What Is an Environmental Health Inspector?

The duties of an environmental health inspector are broad; they aren't confined just to the inspection of sanitary conditions in restaurants like a lot of people think. Many environmental health inspectors work for local or state governments, but just as many are employed in the private sector and even the military.

Identification

• Work environments are analyzed.

  Environmental health inspectors fall into the category of occupational health and safety inspectors. They analyze work environments and design programs that will prevent and possibly eliminate injury and disease caused by factors such as chemical and biological agents, or physical and ergonomic factors.

Significance

• Environmental inspectors deal with public sanitation issues.

  Environmental health inspectors used to be called public health inspectors, but they still deal with basically the same issues including pollution, (of air, water and food), housing and sanitation such as sewage and trash disposal.

Types

• Managing food safety.

  The job of an environmental health inspector allows one to work in the general health field or to specialize in a field of your specific interest. You can work managing food safety and hygiene for a large supermarket chain, or advise a housing association on housing standards. You can also choose to work in your local community on issues of environmental pollution.

Prevention/Solution

• Hazardous waste sites.

  Environmental health inspectors can inspect and monitor hazardous waste sites and collection sites that collect paint, oil, batteries, light bulbs and electronics. In their monitoring and inspection of these sites, they will classify them as to what kind of waste they produce and how much. Medium and large generators of waste will have an environmental health inspector on site; this might include factories and construction companies.

Features

• Chemical spills and hazardous waste.

  Hazardous waste response clean up can also be one of the duties of an environmental health inspector; they are responsible for emergency response to dumps and spills; for instance, when a truck turns over spilling hazardous waste, or when a plant has a chemical spill. Environmental health inspectors are affiliated with and governed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but they don't have to be EPA inspectors and can instead work for city or state governments or for a local business.

  Wages for Environmental Health Inspectors in 2008 were $45,360, and the middle 50 percent had a salary between $35,160 and $57,110. The field can expect faster than average growth in employment and those with knowledge in more than one health and safety specialty have the best job prospects.