Occupational Health and Safety Challenges Faced by Environmental Health Practitioners in Municipal Health Services: A Narrative Review with Risk Characterisation

Abstract

Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) play a critical regulatory role within municipal health services, yet their occupational health and safety (OHS) risks remain poorly characterised in the literature. This narrative review synthesises evidence on the physical, biological, chemical, ergonomic, and psychosocial hazards encountered by EHPs during routine municipal inspection and enforcement activities. A structured literature search across major databases was conducted, and findings were synthesised using a risk characterisation framework to examine hazard types, exposure pathways, and associated health outcomes. The review demonstrates that EHPs are exposed to simultaneous and interacting hazards through multiple routes, including inhalation, dermal contact, ingestion, traumatic incidents, and psychosocial strain. Where available, quantitative indicators of exposure magnitude from inspection-relevant environments were identified, highlighting both potential risk severity and significant gaps in direct exposure measurement. Importantly, the findings indicate that occupational risks faced by EHPs are largely systemic, shaped by organisational constraints, resource limitations, enforcement contexts, and broader governance conditions rather than isolated individual behaviours. This review contributes to safety science by providing an integrated conceptual model of EHP occupational exposure pathways and by highlighting the need for system-level OHS interventions within municipal health services. Strengthening PPE provision, organisational support, and exposure monitoring is essential to improving EHPs safety and the effectiveness of environmental health regulation.