Emergency and Environmental Health Services

Chemical Weapons Elimination
Ensures that the health and safety of workers and the general population are protected during the handling and destruction of the nation's chemical weapons. Reviews all chemical weapons elimination plans and works closely with the Department of Defense throughout the disposal process. Evaluates the on-site medical response capabilities to ensure that responders are prepared for any related emergencies.

Environmental Health Services
Provides technical assistance and scientific guidance to state, local, tribal, and other government agencies engaged in environmental health service programs; participates in disease outbreak investigations and identifies environmental antecedents contributing to outbreaks; and supports, through training and technical assistance, those environmental disciplines that have technology or information gaps in areas such as food safety and water and sanitation issues.

Healthy Community Design
Promotes healthy community design. Provides technical assistance for health impact assessments (HIAs), which can be used to evaluate objectively the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented. The HIA process brings public health issues to the attention of persons who make decisions about areas that fall outside of traditional public health arenas, such as transportation or land use. Reviews all Environmental Impact Assessments external to CDC.

International Emergency and Refugee Health
Coordinates CDC’s response to complex humanitarian emergencies; provides technical assistance to other federal agencies, the United Nations, and other organizations in areas related to the health of refugee populations; applies epidemiologic and public health principles to the study of complex emergencies; works closely with international partners to identify the number and nature of landmine-related injuries and deaths; and provides technical assistance and training in public health emergency planning.

Lead Poisoning Prevention/ Healthy Homes
Leads national lead poisoning prevention efforts, with emphasis on childhood lead poisoning prevention, by working with other federal agencies to develop an integrated national childhood lead poisoning prevention program. Provides assistance to federal agencies, state and community health agencies, and others in developing and evaluating childhood lead poisoning prevention programs. Maintains a system for the collection and dissemination of data on lead poisoning, and conducts and evaluates epidemiologic research on childhood lead poisoning.

Promotes, develops, and implements cross-disciplinary activities at the federal, state, tribal, and community levels to address the problem of unhealthy and unsafe housing through surveillance, research, and comprehensive prevention programs. Builds capacity and competency among environmental public health practitioners, public health nurses, housing specialists, and others who work in the community to develop and manage comprehensive and effective healthy homes programs.

Vessel Sanitation Program
Protects passenger and crew health by developing and implementing comprehensive sanitation programs to minimize the risk for gastrointestinal illnesses aboard cruise ships, inspects vessels to ensure compliance with the Vessel Sanitation Operations Manual 2005, collects and monitors reports of gastointestinal illness on board passenger vessels to estimate illness among passengers and detect outbreaks, and provides technical assistance to international public health officials on public health issues related to vessel sanitation.