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The Office of Environmental Health Services (OEHS) is dedicated to preventing diseases caused by contamination of food, water and the general environment. OEHS provides leadership to local health departments by directing the operation of environmental health programs including food and shellfish safety, lead poisoning investigation, safe drinking water from private wells, and safe on-site wastewater treatment and disposal. Environmental health staff also develop policy, analyze local, state and federal legislation, evaluate public health programs and work closely with OEHS partners to offer scientific and technical expertise.
“I have been studying some of the local restaurant reports for Middlesex County and I wish to commend you and your staff on a job well done and to the Webmaster for making this site both informative and user friendly. Thank you all very much”
From a resident who saw the NBC12 “Restaurant Report” and visited the restaurant inspections Web site.
VDH coordinated with the Southside Virginia Community College last year to establish a training center for VDH employees, Authorized Onsite Soil Evaluators, professional engineers, and contractors that offers continuing education in the onsite sewage and water supply program. The training focuses on the study of onsite and decentralized wastewater treatment and disposal systems.
The VDH restaurant inspection Web site (www.healthspace.ca/vdh) was launched in April 2003 and continues to be one of VDH’s most popular sites. In FY 05, the Web site recorded approximately 55,000 visits per month. In FY 06, the number increased to more than 80,000 per month.
Both print and broadcast media have routinely publicized the site as a useful resource of information. Last March, a front page article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch commended the Web site as an exemplar of open government practice. Health officials noticed a spike in interest after the article ran in the newspaper’s Sunshine Week series. In March 2006, the Web site received almost 3.5 million hits (over 112,409 visits), nearly double the average hits per month for the preceding year. Richmond area television station NBC 12 continues to reference the restaurant site each week on its “Restaurant Report” which praises restaurants that are listed as having no critical violations and exposing those that show excessive critical violations.