THE CERTIFICATE OF ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENT AND PROCESS FOR THE APPLICANT
If the educational requirement is met, as listed below, by the applicant the Board will issue a Certificate of Eligibility (COE), this is what you need to apply for the Job that requires an Environmental Health Specialists License. The COE has an expiration date of one year. At the point of hire you are required to have your supervisor complete the reverse side of your COE and return it to the Board. The Board will then issue an In-Training Certificate which allows you to perform the functions of the Environmental Health Specialist up until licensure. The In-Training Certificate will have three dates listed on it your date of hire, the certificate expiration date which is three years from the date of hire, and the date you are eligible to sit for the National Exam for licensure. As soon as your exam eligible date arrives you are required to have your supervisor complete the reverse side of your In-Training Certificate and return it to the Board. The Board will then notify you approximately 6 weeks prior to the next scheduled exam and send you an exam application
Title 21 of the Health Occupations Article, Annotated Code of Maryland sets the education, experience and examination requirements that a person must satisfy to be licensed as an environmental health specialist in the State of Maryland.
Application fee: $100.00
Education, Experience and Examination Requirements
To qualify for a license, an applicant must satisfy the education, experience and examination requirements described in the health specialists licensing law. An applicant must meet the education and experience requirements to become eligible for examination. The experience requirement may be met by obtaining a Certificate of Eligibility from the Board that allows the applicant to be employed as an environmental health specialist in-training. The minimum education and experience requirements are:
Education- a baccalaureate degree (any major) from an accredited college or university that includes:
- at least 30 semester credit hours in the physical, biological or environmental sciences;
- at least one laboratory course in two of the following: chemistry, physics or biology, soil science, geographic information systems; and
- a course in mathematics.
Experience- at least 24 months of practice as an environmental health specialist
An applicant can also qualify for examination with these other combinations of education and experience:
- A master’s degree in public health that includes the course work described in 1-3 above and 3 months in an internship approved by the Board or 3 months In-Training.
- A baccalaureate degree in the physical, biological or environmental sciences that includes at least 60 semester credit hours of the sciences described in #1 above, and the lab courses and the math course described in #2 and #3 above. The experience requirement for an applicant with this education background is 12 months of experience in practice as an environmental health specialist.
General requirements: Each degree used to satisfy the education requirement must have been from an accredited college or university in the United States, or an equivalent institution outside the United States.
