ABSTRACT
Like many environmental health practitioners (EHPs), I studied environmental health across the five disciplines of health and safety, food, pollution, contaminated land and housing choosing to specialise in a housing career because I feel passionately that to get strong working housing enforcement policies right would allow us to really turn the corner on public health. It is surprising to think that we can go out and eat and be confident that a food business with a high star rating is not going to poison us and that we can go to work and be reasonably confident that if we follow health and safety procedures we are not going to get injured. But coming home afterwards to a rented property in large parts of our country could mean a higher exposure to hazards in the very place where we are meant to feel most comfortable and secure.
