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Local Environmental Services

The county I reside in, San Joaquin County does have an Environmental Health department. This department has a variety of programs that focus on protecting our community from any environmental hazards. One program I was happy to see was the Body Art program because there are a lot of tattoo shops in my community. This program provides minimum statewide standards for the regulation of persons engaged in the business of tattooing, body piercing, and the application of permanent cosmetics. The requirements are to protect both, the provider and client from the transmission of diseases that can occur through the application of body art procedures and the control of  cross-contamination of instruments and supplies. 

 Medical waste contains material that is infectious and contaminated therefore, it is important to have a program that protects the public, the facility, and employees from injury and exposure to pathogenic organisms in medical wastes. San Joaquin County has a Medical Waste program that ensures that doctors, dentists, hospitals, etc., treat, handle, transport, store and dispose of all medical waste as specified in the California Medical Waste Management Act. I was happy to see the list of environmental programs that my county offers because it showed me that the environmental health department is going above and beyond to ensure that the community is being protected from exposures.

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