Advanced Certificate in Environmental Health

This survey of the major environmental determinants of human health covers physical, chemical and biological sources of exposure; routes of exposure in humans; etiology of environmental disease and mortality; and the complexities of environmental public policy. Topics include airborne pollution, contaminated water and food, solid and hazardous waste, and risk assessment as a tool for regulation. Students have the opportunity to tour a local public works facility.

This course addresses drinking water and waste water systems from a public health perspective and closely examines the water quality regulations impacting these two public works areas. The course provides an historical overview and includes discussion of the health effects of water-related diseases. Water quality criteria, water standards, regulations and physical-chemical technologies are examined, along with regulatory monitoring and reporting, through the review of case studies. Watershed and reservoir management, protection and storage, and household plumbing are also examined. Field trips are arranged.

This course explores air pollution in terms of measurements and control, pollutant dispersion, air quality standards and health effects. The legal and enforcement aspects of air pollution control and the nature and quantity of atmospheric emission from vehicles, incinerators and specific industries are reviewed.

Exposure assessment is an essential tool for understanding, managing, controlling, and reducing occupational health risks in large and small workplaces. Data from exposure assessments are used in improving conditions in the workplace as well as in toxicology, epidemiology, and engineering studies. While important gains have been made in creating new methods and detecting even lower exposures for some substances and agents, numerous important challenges remain. For example, the benefits of exposure assessment are still not realized in many workplaces. Many substances, agents, and stressors lack exposure methods. Exposure data are not currently aggregated on a national basis to support improved priority setting for occupational health. This course focuses on existing techniques as well as the development of new approaches for the measurement and control of the same four broad stressor categories, chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic stressors in public and private workplaces and environments.

Principal man-made contaminants of air, water, and soil stemming from habitats, transportation, industry, and agriculture are examined. Also reviewed are water and sewage treatment, recycling of resources, methods of treatment and disposal of solid waste, and control and preventive measures designed to alleviate the adverse effects of hazardous chemicals.

This course stresses basic concepts essential to the understanding of the action of exogenous chemical agents on biological systems. Principles underlying the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination of chemicals are discussed. Toxic kinetics, specific classes of toxic responses, and experimental methods used to assess toxicity are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on developing the skills necessary to approach toxicology as a quantitative science.

This course provides an overview of the applicable legal processes designed to address public health and environmental concerns. The goal of environmental law is to achieve safe water, air and the environment. NYMC Faculty and Distinguished Environmental Legal Experts will guide this course from the inception and historical basis of environmental law through the methods employed for functional execution of the statutes and regulations at the Federal, State and Local levels. Special focus is assigned to the projected evolution of legal processes needed looking forward at 21st century environmental issues.

Toxicology is the study of adverse effects of chemical agents (xenobiotics) on living organisms. In this course, principles underlying the absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and elimination of foreign chemicals from the body are presented. Experimental methods and animal models used to assess toxic effects of chemicals are discussed. Toxic effects of specific chemicals, i.e., pesticides, metals, solvents and vapors, and radioactive chemicals are also addressed. Major air pollutants and contaminants of soil and water that pose a risk to humans are reviewed. Methods of risk assessment, and governmental legislation and regulations designed to limit exposure to hazardous chemicals are considered.