An assessment of federal environmental health training resources

In 1988, the Health Resources and Set-vices Administration (HRSA) conducted a workshop to determine how many environmental health workers there mere n ationwide and what their training needs were. The workshop produced data on the level of training received, as well as on training needs projected for 1992, In 1988, the workshop found, a large majority of environmental healt h professionals had little or no formal training in their field. HRSA concl uded that there was a shortfall in the number of trained environmental heal th professionals and allied workers. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Risk Commu nication and Education Subcommittee (RCES) of the Environmental Health Poli cy Committee conducted a survey to update the HRSA data and review the stat us of recommendations made in the 1988 report, RCES's survey yielded inform ation from 15 federal government agencies and departments. Separately from the survey the subcommittee also sought information about employment figure s for environmental health specialists. Although in 1995 the federal agenci es and departments responding to the survey provided $72 million in support of programs for environmental health training, only 23 percent of projecte d environmental health training needs were being addressed. The need for mo re training of local and entry-level environmental health professionals was found to be critical. Moreover, RCES found no indication that federal agen cies have developed an integrated, coordinated strategic plan for supportin g the training of environmental health personnel. RCES also found no curren t information on the actual number of environmental health specialists in t he U.S. workforce.