This article does not require registration of individuals, such as industrial hygienists, health physicists, safety engineers, civil engineers, land surveyors, other registered professional engineers, or others with overlapping functions. This article does not require registration of individuals performing duties described in subdivision (e) of Section 106615, unless those individuals represent themselves as registered environmental health specialists. It is not the intent of this article to require local health departments to employ only registered environmental health specialists, environmental health specialist trainees, or those qualified for registration in jobs involving those overlapping functions. It is the sole purpose of this article to safeguard the health, safety, and general welfare of the public from adverse environmental factors, to register those environmental health professionals practicing as environmental health specialists who have completed an approved environmental health or science curriculum, and are qualified to work, or are working, in the public or private sector in the field of environmental health within the scope of practice as defined in this article, and to protect the public from individuals performing as environmental health specialists without proper qualifications.

(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 1996.)