Benefits of Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration for Effective Public Health Messaging (50m Lecture)

This talk would summarize an ongoing initiative by the Water Research Foundation (www.waterrf.org) to broaden the national dialogue on water quality contaminants and public health. Co-authors of this presentation would include the Water Research Foundation, ReInventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt), ARCADIS, and potentially other organizations who participated in the workshop.

Many Water Research Foundation subscribers are drinking water utilities who field requests from the public about their water quality, often driven by media coverage. Water utility staff who respond to these questions may lack the public health knowledge and credentials to provide a satisfactory answer to these questions. Similarly, local county and state public health agencies may get requests from the public and from the news media and may lack the context or knowledge of the local water system to provide complete and relevant information. Both groups can benefit from shared resources, at either a local or national level, resulting in more consistent messaging to the general public, and can benefit from connections with public health researchers on “hot topics” or areas of emerging research.

We propose to describe a few examples of important issues pertaining to water quality and public health that have prompted public concern and questions, to illustrate the benefits of knowledge sharing between different disciplines. Examples include:

1. Media coverage of lead leaching from piping in people’s homes into the drinking water supply due to changes in water chemistry, a result of the local water utility (Washington DC) changing the type of chlorine disinfection used.
2. The detection of compounds that are commonly found in wastewater (e.g., caffeine, pharmaceuticals, personal care products) in drinking water source waters, as a result of direct or indirect wastewater reuse (Multiple locations nationwide, covered by Associated Press several years ago).
3. Concerns about water quality from private wells in rural or remote areas where septic systems may adversely affect shallow groundwater quality (e.g., Cape Cod, Massachusetts)

Next, we would describe the Water Research Foundation initiative to broaden the national dialuge and build collaborations between water and public health groups, summarize discussion topics and key perspectives from different organizations/participants at a recent 2-day workshop, and provide examples of ongoing efforts and intiatives to improve relationships and collaborations among existing programs and generate more effective and consistent messages. (For example, workshop participant Dr. Jerome Paulson described an existing network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) whose mission and efforts could be leveraged to better respond to questions from the public related to the health effects of environmental issues on children).

The Environmental Health Definitions Show (50m Learning Lab / Talk Show)

The National Environmental Health Association recently published new definitions of the terms "environmental health" and "environmental health professional." They were the products of a work group formed by the NEHA Board of Directors. After research, study and deliberation, the work group developed definitions and subjected them to public comment.  Comments were considered and the definitions were revised.  The final version of the definitions were published in the October 2013 Journal of Environmental Health, as well as on the NEHA.org web site and social media such as LinkedIn.  The definitions sparked lively debate about the field, its purposes, workforce composition, and qualifications to be an environmental health practitioner/professional.  This program will continue to conversation about the definitions and what it means to practice environmental health.  This is relevant because the Board of Directors also has adopted a policy calling for periodic review of the definitions and revisions when necessary. The talk show will demonstrate the use of social media in promoting the discussion of concerns and issues within the field of environmental health. It will also contribute to the understanding of the profession of environmental health and the workforce composition and range of views about what constitutes an environmental health professional. 

Development of a vocational qualification for environmental health in Saudi Arabia (20m Lecture)

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is embarking on one of the largest technical and vocational training upgrades in the world, aimed at dramatically increasing annual training capacity from about 100,000 students today to 300,000 by 2020, while simultaneously developing the quality of the vocational training and assessment/qualification systems. The proportion of the Saudi workforce currently receiving vocational training is less than 10%, but the Kingdom has set an ambitious target figure of 40-45%, which would bring Saudi Arabia in line with the majority of developed countries. According to the accreditation agency, Saudi Skills Standards, “getting more young people – male and female – into high quality Technical and Vocational Training is the single most important factor for success in the labour market”.

AlphaPlus Consultancy in the UK has been appointed to work for Saudi Skills Standards as part of a project team to help develop national occupational standards and qualifications for 49 occupations – one of which is ‘Public Health/Environmental Health Officer’ - people who investigate health hazards in a wide variety of locations, and will take action to mitigate or eliminate the hazards. 
This session will explain how National Occupational Standards for environmental health in Saudi Arabia have been developed and reviewed, and how these standards were incorporated into the development of a vocational qualification in environmental health. Delegates will be invited to consider how the approach could be applicable in other contexts, particularly where increasing vocational training capacity is a priority.

Designing a training programme for the wider public health workforce in Wales (20m Lecture)

Over the past decade there have been major advances in public health workforce development in Wales and the UK. The UK’s Chief Medical Officer recognised in 2001 that “most people, including managers, have a role in health improvement and reducing inequalities, although they may not have recognised this”. The Public Health Skills & Career Framework describes knowledge and competence for core and defined areas of public health, split across nine different career levels, from people with little knowledge of public health who may undertake specific public health activities under direction, through to those whose main role is in public health practice, right up to multidisciplinary public health leaders who set strategic direction and determine priorities across organisations and areas of public health work.

Consultant-grade public health posts are now open to those from non-medical backgrounds, including environmental health, and many EHPs have taken up positions of this nature. Formal recognition of the status of public health practitioners has also been achieved through the establishment of a Public Health Practitioner Register. The next stage is to increase recognition of the role of the ‘wider workforce’.

This session will consider a recent project in Wales to scope and design a training programme to address core and defined competences for the wider workforce for public health in Wales. The session will discuss the approach taken to identifying what is required, and how existing training opportunities have been reviewed for potential incorporation into a flexible programme. Findings from consultation and engagement with employers and likely participants will be considered and the final programme design presented. Delegates will be invited to consider how they could support the role of the wider workforce in the promotion and protection of public health in their context.

A Look Back and a Look Forward for the Environmental Health Profession (50m Lecture)

An understanding of the history of a people, country or society is an important part of understanding the identity. Environmental health has over the years struggled with the image and identity of our core function in part because the expectations of the public keep changing. This presentation will roll the clock back fifty years looking at the environmental conditions over the last half century and the Environmental Public Health role in shaping these historic trends which have occurred. Through a timeline approach the presentation will look at key events that shaped environmental health as we know it today. What were some of the challenges that were faced by professionals in the field that caused them to go in the direction they took? As the historic timeline moves into the current era, we will highlight trends that are starting to develop. Then with this historic background information the likely path environmental health may be trending in the future can be presented. 

Onsite Wastewater Treatment and the Value of Independent Certification (50m Lecture)

Setting discharge limits from wastewater treatment facilities has improved both the surface water as well as the groundwater. However, in siting some of these facilities the continued long term oversight and responsibility has been overlooked. Certification by an Accredited independent organization to a

recognized American National Standard could help achieve the desired results long term. The differences between Accreditation and Certification will be presented. This presentation will describe the differences between the steps of product certification as opposed to just the testing aspects of the product. The presentation will also describe the process and the scope of the current American National Standards.