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Unit of study_

PUBH5121: Environmental Health

This course aims to describe the interrelation between our environment and human populations, local communities and individuals and the health risks of environmental hazards. The unit will explore the major categories of environmental health hazards including air quality, water quality, chemical hazards (eg soils and contaminated sites), physical hazards (eg noise and radiation), microbiological hazards (eg Legionnaires' disease) and food safety. Regional and global issues of sustainability, climate change and land use planning will also be covered. The disciplines of epidemiology, toxicology and ecology will be applied within a risk assessment framework. Students completing this unit will appreciate: the multi-disciplinary nature of environmental health; the application of a risk assessment framework to characterise health risks due to environmental hazards, determine risk management options, and inform risk communication strategies; the need to work closely with a broad range of stakeholders including commonwealth and state health, environment and planning agencies, local government, industry, researchers and the community.

Code PUBH5121
Academic unit Public Health
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
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None
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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None

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. identify the major categories of hazards and setting in environmental health
  • LO2. describe the major pathways of exposure to environmental contaminants
  • LO3. understand and apply the core disciplines in environmental health: epidemiology, toxicology and ecology
  • LO4. apply a systematic approach for investigating environmental hazards and conducting risk assessment and management
  • LO5. identify and critically appraise management tools, such as policies, programs, guidelines and legislation, used to control environmental health hazards
  • LO6. appreciate the multidisciplinary nature of environmental health and the close links with environmental protection
  • LO7. appreciate the potential health effects of large-scale ecological change, eg: urbanisation, climate change.