Environmental Health

This course explores the relationship of people to their environment -- how it affects their physical well-being, as well as what they can do to protect and enhance their health, and to influence the quality of the environment. It is a survey course intended to give students an understanding of how environmental factors impact the health of people and the community, and of the efforts made to prevent or minimize the effects of negative impacts. The course is designed to acquaint the student with the scientific and technical foundations of the field, and examines both the practice of environmental health and the problems which are addressed by the practitioners in this career discipline. Emphasis is on providing a general understanding of how environmental factors are involved in the transmission of communicable diseases and on some of the health hazards resulting from exposure to chemical and physical materials in our environment.The course is addressed to Environmental Studies majors and to any other student who wishes to learn about the impact of the environment on human health.