Task 4 - Define Goals, Objectives and Scope of the Assessment

The first task of the EHAT was to develop goals, objectives and a vision statement.  The goals and objectives focused upon positive changes in the community, addressing locally appropriate environmental health issues, using community resources, and receiving both community and political support.  Underlying the goals and objectives was a desire to increase public awareness of environmental health and increase communication amongst existing programs, with elected officials and with the public.

The development of the goals, objectives and scope of the assessment was accomplished through an iterative process involving all members of the assessment team following a comprehensive review of the PACE-EH process.  This exercise resulted in the development of the following diagram:

Following the development of the goals and objectives EHAT spent significant energy developing the scope of the assessment process by discussing an adopting a definition of environmental health.  Although this exercise may appear to be insignificant, the adopted definition of environmental health will help define the breadth of possible environmental health issues included in the assessment.  The following definition was adopted:

... the art and science of protecting against environmental factors that may adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long term human health and environmental quality.  Such factors include, but are not limited to air, food and water contaminants; radiation; toxic chemicals; wastes; disease vectors; safety hazards; and habitat alterations.

The last exercise accomplished during this task was to delineate the level of expertise and knowledge of the assessment team by applying a knowledge assessment to the group.  The information collected by the knowledge assessment was used to guide health department staff in developing appropriate training, exposure to existing programs and policies and for the identification of preconceived notions of the assessment team.

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