From Washington's major urban centers to its most rural counties, public health works to
keep entire communities healthy, safe and livable. No two local public health agencies are
exactly alike. Washington's 34 local public health agencies do the important work of
preventing the spread of disease, protecting people from unsafe water and air, and from
hazardous waste, and helping people live healthy lives. Each one provides a mix of services
appropriate for local needs, including immunization, nutrition programs, maternal and
child health care, family planning, sexually transmitted disease prevention, food safety,
disease and injury prevention, promoting health care access, on-site sewage, and drinking
water protection. Each of Washington's public health agencies is guided by a Board of
Health comprised of locally elected officials. Around the clock, public health is watching
out for you and your family.
When You go to the kitchen for a glass of water, you can depend on local public health to
help protect you from bacterial, chemical, or other contamination.
When your children go to child care or school, you can count on local public health to
promote immunizations and assure access to vaccines that will protect them from measles,
mumps, rubella, and other diseases.
On garbage collection day, you can be confident that local public health helps ensure
that your household waste will be disposed of safely.
When you eat in a restaurant, you know that local public health trains food workers
and conducts inspections to keep you from becoming ill.
When a communicable disease strikes in your community, public health professionals
swing into action to keep it from spreading.
Whenever there's a risk to health and safety, public health is there toaddress the issue
or to assure that the appriate agency or group responds. Local public health does much
of its work through community partnerships. working closely with
child care centers and school districts
health care providers
mental health and drug and alcohol treatment programs
law enforcement agenciesadvocates for children, youth, the elderly, and people with
disabilities
Public health protects everyone - all incomes, all ages, all walks of life.
Courtesy of :
Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials
An affiliate of the Washington State Association of Counties
