TranslateEnvironmental health services
We help protect natural and built (where we live) environments that may affect the health and wellbeing of Tasmanians. Our main areas of work include:
- Drinking water quality
- Emergency management
- Environmental health risk assessment
- Food safety
- Microbiology
- Mould
- Public Health Laboratory
- Radiation protection
- Recreational water quality
- Tobacco control
- Toxicology
Public health risks and hazards
We also provide advice on public health impacts of a wide range of risks and hazards through:
- Public Health Act 1997
- Food Act 2003
- other legislation and Guidelines
Health advice on fatty material on Southern Tasmania shorelines
Material arising from salmon deaths in salmon farms in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel in southeast Tasmania has washed up on shorelines since mid-February 2025.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is the agency with overall responsibility for managing this incident and the Department of Health is providing health advice to the EPA.
The marine bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis is contributing to the salmon deaths. P. salmonis is a fish pathogen; it does not cause human disease.
Inspection and laboratory testing of the material on shorelines has shown it to be made of fatty material from fish.
Public Health Services’ advice is:
- the presence of fatty fish material on beaches, while unpleasant and smelly, will not harm health.
- do not handle or consume the fish material, and to avoid activities that will bring you into contact with it.
- if you get the fish material on you, wash it off with soap and water.
This same advice applies to other dead animal parts in the natural environment. Leaving such material alone eliminates any risk.
Public Health Services has considered the EPAs laboratory findings of low concentrations of the antibiotic oxytetracycline (OTC) in some of the fish material from shorelines.
The Director of Public Health advises that the low quantities of OTC found in the samples do not raise human health concerns if people have contact with the material.
Any skin exposure to OTC from the OTC-containing material would involve extremely low quantities and concentrations of OTC, readily eliminated by washing with soap and water.
For more information visit the EPA website Salmon Mortality Event 2025 (epa.tas.gov.au).
Unhealthy premises
The Public Health Act 1997 provides for the assessment of premises used for human habitation that may be defective. This applies to buildings that are or are likely to become offensive, result in injury or be harmful to health.
Guide to Assessing Unhealthy Premises will help you understand the role of Environmental Health Officers and local government in assessing premises that may be considered unhealthy and the actions that they may take.
The Guide for the Management of Clandestine Drug Laboratories details the process for identifying and managing the public health risks associated with clan labs.
Guide for the Management of Clandestine Drug Laboratories
Tasmanian Public Health Hotline
For further information or to report your concerns, please call the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline
