How to become Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health in 2024

Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health Perform laboratory and field tests to monitor the environment and investigate sources of pollution, including those that affect health, under the direction of an environmental scientist, engineer, or other specialist. May collect samples of gases, soil, water, and other materials for testing.

Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health is Also Know as

In different settings, Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health is titled as

  • Environmental Health Officer (EHO)
  • Environmental Technician (Environmental Tech)
  • Industrial Pretreatment Program Specialist (IPP Specialist)
  • Lab Technician (Laboratory Technician)
  • Public Health Sanitarian
  • Sanitarian
  • Sanitarian Specialist
  • Soil Lab Technician (Soil Laboratory Technician)
  • Water Quality Analyst
  • Water Quality Specialist

Education and Training of Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

Training Required for Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health in different industries are

What Do Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health do?

  • Record test data and prepare reports, summaries, or charts that interpret test results.
  • Collect samples of gases, soils, water, industrial wastewater, or asbestos products to conduct tests on pollutant levels or identify sources of pollution.
  • Provide information or technical or program assistance to government representatives, employers, or the general public on the issues of public health, environmental protection, or workplace safety.
  • Calibrate microscopes or test instruments.
  • Make recommendations to control or eliminate unsafe conditions at workplaces or public facilities.
  • Inspect sanitary conditions at public facilities.
  • Prepare samples or photomicrographs for testing and analysis.
  • Calculate amount of pollutant in samples or compute air pollution or gas flow in industrial processes, using chemical and mathematical formulas.
  • Initiate procedures to close down or fine establishments violating environmental or health regulations.
  • Determine amounts and kinds of chemicals to use in destroying harmful organisms or removing impurities from purification systems.
  • Discuss test results and analyses with customers.
  • Maintain files, such as hazardous waste databases, chemical usage data, personnel exposure information, or diagrams showing equipment locations.
  • Perform statistical analysis of environmental data.
  • Set up equipment or stations to monitor and collect pollutants from sites, such as smoke stacks, manufacturing plants, or mechanical equipment.
  • Distribute permits, closure plans, or cleanup plans.
  • Inspect workplaces to ensure the absence of health and safety hazards, such as high noise levels, radiation, or potential lighting hazards.
  • Weigh, analyze, or measure collected sample particles, such as lead, coal dust, or rock, to determine concentration of pollutants.
  • Examine and analyze material for presence and concentration of contaminants, such as asbestos, using variety of microscopes.
  • Conduct standardized tests to ensure materials or supplies used throughout power supply systems meet processing and safety specifications.
  • Develop or implement programs for monitoring of environmental pollution or radiation.
  • Analyze potential environmental impacts of production process changes, and recommend steps to mitigate negative impacts.
  • Develop or implement site recycling or hazardous waste stream programs.
  • Monitor emission control devices to ensure they are operating properly and comply with state and federal regulations.
  • Investigate hazardous conditions or spills or outbreaks of disease or food poisoning, collecting samples for analysis.
  • Direct activities of workers in laboratory.
  • Develop testing procedures.

Qualities of Good Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

  • 35 millimeter cameras
  • Air current test kits
  • Air monitoring equipment
  • Air sampling impingers
  • Air sampling primary flow calibrators
  • Area sampling pumps
  • Autoclaves
  • Binocular light compound microscopes
  • Bioaerosol impactors
  • Bladder water sampling pumps
  • Carbon monoxide monitors
  • Carpet sampling pump kits
  • Centrifugal water sampling pumps
  • Centrifuges
  • Chloride test kits
  • Chlorinated hydrocarbon testing equipment
  • CO2 monitors
  • Colorimetric field sampling devices
  • Detector tubes
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital hand meters
  • Digitizing tablets
  • Dilution systems
  • Electronic pump calibrators
  • Explosive gas monitors
  • Field data collection computers
  • Flame ionization detectors FID
  • Flow monitoring equipment
  • Freon detectors
  • Hach field kits
  • Halide meters
  • Halogen leak detectors
  • Handheld laser particle counters
  • Humidity sticks
  • Hygrometers
  • Indoor air quality IAQ monitors
  • Infiltrometers
  • Interface probes
  • Landfill gas collection systems
  • Landfill gas detection systems
  • Large-format plotters
  • Laser printers
  • Lead air sampling kits
  • Lead soil sampling kits
  • Lead surface sampling kits
  • Lead water sampling kits
  • Low-flow pumps
  • Lux or light meter
  • Micromanometers
  • Micropurge sampling equipment
  • Microscope slides
  • Moisture meters
  • Nephelometers
  • Noise dosimeters
  • Noise logging analyzers
  • Noise monitoring instruments
  • Notebook computers
  • Ozone generators
  • Particulate monitors
  • Particulate samplers
  • Passive samplers for organic vapors
  • Peristaltic pumps
  • Personal computers
  • pH meters
  • Phase contrast microscopes
  • Photoionization detectors PID
  • Pilot tubes
  • Pocket personal computers PC
  • Polarized light microscopes
  • Pump flowmeters
  • Purge pumps
  • Radon detection devices
  • Salinity meters
  • Sequential air samplers
  • Sewer surveillance cameras
  • Soil augers
  • Soil vapor extraction units
  • Sound level meters
  • Spectrophotometers
  • Velocity meters
  • Velometers
  • Vibration monitors
  • Volt-ohm meters VOM
  • Water chemistry analysis equipment
  • Water level recorders
  • Water sample extraction pumps
  • Water sample extraction tubes
  • Water sampling augers
  • Water sampling bailers
  • Water sampling pumps
  • Water well depth meters
  • Zero air generators

Technology Skills required for Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Autodesk Softdesk
  • Computer aided design CAD software
  • Database software
  • Email software
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • ESRI ArcInfo
  • ESRI ArcPad
  • ESRI ArcView
  • ESRI software
  • FishXing
  • Flood modeling software
  • Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
  • Graphics software
  • HEC-HMS
  • HEC-RAS
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Word
  • SAP software
  • Scientific analysis software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Statistical software
  • Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office
  • Visual OTTHYMO
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software
  • YouTube