by Cheryl Leschasin
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 06/97) - Whom should you call when your child is bitten by a dog? When someone becomes ill after eating at a community feast or local restaurant? When you want to file a report about a local day care?

Brad Colpitts and Doug Carr are environmental health officers for Yellowknife and area.

"The main responsibilities of the EHOs are to improve and preserve community and individual environments, in order that people may have optimum health and safety," said Frank Hamilton, EHO consultant for GNWT Health and Social Services, in his recent EpiNorth report on EHOs.

"We are responsible for a number of things," said Carr, including determining if exposure to environmental hazards is linked to adverse human health conditions and to develop a prevention system to eliminate or minimize hazards and their effects.

EHOs monitor regulations under the Public Health Act. Their duties include overseeing public water supplies, tourist accommodations, beauty shops, work camps, communicable disease control, the dairy, swimming pools, public sewage and day cares or day homes.

"For example, if a child gets a dog bite, we follow it up to make sure the child wouldn't develop rabies. We would quarantine the animal and test it for rabies," said Carr.

In the past, EHOs maintained a very low profile, dealing mostly with other health professionals. Today, they are becoming more visible.

"We used to try and keep a low profile, but now we want to keep a higher profile," said Carr.

EHOs work closely with other health care professionals. In particular, contact is made regularly with community health nurses concerning animal bites, communicable diseases, school or day-care problems, housing and injury prevention.

Social services, home-care and mental-health workers also work closely with EHOs in matters of foster homes, group homes, child apprehension concerns and housing matters.

EHOs can be contacted through the Health and Social Services branch of the GNWT.