The system of professional hygienic training and certification in the Russian Federation: formation and ways of development

Abstract

For the first time, the term «health information» was used in the countries of the Soviet Union (USSR). The term implied a preventive type of educational work. Aimed was to eliminate the ignorance of the population in hygiene and epidemiology in order to prevent the spread of infectious and non-communicable diseases and strengthen public health. In the future, in the USSR, and then in the Russian Federation, it was legislated that employees of epidemiologically significant facilities (previously — decreed contingents) undergo professional hygienic training and certification as one of the conditions for admission to professional activity. At present, there are various programs of hygienic training for officials of organizations that are enpaped in production, storage, transportation and sale of food, drinking water, education and training of children and adolescents, municipal and household services of the population. The above-mentioned programs are implemented within the framework of professional hygienic training and certification regulated by the Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 229 dated June 29, 2000 «On professional hygienic training and certification of officials and employees of organizations», which indicates the relevance of this procedure in improving the level of hygienic culture of the population, preventing the spread of infectious and mass non-communicable diseases, the formation of behavioral skills aimed at strengthening human health, public health and improving living standards. This article is a reflection of the analysis of the prerequisites for the emergence and functioning of the existing system of occupational hygiene training and certification with the identification of its main advantages and disadvantages, and also suggests ways and means of improving it, including in the conditions of a pandemic of a new coronavirus infection caused by COVID-19.