Environmental Health

• SPH EH 708: Introduction to Environmental Health
  This course is a survey of the major issues in contemporary environmental health. Topics include environmental health hazards associated with human settlement, industrial activities, and agriculture and the food supply, including approaches to assessing, controlling, and preventing these hazards. Although the course is addressed to non-scientists, it seeks to provide some insight into the scientific underpinnings of current debates. This core course does not carry concentration credit; Environmental Health concentrators must take the concentration core course, EH765 to meet the MPH core requirrement. Non-Environmental Health concentrators may choose between this course and EH765, which is a more technical course. Students who successfully complete this course and then wish to change to or add the environmental health concentration are able to fulfill the EH core course requirement by registering for an additional 2 credits. Contact the EH department for specifics.
• SPH EH 710: Physiologic Principles for Public Health
  This course provides students with a detailed working knowledge of the normal mechanisms of human body function. Physiological mechanisms are studied from the molecular level to the level of organ systems, and emphasis is placed on understanding how body processes are regulated and integrated so as to achieve homeostasis characteristic of a “normal” healthy individual. Students will become acquainted with both the gross and histological anatomy of major organs. For each system covered, a case study of a disease of significant public health interest is used to reinforce basic physiological principles, and to acquaint students with physiological measurements commonly used in clinical settings. This course is recommended for all students who need a substantive understanding of human physiology for subsequent coursework. This course will be of special value to students whom expect their career’s to involve close interaction with health care providers.
• SPH EH 713: Molecular Biology and Public Health
  The last 10 years has seen an explosion in the discipline of molecular biology that has important implications for our current and future approach to public health. Therefore, an understanding of the principal concepts of this field is critical to the modern public health practitioner. The goal of this course is to equip students with the ability to understand the potential applications of genetic engineering to their health specialties. In particular, the course introduces the student to the basic concepts of cellular biology and molecular genetics and investigates the use of a number of powerful molecular techniques including, but not limited to, gene cloning, genetic engineering of animals and plants, identification of molecular bio-markers of susceptibility, and mining of the human genome database. The implications of these advances vis-a-vis right to privacy, discrimination, and other ethical issues are also addressed. While a background in biology is helpful, this course is negotiable by any student showing a high level of enthusiasm for scientific discovery.
• SPH EH 714: Public Health Response to Emergencies
  During times of crisis, the ability of Public Health to provide essential services and support healthy communities is strained. Recent emergencies and disasters have and continue to teach us lessons in how best to prepare the Public Health system for such incidents. This course will teach students the concepts and practices central to public health emergency preparedness for human-made and natural disasters. Case studies will be will be used to analyze planning, response, recovery, and mitigation operations of the public health emergency response system to Hurricane Katrina. Students will employ the tools of emergency preparedness to describe systemic factors that contributed to the impact of the Hurricane on population health in Louisiana. Pre-Katrina documents will be used to explore the state of preparedness efforts along the Gulf Coast and Spike Lee’s film, “When the Levees Broke”, will provide New Orleans residents’ accounts of the storm and its aftermath. In the end, students will possess a command over the various ways a Public Health system can protect community health during times of emergency and ensure the accessibility of emergency services to the most vulnerable of populations.
• SPH EH 745: Wastewater and Health/Sustainable Sanitation
  This course provides students with an overview of the relationship between human health, ecological health, and sanitation. The different disposal and treatment methods for human excreta are described in their historical and political contexts. Related topics such as the land appliation of sewage sludge, the role of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and public health experts are presented as well as practical solutions toward sustainable sanitation. This course involves a group project and a paper.
• SPH EH 757: Environmental Epidemiology
  This course introduces students to epidemiologic investigations of environmental health problems. Topics include both traditional and innovative subjects and strategies, such as the health effects associated with air and water contaminants, toxic waste sites, lead, and radiation, as well as environmental exposures that have received attention only recently, such as endocrine disruptors and electromagnetic fields. The course emphasizes epidemiologic methods, particularly exposure assessment, modeling, cluster analysis, and sources of bias. Students gain experience in the critical review and design of related epidemiologic studies. This course counts as concentration credit for epidemiology concentrators.
• SPH EH 765: Survey of Environmental Health
  This course meets the environmental health MPH core course requirement. All Environmental Health concentrators must take this course. Non-Environmental Health concentrators may choose between this course and EH708, which is a less technical course. Students who take this course cannot also take EH708 for degree credit. EH765 covers many of the same diverse topics that are covered in EH708. The course considers the technical foundations of environmental hazards, their impacts on public health, and the role of social, political, and regulatory factors in assessing, controlling, and preventing environmental hazards. Students who complete EH765 will have the necessary "tools of the trade" that will form the base for upper level courses in the Environmental Health Department.
• SPH EH 768: Introduction to Toxicology
  This introductory course presents the basic concepts of toxicology, including dose-response relationships, biological and chemical factors that influence toxicity, types of harmful effects, principles of testing for toxic effects and the underlying concepts behind toxicant-induced disease susceptibility. Toxicants found in the environment, such as metals, pesticides and industrial pollutants, are studied. The course assumes basic knowledge of chemistry and biology, although there are no prerequisites. This course is required of all Environmental Health concentrators.
• SPH EH 771: Topics in Environmental Health
  Two and four credit topics courses are offered throughout the academic year as a means of exploring new areas of study in the discipline. Topics vary by semester. Please refer to the print schedule for the specific area for any given semester.
• SPH EH 780: Great Calamities and their Consequences for Public Health
  Current public health practice in the United States evolved in response to public health calamities. Epidemics of infectious disease, mass poisonings, and industrial disasters have served as catalysts for new regulations and institutions of public health. For example, the sulfanilamide tragedy of 1937 was the catalyst for the current drug approval process. In addition, public and private responses to calamities have fueled the development of scientific knowledge and epidemiologi methods. For example, John Snow's investigation of the London cholera outbreak of 1854 demonstrated the utility of observational epidemiology. This course acquaints students with those calamities of primarily the past 200 years that were most consequential for public health practice. The emphasis is on each calamity's impact on knowledge of disease causation and control and on the development of public health institutions and regulations.
• SPH EH 783: Applying Public Health Skills in the Community
  This award-winning course provides an introduction to the hands-on application of public health principles and skills in communities. Topics include water-borne diseases, food safety, air quality, health hazards in housing, and emergency preparedness. Emphasis is on practical issues including inspection procedures, code enforcement, disease investigations, and policy development. Students engage with practitioners through guest lectures and in the conduct of their course projects. Knowledge and skills gained are applicable at the local, state, federal, and international levels.
• SPH EH 804: Exposure Assessment
  The process of assessing exposure is a critical component of occupational and environmental epidemiology, of determining compliance with health and safety regulations, and in conducting human health risk assessments. This course in exposure assessment covers the basic concepts and methods of study design, data collection, and data analysis/interpretation. Students analyze relevant case studies and conduct a study in which they develop their own exposure assessment strategy, collect and analyze data, prepare a final report, and present their findings.
• SPH EH 805: Scientific Basis of Environmental and Occupational Health Standards
  This course covers the relationship between scientific knowledge about health hazards and the development of public health standards to control exposure. Standards are reviewed, covering hazards in the environment, at the work place, and in the food supply. For each hazard, the relevant scientific literature is reviewed. Then, the legal basis of the standard is discussed. Finally, the relationship between scientific knowledge, the law, and the existing standard is analyzed. The course is designed so that students may apply their understanding of the scientific, legal, and economic principles of environmental health developed in other courses.
• SPH EH 806: Development and the Environment
  This course explores many critical environmental health issues that are linked to patterns of industrial and market development, with a special focus on developing countries. Specific examples that are discussed include food and agriculture, environmental impacts of industrialization, pest control strategies, and the effects of global climate on health. The course discusses the contestation over ideas, methods, and resources for sustainable development and equitable health outcomes. It emphasizes throughout the relationships between human health, development, and the environment.
• SPH EH 807: Urban Environmental Health
  Most of the United States' population live in or around cities. The urban environment includes the often degraded natural environment, industry, and housing and social conditions such as poverty and violence that affect health. This course examines key urban physical and social health hazards including lead, asthma, overweight and obesity, poor housing, transportation, sprawl, racial segregation, and income inequality. It highlights solutions to current problems such as community empowerment, urban gardens, lead-safe yards, and integrated pest management in low-income housing. We include an environmental justice field trip in the Dudley St. Neighborhood Initiative area in Roxbury. Students will select and research a topic on urban environmental health as a final paper and for presentation in class.
• SPH EH 811: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Public Health
  This course is an introductory level course for a novice GIS user. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a useful tool in the public health field. This course provides students with the skills needed to apply GIS in their careers. Topics covered include basic mapping, development of geographical datasets, and data analysis from applications of GIS in different disciplines of public health. substantial portion of the course will be devoted to computer lab sessions. The course will use ArcGIS software.
• SPH EH 818: The Built Environment: Design Solutions for Public Health
  Recent concerns about health and the environment have prompted a reconnection of public health with urban planning. This course examines how the built environment, including blocks, neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, impacts health including obesity, physical activity and mental health. Current and past policies and programs such as zoning, urban renewal, highway construction, new urbanism and smart growth are critiqued using the frameworks of health, architecture and planning. The goal is to understand how patterns of development influence health and how urban form can be modified to promote healthier living.
• SPH EH 840: Intermediate Toxicology
  This advanced-level course is an extension in detail and content of EH768. The course uses a case study approach to teach the molecular mechanisms by which compounds exert their toxicity in addition to dose-response analyses that are applicable to regulatory toxicology. The course emphasizes toxicogenetic differences within the human population. Experimental methods from which toxicological data are generated are presented and discussed for each of the case studies. Major topics include cellular mechanisms of action of toxicants as they relate to oncogenesis, neurotoxicology, and immunotoxicology, and the use of these data in regulatory toxicology.
• SPH EH 866: Risk Assessment Methods
  Students learn practical application of risk assessment methods to various environmental problems. The focus of the course is on human health risk assessment and teaches students to quantify the risk of adverse health effects from exposures to chemicals in the environment . Students also can apply what they learn to evaluations of biological and radiological exposures. The strengths and weaknesses of risk assessment methods, the inherent uncertainties in each step, and the relationship between risk assessment and risk management are discussed.
• SPH EH 871: Advanced Topics in Environmental Health
  Two and four cedits Environmental Health advanced topics classes may be available in any given semester. See the print or web-based School of Public Health semester schedule for more information pertaining to the advanced topics course for a specific semester.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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