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Our Program
The National Park Service (NPS) has a strong commitment to the public health of the
300 million annual visitors and thousands of Park Service employees in its 378 areas.
This commitment to public health is demonstrated by its utilization of 18 full-time
Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Officers service-wide, who provide public
health consultation in all NPS activities involving visitors and staff. In addition to
the core program of Public Health Consultants, the NPS Public Health Program (PHP)
includes six Commissioned Officers working in civil engineering, industrial hygiene,
and hazardous materials coordination. An important part of the NPS PHP is the
full-time public health professionals hired by the larger parks. These are registered
sanitarians who are NPS employees on the staff of the park superintendent. Similarly,
some of the larger parks hire seasonal sanitarians for a few months during the high
visitation period of the year.
The following quotation by former NPS Director William Penn Mott is from a letter
sent to the PHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
There are National Park Service properties scattered the length and breadth
of the Nation. We know of no other system-wide comprehensive assistance
on public health matters, which is being provided by officers of the
Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service under our latest Memorandum
of Agreement. This is particularly important because it permits us
to achieve a system-wide approach we need for uniformity of application
of public health standard from park to park and concessioner to concessioner.
For many years, the National Park Service has relied on the Public
Health Service for environmental health protection in National Park
Service controlled areas, including concession operations. The use
of personnel of the recognized health organization of the Federal
Government assures the National Park Service and its millions of visitors
that their health and safety are being looked after properly.
The National Park
Service administers more than 378 national parks, monuments, historic
sites and other areas covering almost 80 million acres. They are administered
in accordance with law "...to conserve the scenery and the national
and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment
of same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired
for the enjoyment of future generations." The two major objectives of
the law, conservation and use, conflict and emphasis between the two
depends on time and individual circumstance. In most cases of conflict,
conservation is chosen because of the possibility of irretrievable loss
of the resource. In any case of conflict, the decision-making process
can be long and involved.
The Public Health
Service (PHS) is a principal component of the Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the major health arm of the Federal Government
and the world's foremost health agency. The PHS is composed of approximately
5,700 Commissioned Corps Officers and 50,000 civil service employees.
The mission of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service is
to provide highly-trained and mobile health professionals who carry
out a program to promote the health of the Nation, understand and prevent
disease and injury, assure the use of safe and effective drugs and medical
devices, deliver health service to Federal beneficiaries, and furnish
health expertise in time of war or other national or international emergencies.
As one of the uniformed services, the Commissioned corps is a specialized
career system designed to attract, retain, and develop health professionals
who may be assigned to Federal, State or local agencies or international
organizations. The Commissioned Corps of the PHS is an all-officer organization
comprised entirely of health professionals. It is one of the seven uniformed
services of the United States. Others are the Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Commissioned Corps of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In the event of a national emergency
as declared by the President, the Commissioned Corps may be designated
as military service. Commissioned Officers are also required to serve
in emergency situations outside their permanent assignments when their
particular skills are needed.
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