Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health

The second course of the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health specialization will explore a number of different environmental hazards. These are: air pollution, water pollution, solid and hazardous waste, and two physical hazards (radon and noise). These hazards each have the potential to harm human health, and we will explore how you may come into contact with these hazards and how they may harm you, as well as what we can do to minimize these exposures and health impacts. We will also explore two additional key topics: urban and global health, and the influence of the built environment on human health.

The first course of the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health specialization will provide you with a foundation in environmental health sciences (EHS). We will explore four main topics. The first is an introduction to EHS and the exposure-disease model – a very useful framework for understanding the influence of the environment on human health. The second topic is key concepts in EHS and environmental health policies that can be used to address and reduce the impacts of environmental health hazards. The third topic is the application of systems thinking to understand and analyze environmental health issues. The fourth and final topic is occupational health, which is a key environment that represents a major source of morbidity and mortality from a public health perspective.

The fourth and final course of the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health specialization will cover two topics. The first is environmental justice – that is, avoiding an inequitable distribution of environmental health threats in our population, and ensuring a healthy and safe environment and health equity for all. The second is risk assessment and management, a framework that can be utilized to assess and quantify human health risks, and to identify appropriate approaches to mitigating those risks and promoting better health. We will explore the steps involved in risk assessment, as well as how risk assessment can incorporate and address environmental justice issues.