Environmental Health

Environmental health refers to issues affected by one’s immediate environment, such as vermin, air-borne and insect-borne diseases, food poisoning, lead in homes and drinking water, lack of vaccination against childhood diseases, air and water pollution.
Environmental health concerns include:
- Biosafety.
- Food safety, including in agriculture, transportation, and food processing.
- Childhood lead poisoning prevention.
- Land use planning, including smart growth.
- Liquid waste disposal, including city waste water treatment plants, septic tanks, and chemical toilets.
- Medical waste management and disposal.
- Occupational health and industrial hygiene.
- Radiological health, including exposure to ionizing radiation from X-rays or radioactive isotopes.
- Recreational water illness prevention, including from swimming pools and ocean and freshwater swimming places.
- Solid waste management, including landfills, incinerators, recycling facilities, and composting.
- Toxic chemical exposure whether in consumer products, housing, workplaces, air, water or soil.
- Toxins from molds and algal blooms.
- Vector control, including the control of mosquitoes, rodents, flies, and cockroaches.
(Wikipedia)
The Delaware County Department of Health has a Division of Environmental Health which currently has five activities:
- Environmental Health Codes
- Environmental Health Programs and Services
- Mosquito/West Nile
- Food Safety Inspections
- Animal Bites to Humans
(Delaware County, PA)
Paths Forward
- Upper Darby 2026 Lead-Free Ordinance — approved Aug, 5, 2026
- Researchers Present Johns Hopkins Southeast Delco Environmental Health Study
- Getting the Lead out of Our Soil — EPA 2024 Virtual Mid-Atlantic Summit Video
- How to Control Mosquitoes naturally and Save Other Wildlife — TransitionTown Media
- Replacing Gas Appliances is Good for Your Health — Canary Media
- Delco Health Department and COSA Warn to Avoid Deadly Heat in 2024’s First Heat Wave
- Delaware County Lead reduction program – 123 Lead Free
- Creating Healthy Indoor Air Quality in Schools (US EPA)
- Federal Air monitoring investment could lower Southwestern PA Cancer
Latest Environmental Health Posts
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Clean Air Council reports Chester corridor air is generally good to moderate
The Delaware County arm of the Clear Air Council has issued its final report on the Chester-Marcus Hook corridor air monitoring program, which shows that air quality in the area of its 30 monitors remains either good or moderate over time except when the area experiences wildfire fallout, and then… Read more…
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Pennsylvania’s Legislature Is Losing Its Climate Champion
Reprinted from Inside Climate News By Kyle Bagenstose October 30, 2026 In what might have been his last hearing as chair of Pennsylvania’s House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection committee, long-time Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali seemed to have little interest in soaking it all in. During the October hearing,… Read more…
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Clean Air Council to make final report on 3-year Chester corridor air monitoring project
The Clean Air Council will hold a virtual community meeting to share the data and results of its three-year air monitoring program along the Chester-Marcus hook industrial corridor. The meeting is Wednesday Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. Read more…
