The Tennessee Department of Health, in cooperation with the Nashville/Davidson County MetropolitanHealth Department and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, is committed toworking closely with Environmental Health Specialist Network (EHS-Net) partners to address the sharedgoals of improved food and water safety in our communities. The epidemiology, food safety and water safetyprograms in Tennessee are committed to better understanding antecedents of foodborne and waterbornediseases, contributing factors in restaurant- and institution-associated outbreaks, foodhandling and water-system related practices which are associated with increased risk or disease prevention, and developingeffective and practical preventive interventions. These are the fundamental issues which EHS-Net wascreated to address. The missions of our participating agencies closely mirror those of CDC and other EHS-Net partners, and at the core, are mutually dedicated to using all available resources to improve the health ofthe public we serve.As our record of participation in EHS-Net, the Emerging Infections Program and other mult-site consortiademonstrates, we are determined to be an active leader in EHS-Net and all associated studies. We arecommitted to using state, local and other outside resources to leverage those of EHS-Net and ensure thatthe studies performed through this cooperative program are successful, and are of maximal benefit not onlyto Tennesseans but also lead to results which are useful nationally. In this respect, we will continue tosupport EHS-Net policies to ensure scientific rigor, timeliness, generalizability, and direct public healthapplicability of all projects within the program. The tremendous growth of the restaurant industry, thecomplexity of the food- and water-supply systems in the U.S., and a recently renewed appreciation ofpotential food- and water-associated terrorism risks all highlight the critical importance of improving thecapacity of public health agencies to respond to foodborne and waterborne disease issues rigorously andquickly. The EHS-Net program is a critical demonstration of multiple agencies working together on acoordinated response to this public health need, and we look forward to contributing to it.
| Jones, Timothy F; Grimm, Karen (2008) Public knowledge and attitudes regarding public health inspections of restaurants. Am J Prev Med 34:510-3 |
