Sixty-Day Report.

Colonel Anthony C. Aiken

Recently, I was reflecting on how time just seems to slip away--and thought this would be a great opportunity to update the membership. Just think for a moment: The NEHA Annual Educational Conference (AEC) in Denver was held two months ago already and since then we have been very busy conducting NEHA business. My purpose in this column is to inform our members of actions taken by your president, board of directors, and NEHA staff, all of whom are working very hard to promote our association.

The members of the board of directors communicate often with respect to NEHA business, discussing environmental health issues and programs. With the support of our executive director, Nelson Fabian, and the NEHA staff, we are communicating with government agencies and corporate organizations to market our association and to promote environmental health. Our focus is to ensure that health departments, government agencies, and officials understand that NEHA is the association they should contact when they want official statements on environmental health policy.

By the time this article is published, Nelson and I will have had meetings with a variety of organizations that support NEHA's mission. The following is a brief synopsis of those meetings.

Underwriters Laboratory (UL), Northbrook, Illinois

We had an outstanding meeting with Tom Castino, president and chief executive officer; Don Mader, executive vice president and chief operating officer Americas Group; and George Kupfer, executive liaison. Key issues included

* an annual meeting between UL's leadership and NEHA's president and executive director to reflect on our partnership,

* Web page linkage,

* AEC sponsorship,

* the organizing of an ad hoc committee of environmental health professionals, which will develop health standards for indoor air quality concerns, and

* the UL/Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) Sabbatical Exchange.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Atlanta, Georgia

This was an initial meeting with Henry Falk, M.D., M.P.H., assistant administrator, at our Denver office. We discussed ideas including

* NEHA sponsorship of ATSDR conferences,

* the inclusion of ATSDR columns in the Journal of Environmental Health,

* additional grant initiatives to be undertaken with ATSDR,

* special programming for ATSDR staff at the upcoming NEHA conference in Atlanta (June 30--July 3, 2001), and

* credentialing of ATSDR staff.

NEHA also would like to meet annually with ATSDR leadership to reflect on our partnership.

NSF International, Ann Arbor, Michigan 

We met with Dennis R. Mangino, Ph.D., president and chief operating officer, and Harry Grenawitzke, vice president of Regulatory Affairs, to discuss

* NEHA cosponsorship of NSF International conferences (the Second Annual NSF International Conference on Food Safety, October 11--13, 2000, in Savannah, Georgia, and the Third NSF International Symposium and Technology Expo on Small Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems, April 22--25, 2001, in Washington, D.C.);

* the NEHA and NSF International/Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Sabbatical; and

* an address by the NEHA president and executive director to the NSF International board of directors about the importance of our partnership (a major first for both organizations).

International Association for Food Protection Conference (IAFPC), Atlanta, Georgia

We represented NEHA by managing our booth at the Advancing Food Safety Worldwide conference. The booth distributed

* advertising and marketing information,

* copies of the Journal of Environmental Health and FOOD environment news digest, and

* information on the Certified Food Safety Professional (CFSP) certification developed through a NEHA/Experior Assessments partnership. Many conference participants were interested in obtaining additional information about the CFSP credential. George Nakamura, Dr. Robert Powitz, and Doug Campbell, from Experior Assessment, have been appointed to an ad hoc committee to develop strategies for advertising and marketing the credential.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Washington, D.C.

The NEHA board of directors attended an FDA-funded meeting with Richard Barnes and Paul Rayne to develop a partnership on food safety-related issues. Immediately after this meeting, selected members of the board were requested to schedule meetings with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and elected national officials to promote NEHA's environmental health policies and procedures.

National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Atlanta, Georgia

We held a meeting at the Denver office with Ann Wilson, an NCEH representative, to explore a working relationship between our organizations. Components of the partnership will include

* NCEH cosponsorship of the 2001 AEC keynote speaker,

* publication of an NCEH column in the Journal,

* collaboration of NCEH staff with NEHA staff on grants, and

* an NCEH seminar and speakers at the 2001 AEC.

Further Activities

Nelson and I also had the privilege of representing NEHA at the Council of Linkages meeting for the areas of public health and academia in Los Angeles, California, and I spoke at the Georgia Environmental Health Association meeting, in Callaway Gardens, Georgia. Plans are being finalized to attend the American Public Health Association meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, the CIPHI Annual Education Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and affiliate meetings in California, Indiana, Kansas, and Montana. We attended the CIEH Environmental Health Congress this past September, in Harrogate, England, where we heard David Purchon, CIEH president, deliver a message titled "The State of Environmental Health." The congress attracted more than 1,100 delegates, who were environmental health professionals and representatives from central and local governments. NEHA values its business relationships, which afford partnering organizations the opportunity to address issues of mutual interest and concern.

In the upcoming months, the NEHA staff will begin in-depth preparation for the 65th AEC in Atlanta, Georgia. You can be assured that the staff and the board of directors will work closely with the Georgia Environmental Health Association to make the 65th AEC one of the best ever.

Please communicate with us! The board of directors is committed to serving NEHA members with integrity and professionalism. We appreciate receiving and reading your correspondence--doing so will assist NEHA in moving to the "next level of excellence."