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May 2023: Direct From CDC/Environmental Health Services

May 2023 
Volume 85, Number 9

Editor's Note: The National Environmental Health Association strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column on environmental health services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal of Environmental Health. 

In these columns, authors from the CDC Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch, as well as guest authors, will share tools, resources, and guidance for environmental health practitioners. The conclusions of these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC. 

Here Come the Surf Venues and Artificial Swimming Lagoons 

Michele C. Hlavsa, MPH, RN, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
Joseph P. Laco, MSEH, REHS/RS, CPO, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

The Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides guidance to help prevent public aquatic venue-associated illness and injury through venue design, construction, operation, and management. Surf venues and artificial swimming lagoons (ASLs) present challenges as the risk of illness and injury are inherently different. CDC has been drafting interim guidance and an ad hoc committee from the Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code will then develop and submit a change request that proposes inclusion of text specific to surf venues and ASLs for the fifth edition of the MAHC. CDC posted the fourth edition of the 2023 MAHC in February on its MAHC website. CDC will also post interim guidance for surf venues and ASLs later this year on its Healthy Swimming website. 

Read the Column