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What is an environmental health specialist and how to become one
Just as the name implies, Environmental Health Specialists are responsible for monitoring health and safety conditions in commercial, residential, industrial, and recreational settings. You are allowed to collect samples of water, air, soil, and possible pollutants for inspection. Your core responsibility is to determine the existence of possible health hazards and take corrective measures concerning them. Understanding this, you must check all factories, plants, or industrial waste by inspecting schools, restaurants, daycare centers, and nursing homes. Apart from monitoring your environment, you are also expected to monitor hospitals, especially on how they handle biological waste products and ensure swimming pools are safe for recreational purposes.
As a government employee, you are allowed to issue a certificate stating that a particular place meets the acceptable health and safety standards and issue permits. Resolving problems and finding an alternative for those problems is your responsibility. Basic skill requirements for an environmental health specialist include excellent analytical skills, knowledge of environmental policies and regulations, excellent communication skills, and a love for a clean environment. The average salary of an environmental health specialist annually is $52,000. However, you need a bachelor's degree in Public Health or other related fields.
What general advice would you give to an environmental health specialist?
Shannon Farrell Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
If it is hard to find a job in your ideal field, find jobs that provide the opportunity for developing crossover skills: technical and field skills, research skills, writing skills, communication, or management skills. Leverage opportunities to improve and display your executive function skills - planning, organizing, managing, leadership, mentorship, etc. These can all be valuable efforts, even when you aren't working in your preferred scientific field. Be your advocate - make contacts, network, ask for advice, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone (it may be uncomfortable, but you will survive!)
Avg. Salary $54,789
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 6%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.23%
Asian 5.72%
Black or African American 9.60%
Hispanic or Latino 14.55%
Unknown 6.20%
White 62.70%
Genderfemale 37.16%
male 62.84%
Age - 45American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 45Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is challenging
7 - challenging
Work life balance is poor
6.4 - fair
Environmental health specialist career paths
Key steps to become an environmental health specialist
Explore environmental health specialist education requirements
Start to develop specific environmental health specialist skills
Skills Percentages Environmental Health 14.75% EHS 7.87% OSHA 7.42% Hazardous Waste 4.06% Public Health 3.38% Complete relevant environmental health specialist training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New environmental health specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an environmental health specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real environmental health specialist resumes.Research environmental health specialist duties and responsibilities
- Help in managing the implementation of management systems meeting OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 standards.
- Manage organization's injury/illness recordkeeping and handle worker's compensation claims.
- Provide strategic leadership and work with management on identify EHS issues/recommendations/opportunities to foster continuous improvement of EHS programs and culture.
- Maintain SDS and GHS programs.
Prepare your environmental health specialist resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your environmental health specialist resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an environmental health specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
Choose from 10+ customizable environmental health specialist resume templates
Build a professional environmental health specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your environmental health specialist resume.
Apply for environmental health specialist jobs
Now it's time to start searching for an environmental health specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
How did you land your first environmental health specialist job
Are you an environmental health specialist?
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Average environmental health specialist salary
The average environmental health specialist salary in the United States is $54,789 per year or $26 per hour. Environmental health specialist salaries range between $38,000 and $77,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do environmental health specialists rate their job?
Environmental health specialist reviews
Working with leadership and taking part in creating a safer work environment through physical changes in the plant as well as a heavy focus on behavioral based safety. I enjoy training others and being tasked with difficult questions that require research and a follow up. I'm slowly becoming an expert in specific policies and standards set by our company, government agencies, and other industry standards.
I've got limited official background in OSH and find it difficult to navigate the corporate environment to find answers at times. Knowing who to include in what meetings and information sharing sessions has been somewhat of a challenge as well.
Updated January 8, 2025
