Each affiliate in good standing is encouraged to designate one of its members and/or a team to receive a Certificate of Merit from NEHA, thereby nationally recognizing one of their own on a national level. Recipients are announced during the AEC awards program and in the Journal of Environmental Health. Learn more and nominate a member today.
NEHA will be continuing their virtual affiliate leadership connection meetings in 2024. Please join them to learn more about NEHA and how they can help support your affiliates.
Don't forget, NEHA also has a great new connection platform called Community. It is a great place to find other EH professionals to share knowledge, experiences and contacts.
Questions? Need assistance registering? Contact Heather Folker at hfolker@neha.org.
November 2, 2023
3 pm ET
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products, whether domestic or imported, is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. This webinar will give a broad overview of FSIS’ roles and responsibilities in protecting public health through food safety. We will also provide insight on FSIS’ Office of Investigation, Enforcement and Audit (OIEA) as this is the program area within FSIS that conducts surveillance and investigative activities at businesses that handle meat, poultry, and egg products for commerce; investigation of foodborne illness outbreaks; response to natural disaster and intentional contamination events; and enforcement of FSIS criminal, civil and administrative sanctions, and authorities.
November 15, 2023
1 pm ET
Are food contact surfaces that look clean to the naked eye really clean? Food soils can remain undetected on dishes, glasses, utensils, and equipment, rendering sanitizers ineffective to kill pathogens to safe levels. In this technical presentation, we'll unpack why decontamination, i.e., the process of properly cleaning food contact surfaces before sanitizing them can occur, is inadvertently overlooked in food establishments by dishwashers, persons in charge or even inspectors. Scientific evidence supporting the need for further scrutiny of the cleaning process, and cleaning products, will be provided in order to inform stakeholders on how to best achieve the sanitation goals of the Food Code through better cleaning.
2024 AEC - TBD
Preregistration Required. This two-day refresher course is designed to enhance your preparation for the NEHA Certified Professional - Food Safety (CP-FS) credential exam. Participants are expected to have prior food safety knowledge and training equal to the eligibility requirements to sit for the CP-FS exam. The course will cover exam content areas as described on our website. The instructor will be available during and after the course for questions. The course includes the CP-FS Study Package (CP-FS manual and CP-FS flash cards).
2024 AEC - TBD
Preregistration Required. This two-and-a-half-day refresher course is designed to enhance your preparation for the NEHA Registered Environmental Health Specialist/Registered Sanitarian (REHS/RS) credential exam. Participants are expected to have a solid foundation of environmental health knowledge and training equal to the eligibility requirements to sit for the REHS/RS credential exam. This course alone is not enough to pass the REHS/RS credential exam. The class will cover exam content areas as described on our website. The REHS/RS Study Guide is included in this review course.
NEHA held its fifth annual Congressional Hill Day on Thursday, March 3. The NEHA Board of Directors met virtually with 38 congressional offices to discuss the environmental health profession and federal funding of environmental health. This all-day event let the board advocate for the profession before Congress. The focus this year was the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appropriations, highlighting the importance of federal funding for food safety and other environmental health objectives to the environmental health profession.
Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA), cochair of the Congressional Public Health Caucus, worked with NEHA to include environmental health within the congressional resolution that commended public health professionals for their work during the pandemic. The Congressperson asked NEHA to schedule a site visit to a retail food establishment and local grocery store Harris Teeter in Williamsburg, Virginia, obliged. NEHA organized the site visit on Friday, April 22.
On Wednesday April 27 NEHA Executive Director Dr. David Dyjack and Director of Government Affairs Doug Farquhar met with staff from Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-WA) regarding the inclusion of the term 'environmental health' within the PREVENT Pandemics Act. Such additions will ensure that the profession would be able to receive federal loan forgiveness, public health training, and recruitment opportunities.
NEHA/AAS Scholarship Fund
Consider contributing to the environmental health profession by donating to the Scholarship Fund. Your donation helps to secure further opportunities to dedicated students so that they will be empowered to sustain a healthier, safer, and cleaner tomorrow. Gifts are accepted online or by mail. Learn more and donate today.
The Journal of Environmental Health (JEH) seeks guest authors for the Building Capacity column. Our goal is to provide a platform to share capacity building successes from across the country and within different sectors of the environmental health profession, including academia, private industry, and state, local, tribal, and territorial health agencies. Submissions will be reviewed by NEHA technical advisors for data and technology and JEH staff for appropriate content, relevance, and adherence to submission guidelines. To learn more about the submission process and guidelines, please visit www.neha.org/jeh/building-capacity-column.
The NEHA-FDA RFFM Grant Program awarded over $7 million in its first year to 228 unique state, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions. An interactive grantee awards map is now available on our Year 1 Awards webpage, displaying type of grant and amount awarded for each grantee. If your jurisdiction was unable to take advantage of the opportunity to apply for funding in year one, another opportunity to apply is soon approaching. Year two application will open this August for 2023 grants, offering one-year development base grants as well as optional add-on grants for mentorship, special projects, and training. Visit the Retail Grants webpage for training options, retail courses, and the latest updates.
We now have a quarterly Body Art Newsletter where we will share updates on NEHA’s body art initiatives, details on upcoming events, and new resources available for regulators and industry.