Environmental Health (PHCM9612)

This is an introductory course on Environmental Health.

The overall aim of this course is to stimulate a broad understanding of Environmental Health and the important contribution of public health knowledge and principles in addressing pressing environmental issues, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. We will chart the evolution of Environmental Health as a discipline, from occupational and environmental health in the mid-19th century through to Environmental Justice and Ecohealth of the 20th century, to One Health and Planetary Health in the 21st century. We will take a lifecourse approach, examining the importance of various different environmental conditions on health and wellbeing at birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and the senior years. Some of these environmental conditions include air pollution, pesticide, water contamination, green space, food environment and noise. The course will be suitable for students who wish to gain a basic grounding in Environmental Health.

This course is a 6 unit elective in the Master of Public Health Program. It is also available as an elective in the Master of Health Leadership and Management and the Master of Global Health.

Mode of study

Fully online

Key contact

A/Professor Xiaoqi Feng
Course Convenor
+61 (2) 9385 1135
xiaoqi.feng@unsw.edu.au

Who should do this course?
Course outcomes
Learning & teaching
Assessments
Readings & resources

Who should do this course?

TBC

Course outcomes

The overall aim of this course is to stimulate a broad understanding of environmental health and the important contribution of public health knowledge and principles in addressing pressing environmental issues, including climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This course is designed to enable you to:

Explain the meaning and context of ‘environmental health’ in Australia and internationally.
Describe the burden of disease associated with the environment and its unequal distribution within and between nations linked to socio-cultural and economic disadvantage.
Identify and analyse important contemporary environmental health issues in Australia and internationally, especially in light of climate change.
Locate, synthesise and re-communicate high quality information on complex environment and health issues to inform decisions and solutions.
Become familiar with the tools of basic toxicology, epidemiology and risk and health impact assessment to environmental health issues.
Debate options for the prevention and management of environmental health problems.
Identify different stakeholders in environmental health and consider the impact of different perspectives on public health decision making on health, health equity and social justice.
Research and analyse an environmental health issue of relevance to your background, work or community.

Learning & teaching

This course has multiple components within its learning facilitation process. You will watch/listen to the lectures online, read widely from high quality sources on each lecture, participate in an online information sharing process, complete two multiple choice assessments, one written assignment and one student-led online discussion assessment.

Assessments

Assessment Task 1 - Peer-led Online Discussion Forum
Weighting: 40%

Assessment Task 2 - Multiple Choice Questions (Open Book, Online)
Weighting: 10%
Length: 20 Multiple choice questions

Assessment Task 3 - Environmental Health Essay
Weighting: 40%
Length: 1000 words

Assessment Task 4 - Multiple Choice Questions (Open Book, Online)
Weighting: 10%
Weight: 20 Multiple choice questions

Readings & resources

Learning resources for this course consist of the following:

Course notes and readings
Lectures slides
Lecture recordings
Activities and study questions