What exactly is public and environmental health? Well, it’s everything. It’s ubiquitous. It’s anything in the environment that could impact people’s health. It includes the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, and the water that we drink. It’s about community and population health with the focus of the prevention of illness and injury. It’s about being proactive and promoting health.

Public health officials attempt to control infectious diseases and reduce environmental hazards. For Indiana University’s Environmental Health and Safety staff, our main focus is on food protection and recreational water quality and safety.

We accomplish this through education, training, consultation, policy development, surveillance, collaboration, inspections, and regulatory enforcement. We also respond to and investigate communicable disease outbreaks in order to stop their spread and prevent future illnesses within the campus community.

Please use the public health pages as a resource and do not hesitate to contact our department with any public health-related questions or concerns.

Stay healthy IU!