Environmental health

Environmental health in Australia

In the last 100 years there has been major progress in environmental health, particularly through better sanitation and clean drinking water. This has increased our quality of life and made our lives longer. Environmental health in Australia is good compared to the rest of the world.

But things like remoteness, population growth and extreme weather events can put pressure on our environment. These changes can affect our access to clean water and food, expose us to different diseases and cause power outages.

We need to make sure we’re prepared for these changes so they don’t affect our health.

What we’re doing about environmental health

We work on policy and programs to improve Australia’s environmental health.

Working with states and territories, the Office of Health Protection coordinates environmental health advice to:

• the Minister for Health
• Australian Government and state and territory agencies
• the general community.

This advice relates to water quality, air quality, National Environmental Protection Measures, climate change and other environmental health risks.

We also work to promote equal access to healthy environments for all Australians, particularly through our work with the Environmental Health Standing Committee (enHealth).

enHealth is a standing committee of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee under the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council. It works to:

• provide advice about nationally agreed environmental health policy  
• implement the National Environmental Health Strategy
• consult with key stakeholders
• develop and coordinate research, information and resources on environmental health.

Health’s Office of Health Protection distributes enHealth publications.