MCHD Environmental Health Section

The mission of Environmental Health Services, a division of the Health Department, is to promote health by preventing disease and injury. Our goal is to protect the public from environmental health related issues including: food, water, vector borne diseases such as West Nile virus and environmental health threats, including mercury poisoning, poor indoor air quality, and lead poisoning.

MCEH program and services include:

Health Inspections Program conducts inspections of restaurants, swimming pools, small drinking water systems, hotels and motels, child care centers, RV and picnic parks, schools, vending machines, commissaries, and warehouses in Multnomah County. The Health Inspection Program promotes health by educating the public and services providers about food safety and investigating food and water borne illness. The program analyses local environmental health issues from a public health perspective, regulates specified businesses and accommodations, and enforces state and local environmental health laws and ordinances. Our Health Inspection and Food Safety Program received the 2006 Samuel P. Crumbine Consumer Protection Award for excellence in food protection and the local level.

Food Handler Education and Testing Program teaches food service workers how to prepare, serve, and store foods safely. The program issues a state required certificate to workers after they pass a food safety test.

The Food Handlers Manual is an educational handbook designed to prepare food workers for the certification test.

The Online Food Handler Training and Testing Website offers the food handler educational curriculum and certification test via the internet in seven languages. In 2006, the website received NACCHO Model Practice Award.

Vector and Nuisance Control Program protects the public from emerging and imminent vector-borne diseases. Strategies include surveillance, analysis, proactive control/abatement of rodent and mosquito populations, public education, and code enforcement.

Vital Records Program is responsible for issuing certified copies of birth and death certificates for events that occur in Multnomah County.

Community Education and Outreach provides environmental health educational and outreach services on a broad range of environmental health topics including but not limited to: rat and mosquito control, vector borne disease prevention, food safety, lead poisoning prevention, environmental health 101, green cleaning, and healthy home principles.

Healthy Homes Program addresses poor indoor air quality and lead exposure issues in homes of families that have children (less than six years of age) with asthma. Our Healthy Home program received the 2006 EPA National Exemplary Award.

Lead Poisoning Prevention Program prevents, identifies and responds to lead poisoning cases in Multnomah County.

Internship Program is designed to build environmental health workforce capacity by providing college students with practical on-the-job environmental health training. Students engage in environmental health projects that allow them to develop technical and interpersonal skills that will prepare them to enter the environmental health workforce after graduation. The program was the recipient of the 2005 NEHA Innovative Practice Award.

Capacity Building Products As MCEH expands environmental health capacity locally, we simultaneously look for ways to address environmental health capacity issues nationally. MCEH offers the following capacity building products to other environmental health programs as a resource as they develop and implement environmental health programs and services in their own jurisdiction:

Food Borne Illness (FBI) Database and Manual. The electronic database provides a means to 1) quickly and scientifically determine the risk level and response needs for FBI outbreaks; 2) identify and track FBI antecedents so that we are better able to pinpoint the cause and effect of food borne illness outbreaks; and 3) analyze FBI trends over time increasing the ability to fully implement the FDA food program standard #5.

The FBI investigation manual details how the FBI database is used, and how the Multnomah County Health Department will investigate and respond to FBI complaints within its jurisdictions.

MCEH received the 2006 NACCHO Model Practice Award for our FBI database and FBI Investigation Manual.

Workforce Development Internship Manual. MCEH created the manual as a resource to assist other jurisdictions to create their own environmental health internship program. The manual provides step-by-step instructions on how to develop and implement an environmental health post-secondary internship program and the tools necessary to get started.

Risk Rating Research Project Final Report

PACE-EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health). Between 2000 and 2004, the PACE-EH program conducted an assessment that engaged the community to prioritize community-environmental health needs. The assessment results became the impetus for the Healthy Home program.

West Nile Virus Information

Report food illness complaints by phone to Multnomah County Environmental Health at 503-988-3400

Oregon Food Sanitation Rules (on Oregon DHS website)

Food Establishment Inspections Search

Plan Review
Forms and Applications

Restaurant and Bed and Breakfast
License Application Forms

Temporary Food Facilities:
Instructions and Application

Mobile Food Unit Facilities

Food Protection Update Newsletters:
New issue coming soon.

Health Department | Multnomah County

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Created: February 22, 2001
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