By Lyse Comins

She visits fishmongers and five-star restaurants, housing developments, crèches and suburban homes. She tramples up peri-urban hills and through riverbeds responding to disease outbreaks and environmental health issues.

For senior environmental health practitioner, (formerly called a health inspector) Thobeka Jona, conducting inspections and handling complaints from the public is part of her rewarding career with the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

Thobeka is passionate about health and the environment and is skilled to deal diplomatically, yet firmly, with people, while resolving environmental health issues, ranging from the nuisance of noisy dogs to ensuring restaurant and factory processes are compliant with the National Health Act.

Interested in the community

Senior health practitioners Thobeka, Bruce Black and their manager, Themba Mlambo, all employed as part of the eThekwini Municipality’s Outer West area team, knew from a young age that they wanted to make a difference by becoming environmental health practitioners.

“In 1984 there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Eastern Cape and people were slaughtering the cattle, eating the meat and as a result getting sick. This was due to the fact that the community was uneducated and had no-one to advise them that you need to wait before slaughtering the cattle after immunizing the animals,” Thobeka says, describing her childhood experiences that motivated her career choice.

“There were no environmental health inspectors there and I wanted to be able to educate people,” Thobeka points out.

Many practitioners are employed in local government and are expected to have a wide variety of skills, to fulfil functions under four major areas of responsibility including food safety; occupational/industrial health; epidemiology and the environment.

Safe food

Thobeka and Bruce regularly inspect food premises such as restaurants and retailers, to ensure compliance with legislation and a safe supply of food to consumers. Duties include issuing licences and certificates of acceptability; health; education; food, oil and agar sampling; inspecting and registering informal food handlers and responding to complaints

They deal with administration, legislation and record-keeping, as well as on-site inspections and sampling. “You need good organisational and time-management skills. We keep our manager updated and report to him via a journal,” Thobeka explains.

Factory floor

They’re also responsible for issuing scheduled trade-permits and for monitoring industry and hazardous trades to ensure they don’t pose a risk to human health or the environment. Issues dealt with include air, water and surface pollution and workplace stresses such as noise, heat, dust, chemical hazards and radiation. This is a highly technical field that requires the use of specialised equipment such as noise      level meters.

Epidemiology

Thobeka and Bruce are also responsible for limiting the threat of diseases in the population and respond to disease outbreaks such as cholera, while ensuring the provision of safe water, adequate sanitation and refuse removal. They’re also involved in the control of disease vectors such as rats, flies and mosquitoes.

Environment

Environmental health practitioners are involved in the approval of building plans and work closely with other municipal staff such as building inspectors, to ensure a safe built environment. Issues addressed include ventilation, lighting, drainage, toilet facilities and refuse storage areas.

Commenting on environmental impact assessments and special consent applications is an important part of their duties. These projects vary from the erection of cellphone masts to the development of large low-cost housing estates.

Other important duties include the control of nuisances in the environment such as problems with overgrown land, animal keeping issues and dumping complaints. Clearly, this is a career that offers mental stimulation and interaction with people. “But don’t do this career for the money if you’re financially-motivated,” Thobeka says. “Choose your career out of love.”

A love for the environment is the common thread that keeps these practitioners focused on ensuring one of our most crucial international human rights - the right to a safe environment.