HS345 Syllabus Fall 2021 PDF

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syllabus of the hS345 class in 2021 fall semester....

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BOSTON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SCIENCES COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATION SCIENCES: SARGENT COLLEGE Fall 2021 SAR HS345 Global Environmental Public Health Course Credits: 4 credits Class Meeting Times: Tuesday & Thursday – 11:00am-12:15pm Room: WED 130 Instructors:

Professor Malwina (Maja) Carrion, MPH Tel: 617-358-5902 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays 11-1pm Wednesdays: 2-4pm by appointment only – please schedule at https://carrion.youcanbook.me/ *Other times available via email*

Teaching Assistants: Mariah Banks [email protected] Office Hours: TBC Students (by last name): Almiri-Lukomwa Johnny Rezendes [email protected] Office Hours: TBC Students (by last name): Ma-Zhang Course Description: Environmental health is associated with recognizing, assessing, understanding, and controlling both the impact of people on their environment and the impact of the environment on public health. Global environmental problems are highly complex and transcend national boundaries; therefore, the field of global environmental health requires multidisciplinary approaches to solve these problems, to mitigate dangerous environmental exposures, and to improve the health of all people affected. This course will introduce the principles, methods, and issues related to global environmental health sciences. Topics include: population dynamics; the people-food predicament; how the body reacts to environmental pollutants; physical, chemical, and biological agents of environmental contamination; vectors for dissemination such as air, water, and soil; solid and hazardous waste; susceptible populations; the scientific basis for policy decisions; risk communication; and emerging global environmental health problems. Additionally, students will learn how to assess the evidence base in environmental health, how to formulate evidence-based policy recommendations, and how to communicate these recommendations to key audiences.

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Textbook (Strongly recommended): Frumkin H. Environmental Health: from Global to Local. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016. Available FREE online: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bu/detail.action? docID=4405576 Required Readings: On Blackboard site in folder of class for when reading is due Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students should: 1) Be able to describe the different areas and foci of environmental health 2) Be able to identify various sources and types of environmental contaminants and in what ways these affect public health 3) Develop critical skills and knowledge in environmental health in order to function as a part of a research team 4) Be able to identify and critically assess environmental health information found in research articles, policy documents, and the media 5) Be able to defend a position on what should be done to address pressing problems in global environmental health 6) Strengthen written and verbal communication skills through class activities and projects

Course Schedule Course Sessions Week

Day

Date

Week 1

Thurs

9/2

Introduction to Environmental Health and HS345

Tues

9/7

Population, Sustainability, and Health Part I

Thurs

9/9

Population, Sustainability, and Health Part II

Optional: Textbook Chapter 3

Tues

9/14

Climate Change Part I

Optional: Textbook Chapter 12

Thurs

9/16

Climate Change Part II

Week 2

Lecture Topic

Week 3

Readings/Assignments Required: - Syllabus - Executive summary of the WHO’s report Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments: Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease (Both on Blackboard) Required: Textbook Chapter 1 In-class assignment #1

Optional: Textbook Chapter 12 Project: Groups Assigned

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Week

Day

Date

Lecture Topic

Tues

9/21

Environmental Justice

Readings/Assignments Optional: Textbook Chapter 11

Guest Speaker Rachel Chambers

Week 4 Thurs

9/23

Senior Research Associate Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health

Reading Reflection #1 Due

https://caih.jhu.edu

Optional: Textbook Chapter 17

Tues

9/28

Solid and Hazardous Waste

Thurs

9/30

Water and Health

Week 5

Project: Topic, Target Audience, and Search Strategy Assignment due by midnight on 9/28

Optional: Textbook Chapter 16

Toxicology Optional: Textbook Chapter 6 Tues

10/5

Guest Speaker Jennifer Oliver, MSc PhD Candidate BUSPH Environmental Health

Week 6

EH in the News #1 due by midnight on 10/5

In-class Assignment #2

Thurs

10/7

Evaluating Environmental Health Research

Take Home Midterm Exam Assigned (due 10/19) Project: Time to work in groups

Tues

10/12

NO CLASS MONDAY SCHEDULE

Week 7

Week 8

Reading Reflection #2 Due Thurs

10/14

Radiation

Tues

10/19

Environmental Disasters

Optional: Textbook Chapter 22 Optional: Textbook Chapter 24 Take Home Midterm Exam Due by Midnight

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Week

Day

Date

Lecture Topic

Thurs

10/21

Communicating Environmental Health Part I

Tues

10/26

Communicating Environmental Health Part II

Week 9

Guest Speaker Junenette L. Peters, ScD Thurs

10/28

Assistant Professor, Environmental Health BUSPH

Readings/Assignments In-class Assignment #3 In-class Assignment #4 Optional: Textbook Chapter 28 Optional: Textbook Chapter 28 Reading Reflection #3 Due

Optional: Textbook Chapter 13 Tues

11/2

Air Pollution

Thurs

11/4

Geospatial Data (GIS) for Environmental Health

Optional: Textbook Chapter 5

Guest Speaker Wendy Heiger-Bernays, PhD

Reading Reflection #4 Due

Clinical Professor of Environmental Health BUSPH

Optional: Textbook Chapter 27

Pest Control & Pesticides

Optional: Textbook Chapter 28

Week 10

Tues

11/9

Week 11 Thurs

11/11

Project: Annotated Bibliography due by midnight on 11/2

Guest Speaker Toni Tedesco 11/16

Thurs

11/18

Environmental Health and Infectious Diseases

Tues

11/23

Project Work

Week 12

Week 13

Research Analyst I Division of Epidemiology Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Tues

Reading Reflection #5 Due

TBC Time to work in groups on project Final Papers due by midnight on 11/23

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Week

Day

Date

Thurs

11/25

NO CLASS THANKSGIVING BREAK

Tues

11/30

Food Systems and Food Security Part I

12/2

Food Systems and Food Security Part II

Week 14

Lecture Topic

Readings/Assignments

Optional: Textbook Chapter 19 In-class Assignment #5

Thurs

Tues

12/7

Wrap up & final exam review

Week 15 Thurs

12/9

Project Poster Session (last class)

Project: Posters due by midnight on Friday, 12/2 Project: Poster questions due by midnight on Tuesday, 12/7 (counts towards poster grade) Optional: Revised final papers due by midnight on Friday, 12/10 EH in the News #2 due by midnight on Friday, 12/10

Final Exam

12/15-12/19

TBC

Course Requirements, Grading, Readings and Policies Course Grade 1. Reading Reflections x 5 (2% each) 2. In-class assignments/activities x 5 (2% each) 3. EH in the News x 2 (5% each) 4. Midterm Exam (take-home) 5. Group Research and Policy Paper 6. Final Exam

10% 10% 10% 20% 30% 20%

Requirements There are six (6) requirements for this course. All are geared toward achieving the learning outcomes noted above. If you encounter any issues with submitting something to Blackboard, you must email your TA immediately and cc Professor Carrion; failure to do so will result in a 0 for the assignment. - Please always check that what you have submitted was uploaded correctly; this is your responsibility - All submissions must be in Word or PDF formats, unless otherwise specified - All assignments or project components are due BEFORE the start of class on the due date, unless otherwise specified

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1. Reading Reflections (10% of final grade) Environmental health is a broad category and even over the course of a semester, it is impossible to go in-depth into any one of them. In an effort to bring real world applicability to what we will be discussing, you will occasionally be assigned readings, podcasts, or other media on a topic. These may be academic articles, news stories, white papers, etc. We may discuss some of these assignments in class, however, you are responsible for completing a reflection for each one and submitting it online. 2. In-class assignments/activities (10% of final grade) At different weeks throughout the semester, we will feature an in-class activity. These inclass assignments and activities will be graded for comprehension and analysis of the course material. These assignments/activities will account for 10% of your final grade, and any unexcused absence will result in a zero grade for that day’s assignment. If you know ahead of time that you will miss a class period with an in-class assignment, you must notify your TA and cc Professor Carrion as soon as possible so that a make-up assignment may be given. Failure to notify prior to the class period will result in a zero for that day’s assignment. 3. Environmental Health in the News (10% of final grade, 5% each) Students are required to submit two (2) “EH in the News” articles via Blackboard over the course of the semester. Articles should be from mainstream media or news sources (CNN, New York Times, Boston Globe, etc.) and show how we interact with or hear about environmental health in our daily lives. All articles should relate to human health in some way, though if they are about the environment or animal health, you can make the argument for how they impact human health. Articles should be no older than 1 year (i.e. not before September 2020). These should not be extensive research pieces published in academic journals. With each submission, please send a link to the news story or attach the file as a PDF or Word document in order to receive full credit. You should also answer the following questions in a Word document: 1. What is the main point of this article and what environmental health issues does it address? 2. Is there an environmental justice component (does not have to be explicitly discussed in the article)? If so, who is affected and how? 3. What do you think the impact of this news item might be (locally, nationally, and/or globally), if any? Responses should be 1 page, maximum, single spaced in 12-point Time New Roman font with 1-inch margins. Please ensure your name and the course name are on the document and please title your file “Last Name HS345 EH in the News 1” and “Last Name HS345 EH in the News 2”. Examples will be posted on Blackboard. Each article counts towards 5% of your final course grade. Students are free to submit their EH in the News articles at any time during the semester but one (1) must be submitted by midnight on 10/5/2021.

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4. Midterm Exam (20% of final grade, take home) The midterm exam will be a take home exam to be completed between 10/7 and 10/19 (due at midnight). The midterm will be based on material presented in lectures (including guest speakers), readings, and discussion activities from classes prior to the exam but will also require you to conduct some research on your own. The midterm will consist of 3 essay questions. 5. Group research and policy recommendation project (30% of final grade) One of the goals of the course is to provide students with sufficient knowledge so they can read, with understanding, articles related to environmental exposure and health in journals written for broadly educated health professionals such as Environmental Health Perspectives, Science, Nature, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine. This group research and policy recommendation project is designed to help students find, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate research findings from sources such as these on a topic of your choice. It is broken into multiple, smaller projects. First, 4-5 students will be randomly assigned to a group. Each group will then choose a global environmental health problem and target audience, and devise a search strategy for locating relevant articles (how to do so will be covered in class). Topics may come from the class material or from an issue we are not covering this semester. Depending on the topic, groups may choose one of several target audiences for their paper. Target audiences should be as specific as possible. For example, the United Nations generally does not have a lot of power to enact change so it would be better to target the government of a specific country or even of a specific province or state. Groups will then conduct research, produce an annotated bibliography, write their paper, and prepare a poster of their final paper to be presented on the last day of class. While the specific details will vary from group to group and depend on the topic and audience chosen, some questions to consider while researching and organizing your final paper include: 1. 2. 3. 4.

What is the hazard? How is the population exposed? What are the susceptible populations and factors that mitigate their susceptibility? Consider the topic through an environmental justice and equity lens. How is susceptibility influenced by racial/social injustice? 5. Describe the responsible environmental health management agencies/ organizations (federal, state and local) AND their regulatory authority. Describe non-profits or other organizations that assist or play a significant role 6. Present examples of control strategies either currently being used or that could be used (within your geographical focus area) 7. Discuss the political and legal ramifications of existing or proposed control strategies (present examples; think about who is “for” and who is “against” and what their positions/arguments are; often will include stakeholder groups that are not responsible for management of the proposed strategies)

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8. Provide a critical summary including recommendations from the group about how to prevent or minimize negative health impacts. 9. Provide a concise abstract defining: What is the problem, Where is it a problem (geographical boundaries), and Why is it a problem (you may use specific examples to illustrate your problem statement) The first assignment, Topic, Target Audience, and Search Strategy. This assignment will not be graded but you will receive feedback. Late submissions will result in 2.5 points (out of 100) being deducted from the annotated bibliography assignment for every day it is late. For example, if the assignment is due on a Thursday and is submitted on a Friday, it will result in a 5 point deduction (2.5 points for Thursday, 2.5 points for Friday). The second part of the group project is the annotated bibliography assignment. The group must identify 4 research articles for their topic per a person in their group (i.e. a group of 4 will submit an annotated bibliography of 20 articles, a group of 5 will submit 25 articles). Each student should work on their articles independently. For each of their four articles, students will write two paragraphs: one is a summary of the article’s methods and findings, the second is an assessment of the quality of the study (how to assess research studies will be covered in class). Groups will submit all article summaries in one annotated bibliography document but please specify who wrote which summary as grades will be given based on individual contribution. Feedback will be provided. This assignment accounts for 5% of your final grade. Late submissions will result in 2.5 points (out of 100) being deducted for every day it is late; refer to the example given above for how this is calculated. The primary component of the group project is the paper assignment. While the paper should include sufficient information on the background of the problem, the most important section of this paper is the recommendations: a set of evidence-based recommendations for your target audience on what to do to address your problem/topic. Papers should be approximately 10-12 pages (1.5 spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins). These papers account for a substantial proportion of your grade (20%). Late submissions will result in 2.5 points (out of 100) being deducted for every day it is late; refer to the example given above for how this is calculated. Groups must submit these papers before the Thanksgiving break, however, they may choose to revise them prior to them being graded up until the end of the semester. Finally, each group will prepare a poster for their topic. Posters should be created as a single PowerPoint slide and a template will be uploaded to Blackboard, though you are free to create your own. The format/style of the poster is up to the group’s discretion, but it should be chosen strategically to communicate the problem and potential solutions in the most effective way possible. For example, if your target audience is highly educated, a scientific poster might be most effective. If your target audience is other students at BU, you might want to be more creative but still make sure you are transmitting key information and facts. Be creative, but you will be assessed primarily on how effective you are in communicating to your target audience. This assignment will make up 5% of your final grade. We will have a poster session on the last day of class. Posters are due

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ahead of time, as per the syllabus. Late submissions will result in 2.5 points (out of 100) being deducted for every day it is late; refer to the example given above for how this is calculated. There will be some class time devoted to working on the group project, but the expectation is for most of the work to take place outside of class. At the end of the semester, students will be asked to fill out a peer evaluation form so everyone has the opportunity to evaluate the contribution of team members to the group project. These peer evaluations will be confidential but they will be taken into consideration for the grades assigned to individuals for the paper. 6. Final exam (20% of final grade) The final exam will include 3 essays and will not require outside research. It is a cumulative exam covering material throughout the semester. A review session will be held on the second to last day of classes to go over material related to the exam. This exam will account for a significant percentage of your grade (20%). The final exam date will be announced in class once it is assigned but it will be held during the exam period. Policies Late work policy Exams must be taken on the date stipulated in the syllabus. There will be no make-up exams. Additionally, students must be present for ...