Environmental health--The Invisible Profession, Part 1.

As I write this first message, I realize that my term on the NEHA Board of Directors is at the halfway point of five years. My mum (U.K. spelling!) recently e-mailed me a cartoon showing a little girl holding a book with her grandmother, and the caption read, "Grannie, do all fairy tales begin with 'Once upon a time?'" Grannie's response is "No darling, there is a whole series of Fairy Tales that begin with if elected I promise...." I keep that one as a reminder to myself about the platform I ran on to get elected to the NEHA Board of Directors.

My platform included goals such as dealing with the workforce development issues facing our profession and improving the emergency readiness capabilities of the environmental health professional. All of us on the board have been grappling with these issues at each board meeting and in our daily work. The last two NEHA presidents, Ron Grimes and Rick Collins, have each taken one of these themes--workforce development or emergency preparedness--as the theme for their year in office and have addressed the issues well. My main campaign platform was the idea of environmental health being an invisible profession and the need for better marketing of our services. It will be my central theme this year, although I believe the issue of invisibility like workforce development concerns, links to other items such as student enrollment, leadership development, and emergency readiness, which we continue to work on as a board.

A few years ago, one of my mentors, Dr. Daryl Rowe, was teaching at the University of Georgia and was also president of the Georgia Environmental Health Association (GEHA). As a member of the GEHA board, I was invited to speak on a videotape production, Environmental Health--The Invisible Profession. Dr. Rowe arranged for the taping of the video by students from the Media School at very low cost to GEHA.

The video focused on the fact that when we do our job well, people don't get sick and injured and so we remain invisible to the general populace. The opposite end of the visibility spectrum also is occasionally at issue when an outbreak or major incident occurs and questions like "Where were the prevention folks?" surface. Because of the invisibility of the profession, we often struggle in budget battles, we see some accredited environmental health programs at schools and colleges closing their doors, and we wonder what it will take for the public to understand the connections and complexities of the environmental health world.

As I launched the invisible-profession platform at various meetings during my campaign, there was general agreement that this phenomenon was experienced by many and that NEHA needed to do something about it. One retired colleague disputed my assertion and even went so far as to mail me an inch-thick stack of newspaper cuttings that covered issues he had been involved in during his career. The cuttings made fascinating reading. I think, though, that this colleague is unusual in that during his career he actively engaged the media folks, whereas some of us prefer to avoid the media.

A few years ago, when I was visiting home in London, my brother told me about a favorite TV series called The Life of Grime. This half-hour show was aired each week at peak viewing time on one of the four national channels available without cable or satellite. I was amazed to see environmental health officers (EHOs) in a London borough filmed as they went about their business of dealing with rat complaints, sampling for allergens in food service establishments, and dealing with an elderly gentleman who wouldn't throw anything away and the associated disputes with neighbors. There were also scenes from the public mortuary (which falls within environmental health responsibilities in many boroughs) and interviews with the EHOs themselves, accompanied by scenes from their homes, backyards, and hobbies. The thought went through my mind that our work, with its obvious health implications, human interest aspects, and very visual situations, lends itself to TV. The American TV market is more complex than the British one in size and scope, but I wondered if a TV series could be launched here concerning the work of environmental health practitioners. In addition, our sister association in London, called the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, is regularly quoted in the national papers on current issues. Could we get to a place where NEHA is regularly asked to provide quotes for national newspapers on current issues?

These ideas are among many that could be implemented to advance the visibility of our profession. I have asked several NEHA members to be part of a workgroup to advance our visibility. Michele Samarya-Timm from New Jersey will chair the group and will be joined by former NEHA President Pete Thornton, fellow board member Brian Collins, Technical Section Chair Dave Pluymers, and Charles Otto from the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This group will recruit additional members as needed. They will learn about and coordinate projects for the advancement of the profession that are already being undertaken throughout the country as well as start some initiatives of their own. This column is a call to action to the affiliate organizations and individual members to become involved in what we hope will become an ongoing process.

I have enjoyed my time on the NEHA board and look forward to serving all of you as president of the association.

Robert G. Blake

Rob Blake R.E.H.S., M.P.H.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]