What is an environmental sanitarian?

You may have heard the term, seen a job announcement, or read an article describing
someone working as a sanitarian. Many people assume that sanitarians are the folks who
collect the garbage every week, or make sure that public buildings are kept clean. While these
jobs are a very important part of proper sanitation, a sanitarian is a person who is an expert in
public health and sanitation.
Back in 1855, a man named John Snow proposed the revolutionary idea that a cholera
epidemic occurring in London might be related to a contaminated well that people were
drinking from. Authorities were reluctant to believe him until they put a lock on the well and
the cholera epidemic went away. Since that time Snows idea, that maintaining a healthy
community can directly affect the incidence of disease, has become a founding principle of
public health. Sanitarians are the modern-day John Snows, working to prevent you from
getting sick because of your environment.

What do environmental sanitarians do?

You probably already have some idea of what an environmental sanitarian does, but you may
call them health inspectors. In the media, environmental sanitarians are usually shown
inspecting restaurants for pests, rotting food, or food service workers with poor hygiene.
Most of the day-to-day inspections are not always as dramatic or funny. While environmental
sanitarians do look for the things shown in the media, they also make sure that restaurants
store and prepare the food properly and take time educate food service workers about food
safety. (The same food safety principles are also important in your own home. Check out the
Food Protection section of our website for more information about what you can do to ensure
your food is safe.)
While food protection is one of the most well-known functions of an environmental
sanitarian, there are many other parts to the job. Environmental sanitarians are involved in so
many things there is simply not enough space to cover all of it here.
Local environmental public health (EPH) practitioners are
responsible for a comprehensive and diverse set of services and
activities. Larry Gordon, the former president of the American Public
Health Association (APHA), defines the practice of local
environmental public health in this way:
Environmental public health practitioners are involved not only in
inspections, but perhaps more importantly in surveillance, warnings,
permitting, grading, developing compliance schedules and variances,
risk assessment, risk communication, public information, exposure
evaluation, seeking injunctions and other legal remedies,
embargoing, sampling for analyses, education, consultation,
community networking, problem prioritization, policy development, marketing the values and
benefits of environmental public health, plan and design review and approval, and
epidemiology.

As Larry Gordon states, the true day-to-day practice of environmental public health covers
an extremely comprehensive and diverse set of services and activities. In Maryland, each
county is unique and practices environmental public health in very different ways. Due to
variations in EPH programs from county to county, for the purpose of the assessment, the
Profile project was organized into ten major EPH program divisions as listed in the
[following] figure.

(Taken from the Profile of Maryland Environmental Health Practice, THE JOHNS
HOPKINS CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH PRACTICE February 2005)
In Howard County, the Bureau of Environmental Health provides almost all of the services
outlined in the Hopkins report. Within the Bureau there are three programs: Food Protection,
Well and Septic, and Community Hygiene. To find out more about the services each of these
programs provide click on the links on the left side of this screen.
An article in the Baltimore Sun in June 2007, profiled one of the Howard County
Sanitarians in the Community Hygiene Program. Many people are surprised to hear that
sanitarians (or health inspectors) are involved in such a "broad range" of activities. You can
read a copy of the article and find out a little bit more about what it is like to be a sanitarian
by clicking here.

How do I become an environmental sanitarian?

In Maryland, anyone who is interested in working as an Environmental sanitarian must be
approved by the Board of Environmental Sanitarians with the Maryland Department of the
Environment.
The Board reviews applicants for their education and experience. The minimum education
requirement is a baccalaureate degree (any major) from an accredited college or university
that includes:
at least 30 semester credit hours in the physical, biological or environmental sciences
at least one laboratory course and two of the following: chemistry, physics or biology
a course in mathematics.
After the Board has approved an applicant to work in Maryland, a certificate is sent verifying
the Boards approval. The applicant must then apply for a position with the State (or any
other company seeking to hire environmental sanitarians). The State application, an MS-100,
must include a copy of the certificate provided by the Board. Once the State has received the
completed application and a copy of the Board certificate, the applicants name is placed on
an eligibility list from which counties recruit when positions become available.