The National Executive Committee (NEC), Health Sector Environmental Health Practitioners Association, Ghana (HESEHPAG), has called on institutions and facilities to employ only qualified and licensed environmental health practitioners.

A statement issued in Accra and copied to the GNA by Ms Doreen Danso, the National President of the Association, said the NEC wishes to state that Environmental Health is a profession that required formal training and that it was regulated in Ghana under the Health Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013(ACT 857). It said hence practitioners were required by law to be registered to practice.

The statement said the Association was formed to assess, correct, control and prevent those factors in the environment that could potentially affect the health of the present and future generation negatively.

The Association also seeks to prevent and control infectious, communicable and non-communicable diseases which have afflicted humankind through the centuries.

According to the statement, it also preserved, protected and improved the quality of life for human beings; to control those elements of the environment which cause, or may cause deleterious effects to the health and well-being of human populations or to the food and drink, lands, waters, atmosphere, shelter and other resources upon which humanity is dependent for survival.

“To establish standards of competence and code of ethics and conduct against which the performance of our profession maybe measured under the ministry of health and it agencies”, it stated.

The statement said practitioners were to promote, support or critique legislative measures concerning Environmental Health, sanitation, food handling, housing, waste disposal, disease prevention, provision of health amenities or other measures of public health interest through advocacy and lobbying.

The Association entreated Ministries, Agencies, Companies and NGOs responsible for environmental health and sanitation to engage or involve the leadership of the Group in all matters related to the profession.