TEHA Beacon Quarterly Newsletter

Vol. 17, No. 1 Winter 2011

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In This Issue

Message from the President

Texas Environmental Association Members,

Please allow me to extend to you all and your family best wishes for a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. This year is beckoning us with hopes and opportunities for service. It is, indeed, with gratitude that I look back upon the past year and thank you for your support and trust in electing me your president.

The Texas Environmental Association Governing Council met for the first time in 2011 on Friday January 7th. The meeting was held at The Double Tree Hotel, 6506 I-35 North Austin, Texas. The Majority of the members were present. We were missing the Executive Secretary/Treasurer and the Parliamentarian, due to health issues. We are so very thankful that Steve Berry and Ruth Hendy respectfully are both recovering well. We appreciate Kandi Berry’s availability while her husband was hospitalized in another state and her for ability proxy for the Executive/Secretary, Steve Berry in his stead.

To the TEHA Members, Speakers/Participants, and Exhibitors please accept my apology for the environment that became chaotic on Thursday and Friday during the 2010 TEHA AEC at the Omni Hotel. We give thanks to Brain Collins, Nelson Fabian (NEHA) and Steve Berry for the correspondence sent to the Omni Hotel General Manager and CEO of Omni Hotel and Resort on behalf of this organization regarding that disappointing experience. We are grateful that the Omni Hotel and Resorts have conceded financial remedy for TEHA in a generous dollar amount for damages due us for their action at the AEC 2010. The dollar amount has been withheld from Texas Environmental Health Association final invoice.

Sandra Long provided to the Governing Council a one page document entitled “If You See Something Say Something” Campaign. This document was developed by the Food and Agriculture Sector Leaders who worked with DHS and other Federal agencies highlighting indicators of suspicious activities and recommended protective measures. This document is intended to be posted in work areas within Food Service and Retail Food Establishment to make employees aware if what they should be looking for each day and what action they should take if they observe something suspicious. TEHA member are encouraged to share this information during training opportunities, during staff meetings and during their inspection process.

During the Governing Council meeting Lori Calzoncit the Central Texas Chapter President raised a question “Are we aware that there are persons of interest impersonating Health Inspectors? If you are aware of this happening in your territories please contact U.S. Department of Home Land security and report the incident. Please Stay Alert!

National Environmental Health Association
NEHA REGION V
JANUARY 2011 REPORT

Reminder to Affiliates: Affiliate president must be a NEHA member in good standing. CONFERENCE NEWS - June 18 – 20, 2011 in Columbus, OH

Stay at the designated AEC hotel – the Hyatt Regency Columbus (Arena District) – and receive a $50 registration rebate.* (The rebate will be issued to you by NEHA following the conclusion of the AEC and after verification of hotel stay.)

Full Conference Registration	$549	$709
Full Conference Registration after registration rebate	$499	$659
One Day Registration	$299	$349
One Day Registration after registration rebate	$249	$299

The designated hotel for the NEHA 2011 AEC is the Hyatt Regency Columbus in the Arena District. Most of the AEC event will take place within the hotel, but some activities will also take place in the Greater Columbus Convention Center, which is connected to the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

NEHA is working with the Department of Homeland Security and our federal partners to assist with dissemination of outreach and training materials for food establishments. They have released a one-page document, intended to be used for training purposes and posted in work areas within food service and retail food establishments to make employees aware of what they should be looking for each day and what actions they should take if they observe something suspicious. Campaign materials are currently available and have been sent to the affiliate presidents. (If You See Something, Say Something)

NEHA sends Letter to the Office of Management and Budget in Support of Food Safety Funding. In a joint effort with NACCHO, NEHA recently sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the Executive Office of the President that prepares the President's budget. The letter is in support of resources for FDA's Division of Federal-State Relations, and specifically supports increased funding to improve the local food safety workforce through training and certification in order to better equip them to enforce FDA's Retail Food Code.

NEHA has developed an Overview of Climate Considerations in response to a request to more clearly define the specific areas where EH can play a role and actions EH can take in mitigating the negative impacts of climate change. This paper also describes the challenge of workforce development that is foundational to EH's response and some specific steps NEHA is currently and aiming to take to engage EH more deeply in climate change response.

NIEHS Draft Evaluation Metrics Manual
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has completed a draft Evaluation Metrics Manual that provides guidance on measuring the many types of outreach, education, community-based, and translational research programs that fall within their Partnerships for Environmental Public Health program. NIEHS is interested in your feedback on content, metrics, and examples for each chapter. NIEHS is offering a webinar for NEHA members on February 2, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. EST. To register, send an e-mail to pettibonekg@niehs.nih.gov with "NEHA Webinar Registration" in the subject line.

Radon Resistant New Construction Workshop
APPLY NOW for an all-expenses-paid sponsorship to attend NEHA's Radon Resistant New Construction (RRNC) Workshop! Learn how to develop your own comprehensive strategy to guide you in your efforts in promoting RRNC as part of your radon risk reduction strategy. Application letters due February 28th! For more information on how to apply, see the application announcement.

Openings in EHTER Courses in Early 2011
Openings are currently available in the EHTER (Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response) courses scheduled for February 13–18, 2011; and March 27–April 1, 2011, in Anniston, Alabama. This training is completely funded including round-trip transportation, lodging, meals, and training for state, local, and tribal entities. Please visit CDC's website for further information and enrollment procedures.

Summer Program in Environmental Health (SUPEH) 2011 Opportunities
CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) is offering a 10-week summer internship program for students majoring in environmental health. Selected interns will participate in activities with the NCEH Environmental Health Services Branch from June 8 to August 12, 2011. During the course of the internship, students are introduced to environmental health activities at the federal, state, and local levels through project collaboration, site visits, temporary field assignments, and shadowing and mentoring relationships at CDC. Applications are due February 2, 2011, by 5:00 p.m. EST.

75th NEHA AEC – June 18 – 20, 2011 Columbus, OH

Food Safety Modernization Act: Putting the Focus on Prevention
We will, in accordance with the law, establish science-based standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables to minimize the risk of serious illnesses or death, and we will set standards for the safe transportation of food.

Moreover, with the signing of the law, FDA will for the first time have a congressional mandate for risk-based inspection of food processing facilities. For example, all high-risk domestic facilities must be inspected within five years of enactment and no less than every three years thereafter.

Very importantly, the FSMA calls for the strengthening of existing collaboration among all food safety agencies whether they are Federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, or foreign. Among other provisions, the legislation directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to improve training of state, local, territorial and tribal food safety officials and authorizes grants for training, conducting inspections, building capacity of labs and food safety programs, and other food safety activities. Building and leveraging the capacity of these food safety partners is how we can have a well-integrated, national food safety system that is as effective and efficient as it can be.

Chapter Reports

Central Texas
January 2011 The CTEHA annual Holiday Workshop was a great success, with a record breaking 107 attendees and offered 6 CEU's. The conference was held at the San Marcos Civic Center and thanks to their continued generosity the free venue allowed us to provide both the workshop and a fajita lunch to all CTEHA members who attended free of charge. This generosity way paid forward by our CTEHA members with their charitable donations to the San Marcos Food Bank. We also offered a challenge to our members in the form of a "Speaker Finder Award" – CTEHA will provide free admission to our 31st Annual Educational Conference, held on May 19th and 20th at the San Marcos Civic Center, to anyone who recommends a speaker who inevitably speaks at our next conference. We hope that this will enable us to continue providing continuing education on relevant topics by member selected speakers. We hope to provide 16 Sanitarian CEU's in the Food and Environmental Tract, 8 Code Enforcement CEU's in an Animal Care Tract and 8 Code Enforcement CEU's for OSSF.

PJ Peek, RS
Chapter President

East Texas
East Texas' very own Claire Vidal DeGuzman was awarded the Burl Cockrell Scholarship at the 2010 AEC. Claire is working toward her Masters Degree in Occupational Health & Environmental Safety through Stephen F. Austin State University.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22-23, 2011 the East Texas Chapter of TEHA will host a Plan Review Course that will thoroughly expound upon all components which affect the operation of a food service establishment. It will be a great training for City Building Inspectors, Industry and Regulators. The training will provide information on how to help industry and regulatory food professionals design and evaluate the construction of a food establishment to meet the demands of the proposed foods and food service. If you in Plan Review have ever found yourself questioning how much refrigeration should an establishment have and what type? Or how do you calculate how much prep and storage space is necessary to have a successful business? How about the food flow? Are the plans you're staring at conducive to good hygiene and prevention of cross contamination? Then this is a necessary training to attend. The more problems that we as a regulatory authority can prevent the more successful the health department and the food establishment can be.

Registration is $200 Per person and includes all training materials and calculator. The program will be at the Sleep Inn & Suites 5555 Donnybrook Tyler TX 75703 903- 581-8646 The government rate of $85.00 single or double or king is approved. The Block will be under the name Health District Plan Review Training NSF. We have reserved the training room at this location and it will hold 30 people classroom style comfortably. Should the class get larger we have a second venue we could use.

The East Texas Chapter has several great quarterly meetings brewing. Topics of interest so far will likely include: Animal Control topics of interest, Farmer's Market legislation update, Mobile Food Units, Interactive Water Features, Pool topics of interest.

Ginger Wood-RS
Chapter President

Gulf Coast
The Gulf Coast Chapter recently hosted a conference on December 8, 2010 at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center in Conroe. This was a dual track educational workshop with OSSF and Consumer health classes. Our next Governing Council meeting will be held on January 12, 2011 10:00 am at the Denny's restaurant located 20015 I-45 Spring, TX to discuss dates and location for the next conference educational workshop.

Michael Lindsey-RS
Chapter President

North Texas
The North Texas Chapter held their annual Christmas meeting on Dec. 2, 2010 at the Euless Dr. Pepper Star Center. Once again, there were over 100 members in attendance to hear the speakers. A special thanks to all the Council and the Speakers for helping to make this another great educational meeting. T-shirt sales are going well with a large number sold at the Christmas meeting. The North Texas Chapter recognized Ecolab with the Outstanding Industry Service Award and Carol Primeaux of Coppell received the Willy Acuna Chapter Meritorious Service Award for 2010. The North Texas Chapter will be sponsoring and hosting an REHS preparation class March 22-24, 2011. The class will be held at Birdville ISD Technology Center, 7020 Mid Cities Blvd, North Richland Hills, Texas. To register go to www.RegisteredSanitarian.com . The cost per person including meals, snacks, and study materials is $412.00. Also, The North Texas Chapter announces that Dr. Grady Glenn, of Texas AgriLife, will conduct a study course for the Non-commercial Pest Control Operators License (Vector Control) at their office, 17360 Coit Rd, Dallas. We need at least 5 participants. The cost with a manual is $125.00 and without is $100.00. The date will be determined once we get enough participation. If you are interested in attending this class, contact Chuck Dumas at cdumas@ci.garland.tx.us. The next North Texas Quarterly meeting will be February 17, 2011. The meeting will be held at the Atrium at the Granville Arts Center. Council members are currently making final preparations in providing a great educational program. Have a great North Texas New Year and we will see you at the Atrium!
Chuck Dumas, RS
North Texas Chapter TEHA

South Texas
We had another successful conference in South Padre Island this past December. A big THANK YOU to all who attended and special thanks to Victor Baldovinos and his crew that helped with registration and moderating the meetings. Also I would like to thank our special guest speaker, Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. for taking time out to speak to us about legislative updates and much more.

The South Texas chapter continues to bring training and networking for all that live and work in the South Texas region. In February we will hold our annual mosquito training at the Victoria City-County Health Department for those that need their CEUs. No date has been set. Watch for postings on the TEHA website.

We are also planning a one day OSSF conference in Sinton, TX. It is tentatively scheduled for April 29th and you can earn 8 hours of continuing education.

James Soderholtz, RS
South Texas Chapter President

Information and Notices

2011 AEC Information

It's Not Too Early to Start Planning!

2011 Annual Educational Conference
October 11th - 14th, 2011

DoubleTree Hotel, Austin
Reminder for budgeting.... the hotel per diem room rate is $103 per night.

TEHA is moving to a new hotel for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Annual Educational Conference. The new location is the DoubleTree Hotel, located at 6505 I-35 North. For those of you who have been around for a while, you may remember this hotel from the 2000 AEC. It is located in North Austin, right on Interstate 35, between Hwy 290 and Hwy 183.
The program committee is working extremely hard putting together another outstanding program for the AEC in October. The 2011 AEC will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel. Look for additional AEC information in the summer edition of the Beacon and on the web site at that time.

If you have a speaker in mind for the AEC, please let us know by contacting Janet Tucker, AEC program chair at Janet.Tucker@cor.gov.

TEHA Awards & Elections

Each year, TEHA presents various awards to recognize members for accomplishments in the environmental health field or for service to our profession and the association. Awards are presented at the Awards Banquet during the Annual Educational Conference in October. Awards include the Thomas Edmonson Meritorious Service Award; Chapter Meritorious Service Award; Industry Award; Honorary Life Membership Award and the I.E. Scott Award. Any current TEHA member may nominate another member for one of these awards. If you would like to nominate a member for a TEHA award, please contact your chapter President or other chapter officer. Deadline for submitting an award application is July 15, 2011.

Have you ever thought about running for a TEHA office? TEHA elects new officers each year to serve the association and conduct association business. Officers include the President; President Elect; First VP and Second VP. Nominations are submitted each year for the office of Second VP, with the remaining officer positions subsequently ascending one level until the office of President is attained. Two positions on the Governing Council are also elected each year. The Governing Council positions are for a three-year term. Council members completing their three-year term roll off the Council each year. Deadline for submitting a nominee for either an officer position or a governing council position is also July 15, 2011.
Officers and Governing Council members meet quarterly in Austin to conduct the business of the association.

Contact your chapter President or other chapter officers for assistance in this process. Additional information and forms can be found on the TEHA web site at www.myteha.org.

The Beacon
Volume 17, Number 1
Winter, 2011

Quarterly Newsletter of
Texas Environmental Health Association
PO Box 860099
Plano, TX 75086-0099
Phone 972-461-9644
Fax 972-429-9066

Web-site: www.myteha.org
Email: steve.berry@myteha.org

The Texas Environmental Health Association has not tested any of the products or services advertised or referred to in this publication, nor has it verified any of the statements made in any of the advertisements or articles. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily the official opinion of the Texas Environmental Health Association.

The Beacon: Published quarterly as the official publication of the Texas Environmental Health Association. This publication is intended to keep all interested parties informed on matters as they relate to environmental health, especially in Texas.

Editorial and Advertisements: Address all correspondence regarding technical editorial matters or purchase of advertisements to:

Steve Berry, REHS, RS, DAAS
Editor, The Beacon

Association Business: Address all correspondence concerning the Texas Environmental Health Association to:

Steve Berry, REHS, RS, DAAS
Executive Secretary - Treasurer

It's Not Too Early to Start Planning!

2011 Annual Educational Conference October 11th - 14th, 2011

2011 Annual Educational Conference
October 11th - 14th, 2011