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Establishment of a CIEH AdministrativeRegion in Scotland - REHISPerspectiveIn early October members were sent a copy of astatement by Rod House, Chairman of theManagement Committee, advising of theInstitute’s opposition to the Chartered Instituteof Environmental Health (CIEH) establishing anadministrative region in Scotland. In the periodthat followed the issue of this statement a numberof the Institute’s members wrote to GrahamJukes, Chief Executive of CIEH, and to me toexpress their opposition to the CIEH Council’sdecision. Graham Jukes’s decision to ban thepublication of correspondence from REHISmembers in any CIEH publication isdisappointing and regrettable. To counter thiscensorship and to ensure that members ofREHIS and CIEH are fully informed ColinWallace, the Institute’s President, has taken thedecision to publish a representative selection ofthe correspondence referred to above in thisedition of the REHIS e-Newsletter. I take thisopportunity to remind members that a SpecialResolution relating to the CIEH decision will beconsidered at the AGM next Thursday afternoon.All members are encouraged to attend.EditorTranscript of letter sent by Colin Wallace,President to Dr Stephen Battersby, President,Chartered Institute of Environmental Health,dated 5 October 2009:Dear StephenFUTURE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REHISAND CIEHIt is with great regret that I find myself writing toyou regarding the establishment of a CIEHadministrative region in Scotland; you should beOctober/November 2009in no doubt that REHIS strongly opposes andobjects to this entirely unnecessary andprovocative development.Graham Jukes raised the possibility of theestablishment of such a region in Scotland withTom Bell in the autumn of 2006 and again morerecently. Tom has consistently made thisInstitute’s views abundantly clear to Graham.There is no need for such a development as awell established network of continuingprofessional development seminars and trainingevents are organised and presented by REHISand its partners for all environmental healthprofessionals working in Scotland regardless oftheir membership allegiances.The lack of dialogue between the senior officebearers of our respective organisations on thismatter is extremely disappointing especially giventhe signing, by senior office bearers, of aMemorandum of Understanding agreed betweenEHOA Ireland, CIEH and REHIS in September2008. This development is well outwith the spiritof the Memorandum. There are clearly nogrounds for the establishment of a CIEHadministrative region in Scotland and the onlyconclusion that I can come to is that yourCouncil’s decision is intended to be deliberatelyprovocative.This Institute does not recognise the existenceof the CIEH administrative region in Scotland andwill not engage with it in any way and it is difficultto see how our respective organisations canmaintain our hitherto effective and positiveassociation.In closing I have to say that it saddens me greatlythat the world’s two longest establishedorganisations, both set up to promoteenvironmental health and public health, cannotco-exist and maintain the mutual respect requiredto meet their Royal Charter and charitableobjectives. The only way to resolve this matterand to allow a return to a relationship based on1

mutual respect is for your Council to rescind thedecision it took at its last meeting.Yours sincerelyColin Wallace, President***Transcript of letter sent by Tom Bell, ChiefExecutive to Graham Jukes, Chief Executive,Chartered Institute of Environmental Health,dated 14 October 2009:Dear GrahamESTABLISHMENT OF A CIEH SCOTTISHREGIONI have been monitoring the two way flow ofcorrespondence between our two organisationswith interest and, I have say, somedisappointment.Your letter to Bernard Forteath dated 13 October,which you kindly copied to me, appears to confirmmy view that the motivating factor in theestablishment of a CIEH Region inScotland is the desire to describe CIEH as a UKorganisation and that by whipping up supportfrom the membership of CIEH ‘working and living’in Scotland to sign a petition was the latest in aseries of insults calculated to aggravate themembership of REHIS. The list of insultsperpetrated by CIEH, or perhaps more accuratelythe senior staff of CIEH, is a long one andincludes staging two CIEH roadshows inScotland despite objections from REHIS; theerroneous advice given to a REHIS memberwishing to apply for an EHO post with GreenwichCouncil which resulted in her not being offeredan interview for the post; the issuing of ‘Joint’Guidance on contaminated land in Scotland withno prior discussion with REHIS; permitting thepublication of adverts for Environmental HealthOfficer posts stating that applicants must holdthe EHRB Certificate of Registration withoutrecognising the equivalence of the REHISDiploma in Environmental Health, this, despitethe matter being raised with you on a number ofoccasions; the advertising of a CIEH post in EHNfor a Business Development Manager who wouldcover Scotland and the Republic of Ireland; and,the holding of a CIEH Scottish Region Trainers’Forum in Stirling in recent weeks. I’m sure I couldidentify a few more without much trouble.The over-the-top manner in which Will Hatchettdeclared Scotland: We’ve got it covered (frontpage of Environmental Health News Vol. 24 No.37 and dated 25 September 2009) wasinsensitive and triumphalist in the extreme. Theinference that REHIS in some way wassupportive of this regrettable decision is perhapswishful thinking on the part of you and yourcolleagues and I would hope that the discussionthat led to the decision taken by the Council ofCIEH was not based on an assumption thatREHIS is in any way supportive - it most certainlyis not! There has been much discussion withinScotland’s close knit environmental healthcommunity in recent weeks regarding thepetitioner managing to find 50 CIEH members‘living and working in Scotland’ who were willingto sign the petition. Can you please confirm thatall those who signed the petition did in fact liveand work in Scotland?In my, as yet unanswered, letter to you dated 2July 2009 I opined that this move to support only1% of your organisation’s membership would bean expensive and unnecessary one given thatREHIS encourages all Environmental HealthProfessionals based in Scotland, regardless oftheir membership allegiance, to attend its low costcourses. The decision by the CIEH certainly setsa precedent. I wonder what the reaction of yourCouncil would be to a petition from 50 membersworking and living in Papua New Guinea or onthe Falkland Islands? Do you think that the CIEHCouncil would vote to provide a regional structurethere? I have my doubts!The content of your letter to Bernard wouldappear to indicate that the CIEH Council hasembarked upon a ‘Scotland today; the worldtomorrow’ drive for influence and income. Theclearly stated desire for CIEH to be a world leaderin environmental health, so well communicatedin your letter, draws one’s attention to the desire,and perhaps need, for CIEH to expand itscommercial and professional operations beyondEngland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In doingso it will be impossible for CIEH not to come intoconflict with the environmental healthorganisations of other countries and mayultimately lead to the destabilisation of the IFEH.The international perspective of REHIS is,2

historically, one in which it engages in equalpartnerships with sister organisations across theglobe - Cyprus, Malawi and Malta to name but afew. Despite the fact that REHIS is frequentlyasked to deliver or to design community andprofessional training courses in other countriesit has freely given technical and professionalsupport to allow environmental health partnersin these countries to establish themselves andto become financially viable. The new CIEHapproach is one of self-interest where it aims todominate the global environmental healthcommunity for political influence and financialgain.To summarise, REHIS strongly objects to theestablishment of a CIEH Scottish Region and tothe way in which the CIEH Council’s decision wasannounced in EHN. Your instruction to WillHatchett not to publish letters of response fromREHIS office bearers in EHN is the action ofsomeone who would be uneasy about theirmembership hearing both sides of the story. TheCIEH’s desire to become a world leader inEnvironmental Health can only end up with itcompeting directly with the InternationalFederation of Environmental Health.Your views on the status and relevance of theMemorandum of Understanding andAdministrative Arrangements for Engagementbetween REHIS, EHOA and CIEH so recentlyagreed by the senior elected members of all threeenvironmental health organisations would bevery welcome.Yours sincerelyTom Bell, Chief Executive***Transcript of e-mail of 5 October 2009 fromBernard Forteath, President, InternationalFederation of Environmental Health and PastPresident, REHIS to Dr Stephen Battersby,President, CIEH, John Freear, Chairman ofCouncil, CIEH, and Graham Jukes, ChiefExecutive, CIEH:Dear Stephen, John and GrahamSCOTLAND REGION/EHNThe recent decision by the CIEH Council toestablish an organisation within the area of afellow IFEH member is unhelpful and has the3potential to destabilize the Federation. As youare aware the Federation only accept onemember from each country and, if the statementin EHN on the 25 September attributable toGraham is correct ‘...the move would establishthe CIEH as a whole UK body for the first time inits history...’, then the IFEH Council will be facedwith a situation which is contrary to ourProcedures Manual.As a REHIS member I am particularly suspiciousas to the motives behind the establishment of aScotland Region. For many years CIEHcolleagues from England, Wales and N Irelandworking in Scotland have elected to be a memberof one of the existing CIEH (or predecessororganisation) centres without any apparentproblem. Many of these members are or werealso members of REHIS. I know you have saidthat the move to establish a centre is at therequest of members at a recent Roadshow heldin Scotland. However, it does depend on thequestion and how it was put. No member of anyorganisation is going to say no to a proposal togive an enhanced service for no extra cost.However, the potential problems of doing so Iam sure were not explained. From the statementattributable to Graham it does appear to me thatthe intention is more to establish the CIEH - bothat home and overseas - as a UK organisationand as a result usurp the position of REHIS, thanone of service to members. Moderncommunication means that the actual locationof members is no longer a problem.If the decision to set up an organisation withinthe area of another IFEH member is regrettableand potentially damaging to relations betweentwo organisations at the heart of the Federation,then the way that it was announced to the worldin EHN was quite frankly crass and appalling.There can be no other reason for the news to beannounced in this way other than to causeoffence to REHIS and create an even greaterproblem. At a time when the environmental healthprofession faces so many challenges youreditorial staff deliberately chose to offend, not aGovernment department or another profession,but an organisation which shares the same idealsand objectives.Bernard ForteathPresident, IFEH***

Transcript of e-mail from John F Crawford to TomBell entitled ‘CIEH in Scotland - A Personal View’,received 6 October 2009:CIEH IN SCOTLAND: A PERSONAL VIEWMy first reaction to the lead article in ‘ehnEnvironmental Health News’ dated 25thSeptember was that it had been transposed fromthe draft issue on April 1st. Closer readinghowever suggested that it was a serious proposaland warranted closer scrutiny.The actual wording is ‘a petition from more than50 members for greater equity and support inthe services provided for members working andliving in Scotland’. This suggests that none ofthe 50 individuals who signed the petition needto actually work or live in Scotland, but obviouslyhave concerns about CIEH members who do. Inthe last three decades or so I’ve come acrossthe odd colleague (and I’m using the word ’odd’in the Scottish sense of ‘occasional’) working uphere who was a member of CIEH. They receivea weekly copy of ‘ehn’ (so so I) and also a regularemail telling them what’s in ‘ehn’ (so do I). Theyalso received a Journal and had voting rights (thatI don’t have).So on what is the ‘greater equity and support’issue based? My dictionary says equity is ‘thequality of being impartial, reasonable, orfairness’. Obviously CIEH is treating its membersbadly if they work in another country and aren’tpart of a CIEH region. If this argument is to bepursued, does this mean that any CIEH memberwho takes a job in Australia, the USA etc in futurecan be assured that in time, a new CIEH regionwill be established there?And of course there’s the point about CIEHbecoming a UK body for the first time. What valueis such a claim if this body doesn’t intend toengage with the Scottish Government onprofessional matters (assuming that the ScottishGovernment would entertain their submissionsanyway)?Let’s assume that there are around a dozen ormore CIEH members living/working in Scotland(will second/holiday homes count towardsdomiciliary here?) One of their group will have aseat on the CIEH Council by next Januarywhereas their chances of securing a seat hadthey lived in an English region might have beenremote (this is actually an excellent opportunitywhere an ambitious Scottish EHO could joinCIEH, and be a Council member in four months!).Surely the rush to have a Scottish repdiscriminates against CIEH’s English members?It is very disappointing the CIEH would want togo down this road. Apart from looking after theirmembers who live/work in Scotland (which to mymind they already do) there’s little benefit fromit. If the idea is that the REHIS membership willsuddenly ‘jump ship’ what’s stopped them doingso before now? Perhaps they think that thoseEH professionals in Scotland who’re notmembers of REHIS have been waiting for thisvery day (of CIEH). I’d venture that many of theseindividuals are either unimpressed withprofessional bodies or simply not prepared to paythe subs.At a time when the profession (both REHISmembers and non-members) is readjusting to thepressures of council restructures, efficiencysavings and ongoing public health protectionissues, CIEH’s timing is ill-chosen and not helpful.Time may prove me wrong but CIEH might havebetter spent their time and energy in workingmore closely with REHIS to promote theprofession the length and breadth of the UK.John Crawford was a member of the REHISExecutive Council from 1982-94.***Transcript of letter from Jim Thomson, pastPresident, REHIS to Tom Bell, Chief Executivedated 8 October:Dear TomCIEH FIASCOWhen I received the Environmental Health Newson 25 September 2009 I was intrigued at the frontpage headline, ‘Scotland: We’ve Got It Covered’and on reading the text my mood turned to anger.This is an extremely dangerous andunacceptable position for ‘a sister organisation’with members in Scotland who have chosen tomove and work here but with no other locus tobasically mount a takeover bid for Scotland. Thetone of the article in Environmental Health News4

eferred to the long established workingrelationship with REHIS and the move to serviceCIEH Scottish members’ needs.Surely a simple solution to this would have beena reciprocal arrangement that any CIEH memberin Scotland could have access to REHIS CPDand training events with REHIS membersworking in England, Wales and Northern Irelandhaving the same access to CIEH. I am sure thiscould have been negotiated on a mutuallysatisfactory basis without taking thisconfrontational approach.As a long standing member, past President andFellow of REHIS, I would confirm my full and totalsupport for Colin and the REHIS Council in takingall necessary steps to resist this takeover bid andlook forward to considering the range of optionsproposed to counter the actions.If I can be of assistance in any way please donot hesitate to contact me.Yours sincerelyJim Thomson, Ch.EHO FREHISInfluenza A H1N1 UpdateOn Thursday 12 November the ScottishGovernment announced that Health ProtectionScotland estimated that around 21,500 peoplehave contracted H1N1 in the past week. It wasalso announced that 908 people with influenzaA (H1N1) hospitalised since the start of theoutbreak and that there have been 33 deathslinked to influenza A (H1N1) since the start ofthe outbreak. Further advice and guidance isavailable from the Scottish Government websitewww.scotland.gov.uk.Infant botulismWhat appears to be the first recorded case ofinfant botulism in Scotland has been identifiedin a 16-week old boy from Fife currently beingtreated in hospital in Edinburgh. The patient wasadmitted on 19 October and microbiological testsconfirmed Clostridium botulinum in both the childand samples of honey present in the child’shousehold. Further information on infantbotulism is available from the AdvisoryCommittee on the Microbiological Safety of Foodin 2006 report available at www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2006/sep/acmsfreport. Thechild’s condition is currently reported to be stable.Council fined over asbestos dustThe City of Edinburgh Council admitted fourcharges of breaching asbestos regulations andhas been fined £14,000 at Edinburgh SheriffCourt after ten of its employees were exposedto asbestos dust at an Edinburgh school. Thecourt was told that in February 2007 the schoolbegan a project to turn the physics room into ahairdressing salon and that part of the projectrequired viewing panels to be cut in the doors.The doors had been taken from the school tothe council joiners’ workshop to allow the workto be carried out. In February of this year thesame authority was fined £17,600 after workerswere exposed to asbestos while demolishing awall at the same school.REHIS Update CoursesIn early October the Institute presented its AnnualFood Update and Health and Safety UpdateCourses. Delegate feedback confirmed thatthese courses delivered pertinent high qualitytraining and represented excellent value formoney. The courses were supported by the FoodStandards Agency Scotland (FSAS) and theHealth and Safety Executive (HSE). A fullerreport will be included in the winter edition of theInstitute’s Journal Environmental HealthScotland. The Institute’s thanks goes tospeakers, chairmen, delegates, the FSAS, theHSE and to Graham Robertson and SandyFraser for their contributions.REHIS AGMThis year’s Annual General Meeting will be heldat 2pm on Thursday 19 November at the ApexInternational Hotel, Edinburgh. Details were sentto members at the end of October and allmembers are encouraged to attend.5