Environmental Health Specialist

Duties and Responsibilities

Environmental Health Specialists are concerned with the environmental quality of a community and the health and safety of the workers in that community. They are responsible for enforcing local, state, and federal regulations that pertain to the sanitation of food and water, handling of hazardous and infectious wastes, and cleanliness and safety of housing and institutional environments. They may also be in charge of collecting and analyzing samples to determine if a hazard to public health exists. Environmental health specialists need to be comfortable with computers and other high tech devices because they may be called upon to prepare and calibrate the equipment used to collect and analyze the samples.

Salary:

Environmental health specialists make an average of $41,880. There are about 100 different salaries; every salary is different in every state.

Career requirements:

·         Bachelor’s degree

·         Degree field / occupational health, safety or a comparable scientific discipline

·         Certification/ voluntary certification is available through professional organizations

·         Experience/ Work experience is important, through internships or otherwise

·         Key skills/ good communication skills, attention to detail, problem solving personality, knowledge of the complex equipment needed to measure the environment, physical stamina and willingness to work on call in emergency cases

Demand for this profession:

The job outlook for this career has gone up  11%

Reflection;

This career interests me. It interests me because i think i have many of the key skills needed to succeed in this career. I like the fact that people in this career help many people, i want to do the same.