorado Springs was perfect for the needs of both groups. The input that we received during the business lunch and the survey last year is helping us tremendously with our planning.

The sustainability of this organization relies on the interest of members and partner affiliates to participate in the annual conference. Attendance last year was high with 286 people attending all or part of the conference.  Approximately 70 of those participants represented FDA. Let’s keep our participation strong once again. The primary mission of CEHA is to provide high quality educational opportunities to its members. Survey results following the 2010 conference reflected that this was accomplished with the excellent caliber of speakers and presentations that were enjoyed throughout. Many attendees enjoyed one of the unique highlights of a live tattoo/piercing demonstration in our Body Art track. This year we’re planning again on a wide variety of tracks for attendees including:

Holding the environmental health knowledge bowl during our networking luncheon provided an opportunity for many to enjoy the competition. Congratulations to the champion last year – Daniel Gorum, a Colorado State University Senior Environmental Health major. Some of us older professionals need to brush up our skills in order to compete with the students this year!

Close to $3,000 was raised for our scholarship fund through our fundraising efforts last year and we are focused on a strong showing this year as well. A huge thank you to our members, sponsors, and supporting businesses for all of the fabulous donations for our silent auction, and of course to all of the bidders in 2010! A total of 69 items were sold. Our Milton Miller award winner, Dr. Jim Dale, conducted the notable event of the ‘final’ live auction for a single can of ‘Fat Cat’ beer (throwing in several Dale’s Pale Ales as incentives). Not to fear, this year’s banquet will be notable in its own way. Perhaps a new tradition is in our future?  

Please continue to check out the exciting information available on the 2011 Annual Education Conference on the CEHA website.  Registration will open in the summer.

Board Member Bio: Kelli Gaines, Southeast Representative

Kelli Gaines is an active member of NEHA and has held the status of Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS) since 2002.  Ms. Gaines is a recent graduate of Colorado State University, with a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership.  Kelli is currently employed at Lamar Community College as a Program Specialist for Title III and also volunteers in her community in various capacities, as well as serves on several local boards.  She is excited to serve as your Southeast Representative in order to provide outreach and support to members and understand their needs.  In turn, she hopes to enhance the resulting partnerships and the environmental health profession.

Kelli has nine years of environmental health experience and received CEHA’s Environmental Health Achievement Award in 2004.  Her work in environmental health included administrative and field duties.  The areas of experience are:

• Zoonosis

• Restaurant sanitation

• Indoor air quality

• Animal feeding operations

• Septic systems

• Compliance standards for schools and child care centers

• Disease investigation

Kelli has displayed her leadership ability in multiple instances, some of which allowed for the expansion of environmental health services and a greater awareness of these services among the general population.  She believes in providing opportunities for education that reach every level. These opportunities are important and create pathways for success which in turn improve our communities. 

In 2008, Kelli was awarded one of the first ever awarded, outstanding civilian service medals, by the Adjutant General of the Colorado Army National Guard.  Her coordination of family services and resources were outstanding for the 117^th Space Support Battalion. 

Board Member Bio: Shana Fassman, Northeast Representative

One of the first requests as incoming Northeast representative is formal introduction to our fellow CEHA members. I could tell you that I’m a third generation Denver native. I could tell you I grew up in Aurora and went to college at University of Colorado at Denver. I could tell you about my bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. I could tell you about my adventures and misfortunes in the laboratory environment. I could tell you stories of food manufacturing and long shifts spent with HACCP plans, ISO and quality control. I could tell you about the trials of life that brought me to northern Colorado. I could describe to you the day I drove by Weld County’s Household Hazardous Waste and wondered how I could get a job there.  I could summarize my background with Weld County and we could compare notes about environmental health. I could discuss my transition from a technician to a specialist this past year. I could tell you about that and much more.  But I won’t.

Instead I would like to tell our members of my hopes as your Northeast Representative. Participating this past year on the AEC committee has given me much admiration for the members we have in our group. I have never worked in a group that is as warm and as hardworking as our AEC planning committee. Made of everyday people with an enormous range of experience and resources, this group has given me a certain excitement to take part in something more, to be a part of something more. I encourage feedback from our members on how we can make CEHA flourish. As your representative I want to be your voice, and I am open to comments and suggestions. I know we all have time constraints and busy lives.  I believe that in order to make CEHA a continued successful organization, that we need the input of our members. So….What is useful to YOU as a CEHA member? What kind of training would YOU like to see CEHA offer to its members? What is beneficial to YOU and what is not? Please feel free to send me an email and let me know.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Board Member Bio: Allie Bamber, Co-Student Representative

I want to express my excitement to serve as your new Education Representative for CEHA! As a sophomore and Environmental Health major at Colorado State University, I am assisting Stephanie Minnaert in the efforts to educate environmental health students about CEHA. I was born in Canada, and after living there for a few years my family moved to California and then to Maryland, where I lived for most of my life. I chose to come out to CSU because of their strong environmental programs. I enjoy outdoor activities such as snowboarding and hiking, and Colorado seemed like the perfect place for that! I originally started CSU in the Environmental Engineering program. I took the introductory class and realized that it was not for me. After researching into other majors, I decided on Environmental Health and I am very happy with my choice.

I took the introductory class, in which we covered a variety of information such as environmental ethics, foodborne diseases, water quality, radiation, industrial hygiene and many other broad topics of which were all very interesting. Next semester I will be taking Intro to Radiation Biology, and Environmental Health Field Methods. After I graduate from CSU with a B.S. in Environmental Health, I plan to move on to graduate school where I will obtain a degree in either Toxicology or Epidemiology.

I am glad that I have been selected to be a representative of CEHA because I strongly support the field of Environmental Health, and I hope to get more people involved and interested in it. One thing that I am very passionate about is the quality and availability of water all over the world. A goal that I aim to achieve is to educate people on the importance of water and how it is a major problem in third world countries. I am proud to be a part of this organization and in turn promote positive change for the environment and for human health.