During disaster recovery, environmental health personnel should do which of the following?

• A. Provide only shelter services
• B. Focus on staffing reductions to save cost
• C. Assess ongoing risks, monitor water/air/soil quality, support re-entry decisions, coordinate cleanup and debris disposal, and document lessons learned
• D. Ignore water quality and rely on bottled water

Answer: (C)

In disaster recovery, environmental health personnel protect the public by actively managing ongoing environmental risks as communities reopen. The best approach is to assess lingering hazards and continuously monitor water, air, and soil quality to detect problems that could affect health. They support decisions about when it is safe for people to re-enter affected areas, coordinate cleanup and debris disposal to prevent secondary exposures and additional contamination, and document lessons learned to improve future responses. This comprehensive, proactive work addresses long-term health threats beyond the immediate emergency response. Providing only shelter services, cutting staff to save costs, or ignoring water quality while relying on bottled water all fail to address the full scope of environmental health risks during recovery.