Market focuses on food sanitation, toxicology, water quality

In the field of environmental health, students enter a diverse job market that supplies graduates with many opportunities.
Dr. Phillip Scheuerman, chair of the environmental health department, said that many students pick their majors from a few areas that are already saturated with graduates looking for jobs. Even so, there are majors such as environmental health that are not so overcrowded.
Yet many students have never heard of or do not understand environmental health.
Scheuerman defines environmental health as the study of the effect of the environment on human health.
“Unlike the environmental studies and environmental majors, which focus on environmental degradation, environmental health focuses on the effect of environmental degradation on human health,” Scheurerman said.
The areas that this major focuses on are food sanitation, water quality, air quality, general sanitation, toxicology, occupational health, industrial hygiene and food safety. People who
Work in these disciplines protect human health by ensuring that the environment is safe and free of physical, chemical and biological hazards, which cause disease.
Scheuerman said that even in an area as small as East Tennessee, graduates rarely have problems finding jobs. “If anything, it might take graduates a short while to locate a job,” he said.
These jobs range from industry to consulting. Then there is always the option to teach. ETSU has six full-time professors and several adjuncts.
If any of these areas are of interest, contact the environmental health department at 439-5245.