REHS-RS EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

REHS-RS EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 The mission of public health - Answers Fulfilling society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy. The aim of public health - Answers Is to generate public interest in health by applying scientific and technical knowledge to prevent disease and promote health as an organized community of professionals. The core functions of public health agencies at all levels of government. - Answers Assessment, policy development and assurance. Who (and when) developed the framework for what is known as the 10 essentials Public Health Services? - Answers The Core Public Health Functions steering committee What are the 10 Essential Public Health Services? - Answers monitor health diagnose and investigate inform, educate and empower mobilize community parternships develop policies and plans enforce laws and regulations link people to needed personal health services assure a competent workforce evaluate research Which ES are tied to assessment? - Answers Monitor Health Diagnose and investigate Which ES are tied to policy development? - Answers Inform, educate, empower Mobilize community partnerships Develop policies Which ES are tied to assurance? - Answers Enforce laws link to/provide care assure competent workforce evaluate Which ES is tied to system management? - Answers Research Objectives in public and private health practices. - Answers health maintenance prevention and treatment of disease What factors drive EHS decision making? - Answers Crises emerging public health risks concerns of organized interest groups economics prevailing social and political conditions Three forces that help shape the future of the EH profession. - Answers Climate change and resulting ecosystem changes and natural disasters Population growth and the global rise in standard of living resulting in faster deterioration of the natural environment Novel or pharmaceutical-resistant pathogens A human's first line of defense against disease. - Answers Environmental management What relationship is the RS/REHS responsible for? - Answers The relationship of the environment to the public's health. What is the essence of environmental health? - Answers The anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control (AREC) of hazards that can affect human health. How does a RS/REHS advance the public's health? - Answers Weighing the complexities of social and economic factors, regulatory and legal considerations, and resolve problems in a meaningful manner. What are the key steps in ensuring that compliance with the laws, codes and policies occurs? - Answers Plan reviews and the issuance of permits and licenses to consumers and commercial establishments. Roles and responsibilities of the REHS/RS - Answers perform site assessments interpret architectural plans and blueprints inspect during construction to determine the degree of compliance know the laws regulating permits and licenses recommend necessary revisions for all plans What are information collection tools that allow the REHS/RS to assess how well an operation, procedure, installation or similar activity is currently performing compared with established standards? - Answers Inspections/investigations What are established standards? - Answers laws regulations codes ordinances guidelines Inspections - Answers Typically done at the request of the operator or contractor To fulfill permit or licensing requirements In response to a complainant As part of a survey tool Investigations - Answers Drill down deeper in the process through reviewing documents, interviewing staff or through collecting samples that are usually not taken on a routine inspection. What is demonstrated/relayed by the REHS/RS setting the example during inspections? - Answers Demonstrated competency and relayed important EH and safety information to the person in charge was well as employees. What activities effectively set priorities during an inspection? - Answers Establish an open dialogue with the person in charge In depth discussion on the facility's operations so it is understood what is being inspected. Address any outstanding or previous recurring violations with the PIC Conduct a quick walk through Why are open ended questions essential? - Answers They promote dialogue, yield more valuable insights and are not answered by a simple yes or no. What is made more apparent if violations are pointed out during the inspection? - Answers The importance of code interventions and violations related to protecting people and the environment from risk factors. This is easily done if the PIC accompanies the inspector throughout the inspection. What is the result of communicating the public health rationale behind regulations? - Answers The PIC is left with a clear understanding of why active managerial control of environmental health issues must be fully integrated into the day-to-day operations of the business. What type of communication is conductive to risk based philosophy? - Answers open dialogue An effective risk based inspection is dependent on what? - Answers The inspector's ability to maintain two way communication throughout the process of assessing behaviors, processes and procedures that occur in the establishment. Compliance and enforcement - Answers Essential elements of a regulatory program Encompass all voluntary and regulatory enforcement actions taken to achieve compliance with regulations. Why is Regulatory followup needed? - Answers A lack of follow-up signals to the PIC that the violation items noted during the inspection were not important. Voluntary corrections by the PIC can include? - Answers on site corrections at the time of inspection risk control plans remedial training These can lead to long term compliance Involuntary enforcement can include? - Answers Writing warning letters reinspections citations administrative fines hearings permit suspensions permit revocations Compliance and enforcement intervention strategies fall into two categories. - Answers those designed to achieve immediate on-site correction those designed to achieve long term compliance On site corrections - Answers Intended to achieve immediate corrective action for out of control processes and procedures that pose a serious and immediate danger to the public during the inspection. When is on site corrections necessary? - Answers When it is essential to consumer protection and regulatory credibility that any out of control processes or procedures be corrected. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - Answers A written process that provides consistent guidance to employees within an organization as to how they should properly complete a given task in a uniform manner. What does the SOP provide to the employees? - Answers Detailed steps and tools necessary to complete the task. If they are written well the task can be completed without the oversight of a supervisor. Following SOPs ensures what? - Answers Quality, efficiency and safety criteria are met each time the task is performed. Closing conference - Answers Is between the inspector and the person in charge. It should include a detailed discussion of the operation's plans for correcting violations found during the inspection. Malfeasance - Answers Doing of an act that is wrongful and that is known to be wholly unauthorized by the official. Misfeasance - Answers Doing of an authorized act in an unauthorized manner. Nonfeasance - Answers The failure to perform an official duty without sufficient excuse. Active Immunity - Answers Results when exposure to a disease organism triggers the immune system to produce antibodies to that disease. Also classified as natural or acquired. Passive immunity - Answers Provided when a person is given antibodies to a disease rather than producing them through his or her own immune system. Lag phase - Answers Cells are gearing up for the next phase of growth. The number of cells does not change during the lag phase; however, cells grow larger and are metabolically active, synthesizing proteins needed to grow within the medium. Agent - Answers Infectious microorganism or pathogen: a virus, bacterium, parasite, or other microbe. Mode of transmission - Answers Means by which the agent goes from the source to the host. Carrier - Answers Person in whom organisms are present and may be multiplying, but who shows no clinical response to their presence. Morbidity - Answers The state of being symptomatic or unhealthy for a disease or condition. The amount of disease in a population. Chronic Disease - Answers Conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both. Acute Disease - Answers A disease or disorder that lasts a short time, comes on rapidly, and is accompanied by distinct symptoms. Mortality - Answers Related to the number of deaths caused by the health event under investigation. Demographic data - Answers Socioeconomic information expressed statistically including employment, education, income, marriage rates, birth and death rates, and more. Pandemic - Answers Event in which a disease spreads across several countries and affects a large number of people. Endemic - Answers The constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area Epidemic - Answers An increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. Physical Factors - Answers The factors in the physical environment that are important to health include harmful substances, such as air pollution or proximity to toxic sites (the focus of classic environmental epidemiology); access to various health-related resources (e.g., healthy or unhealthy foods, recreational resources, medical care); and community design and the "built environment" (e.g., land use mix, street connectivity, transportation systems). Frequency - Answers Measures that are used to characterize the occurrence of health events in a population. A rate of measure with which an event occurs in a defined population over a specified period of time. Port of Entry - Answers The manner in which a pathogen enters a susceptible host. It must provide access to tissues in which the pathogen can multiply or a toxin can act. Growth Phase - Answers Prevalence - Answers The proportion of a population with a disease or a particular condition at a specific point in time (point prevalence) or over a specified period of time (period prevalence). Host - Answers The human who can get the disease Reservoir - Answers The habitat in which the agent normally lives, grows, and multiplies. Reservoirs include humans, animals, and the environment. The reservoir may or may not be the source from which an agent is transferred to a host. What are the types of epidemiological studies? - Answers descriptive or analytic Descriptive epidemiology - Answers Classifications such as person, place and time for acute and chronic disease trasmission Portals of exposure and exit from a rservoir - Answers respiratory tract, genitourinary, alimentary, skin, in utero Direct transmission processes and means - Answers Skin-to-skin, person-to-person and aerosol or droplet transmission Indirect transmission - Answers The transfer of an infectious agent from a reservoir to a host by suspended air particles, inanimate objects (vehicles) or animate intermediaries (vectors). Vehicle - Answers inanimate objects vectors - Answers animate intermediaries Some general factors of resistance - Answers intact skin, gastric juices, diarrhea, normal bacterial flora and the cough reflex Specific factors of resistance - Answers Leukoctyes, serum factors and the immune system, including both active and passive immunity Triad model for infectious diseases - Answers host, agent, environment Strategic planning - Answers Identifies an organization's strengths and weaknesses and recommends actions necessary to reach its most desirable future-that is, its mission and vision. Mission statement - Answers Formalizes the purpose and objectives of the organization. Also explains the legal mandate and the organization's responsibilities in resolving specific issues. Elements of strategic planning - Answers values, goals, objectives, strategies, plan evaluation and other related principles. What is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children under five years age? - Answers Haempophilus influenzae type B How is "giardiasis" usually transmitted to others? - Answers person-to-person transfer of cysts from the feces of the infected individual. Which of the following duties of state and local health agencies is focused to protect the public's health and welfare? - Answers Regulatory responsibilities Which of the following is a measure of the amount of light scattered by particles suspended in a water test sample? - Answers Nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) What is an epidemic? - Answers The occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness clearly in excess of expectancy. What portal of entry should a field sanitarian protect to avoid contracting Lyme disease? - Answers Skin Swimmer's itch is a common name for which of the following diseases? - Answers Schistosomiasis What contributes least to the emergence of a new infectious disease? - Answers heat disinfection Listeriosis is commonly associated with - Answers contaminated food Hemolytic uremic syndrome is caused by infection with - Answers escherichia coli O157:H7 The basic principles of disease control include - Answers Control of disease source, mode of transmission and understanding susceptibility. What accurately describes an endemic? - Answers Constant presence of an illness. The interval between exposure to an infectious agent and the appearance of the first symptom - Answers Incubation period The event where an environmental health specialist receives a cash payment from a restaurant operator in order to receive a passing restaurant inspection score. - Answers Malfeasance The event where an environmental health manager trains environmental health specialists on the operation of environmental probe thermometers. In the interest of time, the manager omits a training section on safe sheathing of the thermometer and subsequently an environmental health specialist punctures their finger and injures themselves. - Answers Nonfeasance The event where an environmental health specialist informs vector control staff to perform "landing counts" on their skin in a know mosquito breeding ground which is confirmed to be positive with West Nile virus. - Answers Misfeasance Vehicleborne, vectorborne or airborne - Answers Indirect mode of transmission Equal protection - Answers Right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights requiring the comparable treatment