What do local public health inspectors do?
- cmatykiewicz
- Jun 1
- 6 min read
Food Inspections
Who is involved:
Sanitarian
Public Health Nurse
Epidemiologist
What we look for:
We inspect all types of food establishments including restaurants, school cafeterias, food trucks, and more. The majority of a food inspection is speaking with kitchen staff and managers to assess knowledge of their food safety program and their ability to implement the food safety program. We focus on the 5 foodborne illness risk factors, as defined by the CDC, which are the most likely contributors to foodborne illness:
Unapproved sources: Check deliveries to make sure they are coming from reputable sources and make sure food establishments can produce the appropriate documentation to show where their ingredients are sourced from.
Poor hygiene practices: Make sure staff have access to hand washing facilities, gloves, aprons, utensils. Observe staff behavior to ensure they are washing hands and changing gloves between tasks and whenever necessary.
Contaminated equipment: Assess cleaning procedures including frequency, facilities and equipment used, technique. Check chemical concentration of sanitizers to ensure proper concentration to kill bacteria and other contaminants. Focus on any surfaces that come into contact with food like utensils, cutting boards, deli slicers, tableware.
Improper holding temperatures: Check temperatures of food items in cold holding units (like refrigerators) or hot holding units (like steam tables) to ensure they are being stored out of the temperature danger zone, the temperatures at which bacteria rapidly grow. Cold holding should be at or below 41ºF. Hot holding should be at or above 135ºF. Assess staff knowledge to ensure they check temperatures regularly and take corrective action if temperatures are within the temperature danger zone.
Improper cooking temperatures: Ensure staff have calibrated thermometers available, assess staff knowledge for proper cooking temperatures to kill bacteria in different types of food.
Why it is important:
Ensures the public is confidently able to eat safe food, prevents foodborne illness cases and outbreaks, prevents allergic reactions due to allergen cross contact.
Regulation:
105 CMR 590 is the Massachusetts Minimum Sanitation Standards for Food Establishments. This regulation adopts the FDA Food Code with additional provisions.
Housing Inspections
Who is involved:
Sanitarian
Community Health Worker
Social Worker
What we look for:
We assess life safety features such as smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, door and window locks, presence of pests, presence of lead paint, heating systems, and maintenance of facilities, and more using the 8 Healthy Homes principles:
Keep it dry
Keep it clean
Keep it pest-free
Keep it ventilated
Keep it safe
Keep it contaminant free
Keep it maintained
Keep it thermally controlled
Why it is important:
Preventing illness and injury in living spaces gives people their right to safe and healthy living conditions.
Regulation:
105 CMR 410, Massachusetts Minimum Standards of Fitness for Human Habitation
Pool Inspections
Who is involved:
Sanitarian
What we look for:
We inspect all public and semi-public (ex. hotels, apartment complex, etc.) pools to assess sanitary conditions and structural integrity. Inspections primarily consist of chemical testing of pool water, checking for life safety equipment, and assessing maintenance of physical facilities.
Chemical testing: A perfect balance of factors is needed for pool chemicals to be balanced in order to kill bacteria and prevent disease transmission. We test pH, chlorine/bromine concentration, temperature, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and more. Each of these factors need to be in a specific range to be able to contribute, if any are off, it can through off the overall balance, therefore reducing the ability to prevent disease transmission, or posing a threat to the public if chemicals are too high.
Life safety features: We check for availability of ring buoys, rescue tubes, rescue hooks, lifeguards or monitoring equipment, ladders, certified drain covers, water depth markings, emergency phones, and more.
System maintenance: All aspects of a pool including the physical pool area, water input and removal system, water filtration system, and all equipment associated with the pool must be kept in operational condition. We check that the pool is intact with no cracks or deficits, proper documentation can be provided to ensure drain covers are compliant and secured, and the filtration system is functioning to ensure pool water is properly circulated and treated.
Why it is important:
Prevents diseases such as cryptosporidiosis, Legionnaires disease, and other waterborne illness, prevents injury such as drowning or entrapment.
Regulation:
105 CMR 435 Massachusetts Minimum Sanitary Standards for Swimming Pools
Body Art Inspections
Who is involved:
Sanitarian
Public Health Nurse
What we look for:
We inspect all facilities that perform body art, including tattoos, piercings, and micropigmentation, commonly known as permanent makeup. Ensuring proper sanitization, waste disposal, and record keeping are essential for keeping this practice as healthy and safe as possible.
Cleaning and sanitizing procedures: Establishments typically either use single use, disposable products, or have an autoclave for onsite sterilization of equipment. If using an autoclave, appropriate documentation recording frequency of testing to verify sterilization abilities. Gloves and hand-washing facilities must be fully stocked and accessible at all times.
Waste disposal: Hazardous waste and any contaminated items or equipment must be properly stored and removed by an approved waste hauler. This is an essential step in preventing cross contamination and unnecessary exposure.
Record keeping: Records including client information and consent forms, employee training, equipment maintenance, and Safety Data Sheets must be kept on site for a minimum of 3 years for traceback purposes.
Why it is important:
The nature of this practice inherently comes with risks, so our focus is on risk reduction. Proper set up and procedures aim to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens, infection, and injury.
Regulation:
There are no state body art regulations in Massachusetts. Each municipality is responsible for developing and adopting their own regulations.
The NSPHC communities are working on adopting regional regulations to have standardization across the North Shore. At this time, 4 of our 8 Boards of Health have adopted the regional regulations.
Bathing Beach Water Sampling
Who is involved:
Sanitarian
What we look for:
We sample bathing beach water from all public and semi-public beaches, both fresh and marine water. Samples are taken at least once a week, potentially multiple times per week if bacteria levels are higher than acceptable levels. The sampling period is typically from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. Inspectors are responsible for taking samples and recording data reflecting the conditions of the water when samples are taken, and a local laboratory analyzes the water to check for bacteria and other contaminants.
If the analysis shows high levels of bacteria, the beach must be closed by the local health department until further testing shows safe levels within the accepted standards. High bacteria levels can be caused by heavy rain events, proximity to sewer outflows, and presence of humans or animals in the water.
Why it is important:
Frequently testing beach water helps to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cryptosporidiosis, vibriosis, and prevent contact with cyanobacteria from harmful algal blooms.
Regulation:
105 CMR 445 is the Massachusetts Minimum Standards for Bathing Beaches
Other regulations that local public health enforces and facilities that we inspect:
Tanning facilities
Farm labor camps
Children’s recreational camps
Campgrounds
Management of biological/medical waste
Indoor air quality at ice skating rinks
On-site septic systems/treatment and disposal of sewage (also known as Title 5)
Public health nuisances
Tobacco control
And more!
More about the role of local public health inspectors:
Our role extends far beyond just conducting inspections. We are responsible for reviewing applications for permits to ensure applicants have the proper qualifications to be permit holders. We write reports documenting our findings, review standard operating procedures, create educational materials and provide trainings to community members among our day-to-day inspections. We work with prospective permit holders to ensure their facility will be code compliant from before construction begins to the moment that they open. Our partnership continues through the duration of their permit primarily through routine and complaint-based inspections.
During inspections, we do far more than simply enforce the sanitary code. We are largely educators, ensuring our permit holders are aware of regulations and why these regulations are in place. Our goal is to keep the public healthy and safe in all aspects of their lives, all times of day, wherever they go. The regulations we enforce are in place to guide inspectors to areas that pose a threat to public health if not regulated and provide guidance for unique situations that arise more than you may think.
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