The Environmental Health Divisions was a unit of the
U.S. Public Health Service
The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...
(PHS) that focused on
environmental health
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...
, existing in various forms from 1913 until 1970. It is the primary direct predecessor of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...
. It had several other names earlier in its history, including the Office of Stream Pollution Investigations and Division of Sanitary Engineering Services.
PHS established a program focusing on water pollution in 1913 in Cincinnati. During and after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, it expanded into additional aspects of environmental health, becoming the Division of Sanitary Engineering Services in 1954. In 1960 it was reorganized into the Environmental Health Divisions, one of two units of the PHS
Bureau of State Services
The Bureau of State Services (BSS) was one of three principal operating agencies of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) from 1943 until 1966. The bureau contained the PHS divisions that administered cooperative services to U.S. state ...
. As part of
a series of several reorganizations of PHS beginning in 1967, most of the former Environmental Health Divisions became the core of the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, with the exception of two components that became the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the C ...
and the FDA
Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The direct successor of the PHS Environmental Health Divisions' main facility in Cincinnati, the
Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center
The Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center in Cincinnati is the second-largest research and development facility of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It specializes in water research, bioremediation, and pollution p ...
, remains EPA's second-largest research and development facility.
Origins
The 1912 PHS law () expanded PHS's mission from communicable into
non-communicable diseases
A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, oste ...
.
In 1913, the former
Cincinnati U.S. Marine Hospital building was reopened as a Field Investigation Station for water pollution research.
Its location in Cincinnati was due to the environmental effects of the industrial cities of the
Ohio River on safe drinking water.
Wade Hampton Frost was the first head of the program, which included four other
commissioned medical officers and support staff, and five branch laboratories along the Ohio River.
It was initially called the Stream Pollution Investigations Station and focused on natural purification of streamwater, and water treatment systems.
It later came to be known as the Office of Stream Pollution Investigations.
It was initially part of the PHS Division of Scientific Research, and in 1942 it was part of its successor, the
National Institute of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
.
Expansion
During and after World War II, the facility expanded into air, industrial, and chemical pollution and radiological health research. In 1949 it was renamed the Environmental Health Center of the PHS to reflect its increased scope.
It was given divisional status at that time.
That year, the Division of Engineering Resources, Division of Sanitation, and Division of Water Pollution Control were also created as part of the initial setup of the
Bureau of State Services
The Bureau of State Services (BSS) was one of three principal operating agencies of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) from 1943 until 1966. The bureau contained the PHS divisions that administered cooperative services to U.S. state ...
.
In 1954, the four divisions were absorbed into the new Division of Sanitary Engineering Services as part of a realignment of the Bureau's programs into fewer, larger divisions.
The same year, the environmental health programs moved from the former Marine Hospital to the newly constructed Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center,
which consolidated seven PHS locations in Cincinnati.
It was named for the recently deceased Senator
Robert A. Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate Majority Leade ...
, and had about 200 staff.
Plans for the new building dated back as far as 1938, when the site was identified.
Later history
During 1959–61, the Division of Sanitary Engineering Services was broken up into the Division of Environmental Engineering and Food Protection, Division of Air Pollution Control, and Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control.
The Division of Radiological Health was also formed during this period.
In 1960, the Environmental Health Divisions unit, one of two units of the Bureau of State Services, was created as an umbrella designation for these divisions. The
Division of Occupational Health, which had different origins and operated at a different facility in Cincinnati, was also made part of the Environmental Health Divisions.
As of 1964, the center had grown to 1000 staff spread over ten locations in Cincinnati. At this time its programs included detection of radioactive fallout in the environment, study of the effects of pollution on food and milk, study of a massive
fish kill on the lower
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
, assisting air pollution control programs of the states, and studying water pollution from novel industrial chemicals.
In 1966, the Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control was transferred to the
Department of the Interior, becoming the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration.
In 1967, in the first of a
series of several reorganizations, the Environmental Health Divisions became the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Environmental Control.
This bureau was short-lived, as in 1968, it was rolled into the new Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service (CPEHS) within PHS and split into two operating agencies: the National Air Pollution Control Administration and the Environmental Control Administration. The Environmental Control Administration contained five bureaus: the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, Bureau of Water Hygiene, Bureau of Radiological Health, Bureau of Community Environmental Management, and Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health.
Additionally, the
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...
(FDA), which was previously not part of PHS, was moved into CPEHS.
Just prior to their incorporation into EPA, the Bureau of Water Hygiene had additional facilities in
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 14,532 at the 2020 census. However, during the summer months the town's population more than doubles to near 34,000. The town of Narragansett occupie ...
and
Manchester, Washington; the Bureau of Radiation Health in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
and
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
; and the National Air Pollution Control Administration in
Ann Arbor, Michigan and at the
Denver Federal Center
The Denver Federal Center, in Lakewood, Colorado, is part of the General Services Administration and is home to about 6,200 employees of agencies of the federal government of the United States. The Center encompasses an area of about and has 90 ...
in
Lakewood, Colorado
The City of Lakewood is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 155,984 at the 2020 U.S. Census making Lakewood the fifth most populous city in Col ...
. The Federal Water Quality Administration had multiple facilities across the United States.
Transformation into EPA
![EPA_Breidenbach_Center_aerial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/EPA_Breidenbach_Center_aerial.png)
The
Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970 largely from the former PHS Environmental Health Divisions, as it absorbed the entire National Air Pollution Control Administration; the Environmental Control Administration's Bureaus of Solid Waste Management, Water Hygiene, and part of Radiological Health; and the Federal Water Quality Administration, which had previously been transferred from PHS to the Department of the Interior in 1966. A few specific functions from other agencies mainly relating to pesticides and radiation were also incorporated into EPA.
On the other hand, PHS retained the Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health, which became the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the C ...
;
as well as the other part of the Bureau of Radiological Health, which moved into FDA and later became its
Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The Bureau of Community Environmental Management was later absorbed by EPA and CDC in 1973.
Upon its creation, EPA inherited 84 sites spread across 26 states, of which 42 sites were laboratories. The EPA consolidated these laboratories into 22 sites.
The EPA programs in the Taft Center moved to the new
Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center
The Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center in Cincinnati is the second-largest research and development facility of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It specializes in water research, bioremediation, and pollution p ...
in Cincinnati in 1978, which as of 2021 remains EPA's second-largest research and development facility.
References
{{Reflist
Historical agencies of the United States Public Health Service
Environmental health organizations