Syllabus

Schedule

Course Dates

*See Course for required and suggested weekly readings.

Week 1: Apr 28 – May 5
Week 2: May 5 – May 12
Week 3: May 12 – May 19
Week 4: May 19 – May 26
Week 5: May 26 – Jun 2
Week 6: Jun 2 – Jun 9
Week 7: Jun 9 – Jun 16
Week 8: Jun 16 – Jun 20 (Sunday)

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Week 1: Defining Environment

Weekly Outcomes

• Explore how environmental hazards affect individual lives.
• Examine how climate change affects public health outcomes.
• Assess how the environment can sustain and harm living organisms.

Lectures

• Course Introduction
• Week 1 Lecture: What Defines the Environment?

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 1: Introduction to Environmental Health
  • Chapter 2: Ecology and Ecosystems as Foundational for Health
• J Hansen, et al. Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature. PLoS One. 2013; 8(12): e81648. Published online Dec 3, 2013. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3849278/
• Final Project Document

Assignments

• Week 1 Discussion – Environment:
  Original Contribution: How do you perceive today’s environment? Do you think it is better or worse than the generations that came before? What do you base your perception on? Give examples. Response post: Choose a classmate’s post that expresses an opinion different than your own and respond with specific examples.
• Week 1 Assignment: Climate Change
  The climate is an important part of our environment.
  1) How do you feel climate change will affect the environment?
  2) What health outcomes will result?
  Use references to support your discussion.

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Week 2: Human and Environment Interaction

Weekly Outcomes

• Explore how socioeconomic status and availability of resources impact the ability to mitigate environmental hazards.
• Investigate how environmental hazards spread across locations and communities.
• Evaluate the role and effects of human interaction and the environment across time.

Lectures

• Week 2 Lecture: Human and Environment Interaction
• Week 2 Video: Gil Dichter Interview

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 10: Environmental Health Ethics
  • Chapter 11: Environmental Justice and Vulnerable Populations
• Rajiv Bhatia and Aaron Wernham, Integrating Human Health into Environmental Impact Assessment: An Unrealized Opportunity for Environmental Health and Justice, Environment Health Perspective. 2008 Aug; 116(8): 991–1000.

Assignments

• Week 2 Discussion – Socioeconomic Status and Environment:
  Original Contribution: Reflect on the readings and lectures this week. Discuss how one’s socioeconomic status influences choice in the living environment in terms of access to quality food/water, exposure to toxic chemicals, etc. Consider the role that structural bias and racism can play in both living environment and environmental exposure.
  Response: What role do you feel that we as public health professionals should play in addressing these inequities within communities and society as a whole?
• Week 2 Assignment: Project Topic:*Review the Final Project Document for detailed information about the components of the final project.*Remember that you will need to choose a member of your government agency responsible for approving environmental projects to interview. Plan ahead as you choose your topic and attempt to set up an interview now. 

  While an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) covers many topics, you need to be concerned only with those issues that affect the health of populations. Note that the impact statement you will produce is an abbreviated version and a statement written in a professional field may be much longer.

  Read the NIH paper that discusses the role of Health Impact Assessments (HIA) in an EIS before you decide on a project topic and create your outline.

  Provide an outline of your project including:

  • Overview of the project (1-2 sentence summary of the topic)
  • Environmental Impacts (at least two pros and two cons)
  • Health Impacts (1 health impact for each pro and con)
  • At least two references found in your research, in proper AMA format

  This is only meant to be an informal outline. It can be a brief overview and a bulleted list of environmental/health impacts. It does not need to be presented in full narrative until the Impact Statement is due in Week 6.

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Week 3: Exposure to Environmental Hazards

Weekly Outcomes

• Explore food standards and the effect on health.
• Identify the kinds of studies that measure health effects from environmental exposure.
• Assess studies to determine what is good data.

Lectures

• Week 3 Lecture: Measuring Exposure to Environmental Hazards

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 4: Environmental Occupational Epidemiology
  • Chapter 6: Toxicology

Assignments

• Week  3 Discussion – Food Standards:
  Original Contribution: Look up the USDA standards for organic produce. Based on these standards, do you feel that organic produce is safer than other produce you can buy? Specifically, reference at least one USDA standard.
  Response Post: Respond to at least one classmate. Using the USDA standards provided, argue the opposite of your classmate. The argument you give may be different than your own opinion.
• Week 3 Assignment: Interview QuestionsReview the Final Project Document for more information about the interview, impact statement and final presentations. 
  Develop a set of interview questions. Four or five questions should be sufficient. Review the interview with Gil Dichter as an example of questions and keep in mind that you will use this information for your final presentations. Ensure that you ask questions that will be conducive to presenting the information in the context of your final impact statement and presentation.

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Week 4: The Role of the Media

Weekly Outcomes

• Evaluate environmental issue fact usage in media reports.
• Describe how public health is affected by the media representation of environmental issues.

Lectures

• Week 4 Lecture: The Role of the Media

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 25: Nature Contact
  • Chapter 28: Communicating Environmental Health

Assignments

• Week 4 Assignment: Sources in Media Reports

  Read this article from the Portland Press Herald dated 5/15/17

  This article refers to a Journal Nature paper published 5/15/17:

  • Citation: Anenberg SC, Miller J, Minjares R, et al. Impacts and mitigation of excess diesel-related NOx emissions in 11 major vehicle markets. Nature. 2017;545:467.
  • Do you feel the reporter accurately summarized the Nature paper?
  • If not what did he miss?
  • Did the reporter use two or more sources and, if so, how accurate and credible were they?
• Week 4 Assignment: Interview Summary

  Submit a transcript of your interview with a person knowledgeable about the topic of your impact statement topic. The transcript should be a typed version of your audio recording. Your interview should not be longer than 20 minutes. If you are not able to record your interview due to policies at their worksite, you should take detailed notes during the interview and transcribe these into a detailed transcript of the interview.

  This does not have to be a person directly involved. For example, if you chose the dredging project you can contact a government agency responsible for dredging activity, such as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

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Week 5: Disease Outcomes Resulting From Exposure

Weekly Outcomes

• Assess state and Federal data on environmental quality.
• Match disease incidence data with exposure data.
• Explore early investigations of disease from environmental exposure.

Lectures

• Week 5 Lecture: What Disease Outcomes Result from Our Exposure

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 12: Climate Change and Human Health
  • Chapter 15: Healthy Communities
• Haley RW, Tuite JJ. Epidemiologic evidence of health effects from long-distance transit of chemical weapons fallout from bombing early in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Neuroepidemiology. 2013;40:178-189. Doi: 10.1159/000345124.

Assignments

• Week 5 Discussion – Disease Outcome from Climate Change:
  Original Contribution: What disease outcome is likely from an increase in climate change? Use outcome data from state and federal sources to support your argument.
  Response Post: Respond to at least one classmate. What measures do you think can be taken to mitigate the level of damage done by the example your classmate gave?
• Week 5 Assignment: Exposure and DiseaseRead the Haley and Tuite Paper:
  • What were the major exposure issues discussed?
  • How was significance measured?
  • Assess the statistical significance of the data.
  • Did the survey method affect the final results?
  • Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the paper.

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Week 6: Chronic and Acute Exposure and Disease Outcome

Weekly Outcomes

• Examine cause and effect factors when determining how environmental hazards affect the health of the public.
• Analyze the ways that human actions or lack of action affect environmental outcomes.

Lectures

• Week 6 Lecture: Examples of Exposure and Disease Outcome

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 7: Genes, Genomics, and Environmental Health
  • Chapter 8: Exposure Science, Industrial Hygiene, and Exposure Assessment

Assignments

• Week  6 Discussion – Environmental Hazards:
  Original Contribution: Proving an environmental hazard exists is difficult. The Civil Action movie demonstrated how difficult it is to make a case for a hazard in court. How different is making the case in legal court versus making the case in the court of public opinion?
  Response Post: Respond to at least one classmate. Based on your classmate’s post, discuss how issues of structural inequities might affect how environmental hazards are dealt with in both legal cases and the court of public opinion.
• Week 6 Assignment: Impact StatementReview the Final Project Document for an example format and requirements for the Impact Statement.
  Submit your completed Impact Statement here.

  Be prepared to defend your analysis before a decision-making body as you will need to do so in your presentations due next week.

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Week 7: Policy and Law

Weekly Outcomes

• Evaluate policies that have been proposed to improve the environment.
• Use written and oral presentations to support policy recommendations.
• Present the views of different stakeholders in a policy debate.

Lectures

• Week 7 Lecture: Policy and Law

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 26: Environmental Public Health: From Theory to Practice
  • Chapter 27: Risk Assessment in Environmental Health

Assignments

• Week  7 Discussion – Rule Making:
  Original Contribution: Select an environmental health issue that you would recommend a rule be developed to address, or that you feel an existing rule should be changed or eliminated. Present the argument that you would make in testimony to a rule-making session.
  Response post: Do you think your classmate has a reason for a rule to be developed? Offer suggestions for how you think your classmate’s argument could be strengthened. If you disagree with their proposal, explain why.
• Week 7 Assignment: Presentation*Review the Final Project Document for more information on the final presentation.
  Submit your final presentation.

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Week 8: Interventions

Weekly Outcomes

• Develop interventions that limit environmental exposures to pollutants.
• Analyze the effectiveness of environmental interventions in preventing disease.

Lectures

• Week 8 Lecture: Interventions

Reading

• Frumkin Environmental Health Text
  • Chapter 3: Sustainability and Health
  • Chapter 13: Air Pollution

Assignments

• Week 8 Assignment: Clean Air Act
  Review the Clean Air Act, evaluating how successful this law has been in limiting primary pollutants. Reference specific elements within the act, and include evidence from peer-reviewed literature of primary pollutants and pre- and post- Clean Air Act occurrences to support your argument.

Student Resources

Online Student Support

Your Student Support Specialist is a resource for you. Please don't hesitate to contact them for assistance, including, but not limited to course planning, current problems or issues in a course, technology concerns, or personal emergencies.

Questions? Visit the Student Support Public Health page

UNE Libraries:

• Library Access for all students: Your library login ID and password are the same as the ones you use to log into Blackboard/Brightspace.
• Public Health Databases: https://library.une.edu/library-materials/find/research-by-subject/public-health/
• Library Tutorial: Find an article
• Library Questions: Ask a librarian or phone library staff at (207) 602-2361 or (207) 221-4330.

UNE Student Academic Success Center

UNE's Student Academic Success Center (SASC) offers a range of free online services to support your academic achievement. Writing support, ESOL support, study strategy and learning style consultations, as well as downloadable resources, are available to all matriculating students. The SASC also offers tutoring for GPH 712 Epidemiology, GPH 716 Biostatistics, GPH 717 Applied Epidemiology, GPH 718 Biostatistics II, and GPH 719 Research Methods. To make an appointment for any of these services, go to une.tutortrac.com. For more information and to view and download writing and studying resources, please visit:

• UNE Student Academic Success Center

Information Technology Services (ITS)

• ITS Contact: Toll Free Help Desk 24 hours/7 days per week at 1-877-518-4673

Accommodations

Any student who would like to request, or ask any questions regarding, academic adjustments or accommodations must contact the Student Access Center at (207) 221-4438 or pcstudentaccess@une.edu. Student Access Center staff will evaluate the student's documentation and determine eligibility of accommodation(s) through the Student Access Center registration procedure.

Policies

AMA Writing Style Statement

The American Medical Association Manual (AMA) of Style, 11th edition is the required writing format for this course. Additional support for academic writing and AMA format is provided throughout the coursework as well as at the UNE Portal for Online Students.

Online resources: AMA Style Guide

Turnitin Originality Check and Plagiarism Detection Tool

The College of Professional Studies uses Turnitin to help deter plagiarism and to foster the proper attribution of sources. Turnitin provides comparative reports for submitted assignments that reflect similarities in other written works. This can include, but is not limited to, previously submitted assignments, internet articles, research journals, and academic databases.

Make sure to cite your sources appropriately as well as use your own words in synthesizing information from published literature. Webinars and workshops, included early in your coursework, will help guide best practices in APA citation and academic writing.

You can learn more about Turnitin in the Turnitin Student quick start guide.

Technology Requirements

Please review the technical requirements for UNE Online Graduate Programs: Technical Requirements

Course Evaluation Policy

Course surveys are one of the most important tools that University of New England uses for evaluating the quality of your education, and for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on their teaching. In order to assure that the feedback is both comprehensive and precise, we need to receive it from each student for each course. Evaluation access is distributed via UNE email at the beginning of the last week of the course.

Late Policy

Students are responsible for submitting work by the date indicated in Brightspace.

Quizzes and Tests: Quizzes and tests must be completed by the due date. They will not be accepted after the due date.

Assignments: Unless otherwise specified, assignments will be accepted up to 3 days late; however, there is a 10% grade reduction (from the total points) for the late submission. After three days the assignment will not be accepted.

Discussion posts: If the initial post is submitted late, but still within the discussion board week, there will be a 10% grade reduction from the total discussion grade (e.g., a 3 point discussion will be reduced by 0.3 points). Any posts submitted after the end of the Discussion Board week will not be graded.

Please make every effort ahead of time to contact your instructor and your student support specialist if you are not able to meet an assignment deadline. Arrangements for extenuating circumstances may be considered by faculty.

Student Handbook Online - Policies and Procedures

The policies contained within this document apply to all students in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. It is each student's responsibility to know the contents of this handbook.

Student Handbook

UNE Course Withdrawal

Please contact your student support specialist if you are considering dropping or withdrawing from a course. The last day to drop for 100% tuition refund is the 2nd day of the course. Financial Aid charges may still apply. Students using Financial Aid should contact the Financial Aid Office prior to withdrawing from a course.

Academic Integrity

The University of New England values academic integrity in all aspects of the educational experience. Academic dishonesty in any form undermines this standard and devalues the original contributions of others. It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to actively uphold the integrity of the academy; failure to act, for any reason, is not acceptable. For information about plagiarism and academic misconduct, please visit https://www.une.edu/studentlife/plagiarism.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:

1. Cheating, copying, or the offering or receiving of unauthorized assistance or information.
2. Fabrication or falsification of data, results, or sources for papers or reports.
3. Action which destroys or alters the work of another student.
4. Multiple submissions of the same paper or report for assignments in more than one course without permission of each instructor.
5. Plagiarism, the appropriation of records, research, materials, ideas, or the language of other persons or writers and the submission of them as one's own.

Charges of academic dishonesty will be reviewed by the Program Director. Penalties for students found responsible for violations may depend upon the seriousness and circumstances of the violation, the degree of premeditation involved, and/or the student’s previous record of violations.  Appeal of a decision may be made to the Dean whose decision will be final.  Student appeals will take place through the grievance process outlined in the student handbook.