public health orders, and take necessary actions to protect public health. Likewise, they respond to other emergencies such as natural disasters, with roles outlined in emergency response plans. Working conditions EHOs work with many different people in a variety of environments. Their jobs often involve considerable fieldwork, and some travel frequently. Many environmental health officers work long and often irregular hours. They inspect pools, childcare centers, restaurants, septic systems, and many other types of establishments that relate to health and safety. EHOs may be exposed to many of the same physically strenuous conditions and hazards as industrial employees, and the work may be performed in unpleasant, stressful, and dangerous working conditions. They may find themselves in an adversarial role if the management of an organisation disagrees with the recommendations for ensuring a safe working environment. History In the Republic of Venice, at the beginning of the Renaissance, there was already a kind of court of health inspectors to contain the spread of epidemics. These individuals were appointed by the Venetian Senate and later by the Council of Ten. During the early Industrial Revolution, under the Factory Act 1802, the magistrates assigned two local sanitary inspectors to oversee the sanitation of the factories, one was formerly a cleric and another a justice of the peace. The field of environmental health can be traced back to the 1840s in England. Edwin Chadwick, a Poor Law Commissioner, conducted an inquiry into the causes of poverty which concluded that people often became poor because of ill health due to a bad environment. He believed that improving sanitation was the key to breaking this vicious cycle. Chadwick led a vigorous campaign for change which eventually won over the establishment, resulting in the Public Health Act 1848. The act provided for the appointment of inspectors of nuisances—the forerunners of today's environmental health practitioners—in areas of need. The Association of Public Sanitary Inspectors—the organization which was to become the United Kingdom's Chartered Institute of Environmental Health—was established in 1883. Over subsequent decades, the role of environmental health practitioners changed and grew, with standards of qualification rising until, in the 1960s, it became a graduate profession. The grant of a royal charter in 1984 set the seal on this enhanced role and status. As a result of changing roles, the titles have changed over the decades from inspector of nuisances to sanitary inspector to public health inspector /