Health Promotion As Practiced by Public Health Inspectors: The BC Experience (Qualitative RESEARCH‪)‬

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. (1,2) Health promotion involves actions directed at strengthening the skills and capabilities of individuals, as well as changing social, environmental and economic conditions to alleviate their negative impacts on public and individual health. (1) There are a range of activities under the umbrella of health promotion, including policy initiatives, environmental strategies, community development, as well as the more traditional lifestyle and public education initiatives. (3) The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) identifies five key strategies for health promotion: building healthy public policy; creating supportive environments; strengthening community actions; developing personal skills; and reorienting health services. (2) Health protection describes the activities, many of them based on traditional mandates, of public health units/departments, especially in food hygiene, water purification, environmental sanitation, involvement with permits for facilities, and other activities in which the emphasis is on actions that can be taken to reduce or contain the risk of adverse consequences for health attributable to environmental hazards, unsafe or impure food, water, dangers in care facilities, etc. (4,5) In the province of British Columbia (BC), Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), formerly called Public Health Inspectors, are mandated to protect health by enforcing provincial regulations. They surveil and monitor activities and premises that may affect the public's health, administer provincial legislation, and intervene to minimize health and safety hazards. (6)