7
1957 - 1977
The services of a full time, paid executive secretary were sorely needed, proved to be valuable, and were the means to achieve professionalism of environmental health practitioners. Over the 20 years 1957-1977, the Association had major input into the development and implementation of the nation's environmental health program and succeeded in pro jecting a significant role that the environmental health professional could play on the public health stage. During this period, Registration Acts were passed and implemented in a majority of states, fulfilling one of the major goals of the organization. Because of the insistence of Nick Pohlit, the Sanitarian category was included in the Allied Health Professions Personnel Training Act, making it possible for $7 million to be made available to colleges and universities that wanted to build curricula in environmental health sciences. Also, this was a time for building relationships with other organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American Public Health Association, National Health Council, National Restaurant Association, and with numerous industries and industry associations and federal agencies. By 1961, the membership more than doubled that reported in 1956, and by 1965, there were 5000 members in the Association. Increased revenue and visibility resulting from the larger membership led the way to increased activity, more educational efforts, including regional conferences and various types of workshops. The annual educational conferences featured well-known scientists and prominent political figures. The exper tise of NAS members was recognized and respected by federal agencies and many were called to consult on technical and policy discussions. The horizon was expanding. In 1958, NAS President Franklin Fiske attended a National Conference on Air Pollution in Washington, D.C. After the meeting he said that air pollution was an environmental health problem which should be recognized by sanitarians as a growing concern for most urban and rural areas. "As environmental health specialists, sanitarians need to be informed so they can get involved.'' That was a beginning of involvment in a multitude of scientific areas that is continuing to grow through the 1980's. The input into federal legislation and its implementation, recognition of the environmental health sanitarian as a professional and as an administrator, manager and educator...all this and much more were accomplished between 1957 and 1977. Significant to the expanding horizon of the Association was the move to revamp the image through changing the name of the association's publication and subsequently to match it with a new name for the association that would embrace all environmental health professionals. The subtitles on the publication evolved from ''A Journal of Sanitary Technology" to "A Journal of Sanitary Science" to "A Journal of Environmental Health.'' Finally the real title, The Sanitarian, was dropped in favor of the last subtitle, Journal ofEnvironmental Health which became the real title with the July/August 1962 issue. Interestingly, it was Volume 25, Number 1. Discussions on a name change for the association took place for several years with polls of the members resulting in a status quo. .
Finally, members were given several choices and through a mail ballot chose the
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