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THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TECHNICIAN
In 1969, the changing scene in environmental control made it appear impractical and even impossible for the number of environmental health professionals then available to adequately meet the challenges of both technical and professional duties. Job analyses had indicated that many activities then being performed by professionals could be handled by persons with less than a bachelor's degree. A partial solution to the perceived man power shortage was to train technicians to handle a significant part of the technical aspects of environmental health control programs under the supervision of professionals. The professionals' time, then, would be freed for planning, developing, administer ing, evaluating and promoting environmental control programs. It was believed that technicians could be trained in approximately half the time and at far less cost than an entry-level professional, and that the salary range for technicians, when compared with salaries of professionals would be appealing to an employer. The overall purpose of the environmental health technician training program was seen as a means to upgrade the expertise and general technical competency of people available for employment in environmental control programs. The training was seen as most appropriately offered by community or junior colleges, and of up to two years duration.
Education
To develop a curriculum for technician-level personnel, a meeting was called by the National Environmental Health Association for May 27-28, 1969 in Atlanta, Georgia. The sessions were attended by 21 persons from academic institutions having two or four year programs in environmental health, from agencies that employed environmental health technicians and professionals, and by persons having experience and knowledge in training and curriculum development. The conference was the result of perceived manpower needs in environmental health, increasing utilization of two-year trained en vironmental health technicians by governmental agencies concerned with environmen tal control and by industry. Predictions for future needs in manpower and programs for training were seen as a mandate for developing curriculum guidelines. Participants in the conference were Kenneth Copes, Robert McCormick, John Fleming, John McHugh, John Reddington, Richard Clapp, Edith Reinisch, Jack Hatlen, Fred Cooper, Dr. Monroe T. Morgan, Harry Steigman, Bill Parsons, Richard Holdstock, David Newton, Dr. Hoff, Dr. Herman Koren, Ned Baker, Bill Broadway, Ed Newman, Joseph McIntosh, V. Harry Adrounie and Nick Pohlit. Participants accepted the definition of environmental health technician as it appeared in the Position-Classification Standards, U.S. Civil Service Commission, Environmental Health Technician Series GS 689, October 1969. They agreed that the environmental health technician should be trained as a generalist who could work across the board in a general environmental control program or function in a number of specialized areas or activities. They concluded that the technician should be "job ready" upon comple tion of a two year program of study but should not be dead-ended - in other words, the ability to transfer into a four year environmental health curriculum should be built into the curriculum. Details of the program were published in the September/October 1970 issue of the Journal.
Educational programs then began to appear throughout the country, with Ferris State College, Big Rapids, Michigan offering a pesticide technician curriculum as a specialty
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