ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

The Bureau of Environmental Health protects the health of the citizens of Howard County from diseases and hazards found in the environment. Our role is to identify hazards in the environment that may cause disease, and to develop plans and partnerships to reduce or eliminate those hazards.

Our Mission

“To promote and protect the health of all Howard County residents by: providing information about basic sanitation practices and environmental awareness to residents; protecting air, water, and soil from contaminants, thereby preserving the environmental health of all County residents.”

We accomplish this mission through each of our four programs focused on different aspects of environmental health:

The Tanning Facility Program ensures that all county tanning facilities operate in a sanitary manner, properly warn their customers about the dangers of tanning bed use, have trained staff on duty at all times, do not allow minors to use tanning facilities without a doctor's prescription and are properly registered with the Health Department to protect the public health.

The Well and Septic Program ensures that all drinking water wells and septic systems installed as part of new construction or renovations are built to function properly and prevent the spread of disease.

The Food Protection Program ensures that restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, school cafeterias, temporary and mobile food vendors serve safe food.

The Community Hygiene Program is primarily responsible for ensuring that reported animal incidents are evaluated for the risk of rabies, complaints received from citizens are investigated, children that are adopted or under foster care live in healthy homes, aquatic facilities are operated in a safe and sanitary manner. In addition, this Program is also involved in sampling of private drinking water wells, and various other activities.

To find more information about each of these programs click on the links on the left side of this screen.