Course outline and handbook for HLTH403: Environmental Health

Description of the course

Environmental health is an integral aspect of the health of a community. Risks to environmental health include pollution, unsafe foods, and infectious diseases, and many of these risks are increasing as a result of growing populations globally, and the effects of climate change. This course provides the foundation for students to understand environmental health.HLTH403 is a post-graduate course in environmental health offered in the second semester and aimed at students of public health.

This is a 30-point (0.25 EFT or Equivalent Full Time) course. This means if you are enrolled in this course, you are expected to spend 20 hours per week, or on an average 4 hours per day reading and researching about Environmental Health. We have three assignments for you to show your competence and mastery of the topics. This course is also a required course of study if you are enrolled in MHealSc at the School of Health Sciences and have opted for an endorsement in Environmental Health.

We cover three concepts in this course:

• Environmental Epidemiology, the "basic science" of Environmental Health
• Toxicology, to understand the biological basis of how environmental and health aspects are interconnected
• Environmental Health Risk Assessment, the procedure that brings together the concepts of Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology together

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will:

• Demonstrate mastery of their knowledge and skills to investigate and address health problems that have origins in the physical, chemical, and social environments (LO1)
• Critically appraise a range of literature on Environmental conditions as source of illnesses and burden of disease (LO2)
• Design studies to address environmental health related problems (LO3)
• Demonstrate understanding of the larger community based issues related to Environmental sources of illness (LO4)

University Graduate Attributes Addressed

• Analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving in diverse contexts (GA1: Employable, innovative and enterprising)
• Treaty of Waitangi and Aotearoa NZ's bicultural history (GA2: Bicultural Competence and Confidence)
• Other indignenous models of development (GA2: Bicultural competence and confidence)
• Understanding the global nature of Environmental Health (GA3: Globally aware)
• Application: Understanding and articulating how the content of Environmental Health enhances the community (GA4: Community Engagement)

Timetable 2020

All classes are held at Manawa HP406 These classrooms are located at 176, St Asaph Street.

The course is taught in three blocks of two days each. The classes are held between 9 AM - 3:30 PM on the following dates:

1. First block first day: 22nd July, 2020, Wednesday
2. First block second day: 23rd July, 2020, Thursday
3. Second block first day: 26th August, 2020, Wednesday
4. Second block, second day: 27th August, 2020, Thursday
5. Third block, first day: 23rd September, 2020, Wednesday
6. Third block, second day: 24th September, 2020, Thursday

The lecture schedule is as follows:

• Block 1, 22nd July, HP 307

  • 9 AM - 10 AM: Introduction to the course and logistics
  • 10 AM - 12 Noon: What are Epidemiology, Toxicology, EHRA?
  • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Case study in Environmental Health
  • 2:00 - 3:30 PM: Guided discussions on Environmental Health

• 23rd July, HP 307

  • 9 AM - 3:30 PM: Environmental Epidemiology (Hands on)

• Block 2, 26th August, HP 307

  • 9 AM - 3:30 PM: Enviromental Health Risk Assessment, Part I

• Block 2, 27th August HP 307

  • 9 AM - 3:30 PM: Environmental Health Risk Assessment, Part II

• Block 3, 23rd September HP 308

  • 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM: Toxicology (Professor Ian Shaw)

• Block 3, 24th September HP 308

  • 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Case studies in Environmental Health in Canterbury
  • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Case study in Environmental Health, part II
  • 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM: Closing

Course coordinator/teachers

• The course coordinator is Arindam Basu
• Email: [e-mail]
• To make an appointment with Arindam, please visit the following link: set up appointment with Arindam Basu

Arindam Basu's Office address:

Room 405F, Manawa Building,
176, St Asaph Street,
Phone: [phone]

Assessments

There are three assessments for this course described as follows.

A1. Assessment I: Annotated Bibliography of an environmental health topic (30%. marked out of 30)

Write an annotated bibliography of an environmental health topic of your choice. An annotated bibliography consists of a citation of a research paper, or any other document (in our case using APA 7th edition citation). Following the citation, you will write a summary of the key points covered in the document, and your reflections on the content. Your reflection will include the quality of the paper, and notes on the assumption and key facts covered in the paper/book/monograph on the topic. You can also write about your own ideas and previous readings on the topic.

Step by step instructions:

1. Start with an environmental health topic of your choice
2. Run a search of the topic on Environmental Health related internet sources and sources located at the UC library
3. Identify relevant papers
4. Create APA formatted list of citations.
5. Read the full text of the paper/book/monograph/report.
6. Write your commentary next to the citation
7. Follow the template provided in the Learn page
8. The length of the annotated bibliography must be 1500 words or less.
9. The word count does not include words in tables, and figures.
10. As this is an annotated bibliography, a separate citation list is not needed. You can add footnotes or endnotes.
11. After you complete writing the annotated bibliography, submit a PDF version to the Learn site by 6th August, 5 PM (this is a hard deadline, you can submit earlier)

A2. Assessment II: Write a simplified systematic map of an environmental health issue (40%)

In this assessment, you will write a systematic map of an environmental issue. A systematic map is a document that lists relevant studies investigating an issue, in this case an environmental health related problem and analyses the literature. The entire process can be detailed and time consuming almost as complex as a systematic review. You will identify an environmental issue and develop a systematic map to answer a specific question.

Step by step instructions:

1. Start with an environmental health question (you can use the question you used in A1)
2. As before conduct a search of the literature to identify relevant studies. This time, pay attention the PECO (population, exposure, comparator, outcomes) framework, and details of the year, language and other inclusion/exclusion criteria
3. Identify studies based on your search criteria.
4. Critically appraise the studies for their quality based on how well they address the research issues and write a summary of the synthesis
5. Write an overview of the evidence and quality of studies that address the environmental health question you raised
6. Follow the template provided in the Learn page for this assessment.
7. After writing the assignment, save the document as a PDF and upload to Learn in the assessments page
8. The word limit for this exercise is 2000 words and word count excludes words included in figures, tables, and reference lists
9. Use APA 7th Edition for citations
10. Submit by 11th September, 2020, 5 PM. This is a hard deadline. You can submit earlier.

A3. Assessment III: Write a review of an Environmental Health Risk Assessment paper (30%)

In this assessment, you will critique and write a review of an existent Environmental Health Risk Assessment conducted by someone/some group. Find out such an assessment document, read it, and critique it with respect to the following four criteria: hazard identification (what hazard was identified and was the hazard identification process robust enough?), dose-response assessment (was dose-response assessment process robus and what is your interpretation of the dose-response assessment), exposure assessment (discuss the necessary toxicological perspectives), and finally summarise and critique the risk characterisation process and how can that information be used.

Step by step instructions:

1. Select an environmental health problem.
2. Identify a previously conducted Environmental Health Risk Assessment and access the document.
3. Read the document and take notes keeping in mind the four tasks (hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response assessment, and risk characterisation)
4. Write your critique of the EHRA process and content using the template available on Learn.
5. Convert the document to PDF and upload to Learn Assessment page by 4th October, 2020, 5 PM. This is a hard deadline. You can submit earlier if you wish.

Links

• the Learn page of the course

For details about the timetable and the course, visit this link

Github repo: https://github.com/arinbasu/hlth403-en-hlth-uc/blob/master/docs/index.md

Osfio: https://osf.io/rfwve/