This course is designed to introduce health professionals to the environmental threats to Public Health, the risk factors involved, the size of the problem, and how to utilize an evidence-based approach to reduce these environmental threats to health.

The course is designed to help you: 

1. Have a broad knowledge of the field of environmental health.
2. Describe major ways in which the environment and human health are connected in different parts of the world, and in different populations.
3. Identify the sources and routes of physical, chemical, and biological environmental agents.
4. Gain an understanding of health impacts among individuals/populations of these exposures.
5. Find ways to limit and control the exposure to the public and mitigate the adverse effects of the environment on health.

This course is an Open Online Course (OOC) that was created by Magali Collonnaz, Halima Tahirkheli, and Rashmi Sood. It has been adopted from Peoples-uni and was further developed by NextGenU.org (NGU). 

There are six (6) modules to complete, which include:

Module 1: Introduction to Environmental Health
Module 2: Methods of Estimating Health Risks due to Environmental Hazards
Module 3: Major Environmental Hazards and Related Health Impacts
Module 4: Psychosocial Impacts of Environmental Health
Module 5: Mitigation Measures - Strategies to Combat Environmental Diseases
Module 6: Conclusions

Approximate time for completion of this course is 8 hours and 30 minutes at an average reading rate of 144 words/minute.

Engaging with this course

• To register for this course, complete the registration form. Begin the course with Module 1. For each lesson, read the description. 
• Each lesson comprises introductory remarks. You can click on the collections of resources in each module. 
• There is a forum on each module for reflection, and you will be able to add a new topic or respond to a previous one. You may want to share your learning from this and other readings, comment on the topics from your own experience, comment on others' posts, or provide feedback on how we can improve the content and/or presentation.
• There is a final quiz to assess your understanding of some important concepts. Click on the hyperlinks to take you to these items in each topic.

To PASS and Obtain a Certificate

You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment. There are no requirements.

To obtain a certificate, a learner must successfully complete:

• All reading requirements
• All discussion forums
• The final exam with a minimum of 80% and a maximum of 3 attempts. and
• The self and course evaluation forms
  

This course has been included in the list of activities available for continuing education for Certified Public Health Professionals by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.

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We've utilized the Quizlet platform to create specialized flashcards designed to reinforce and test your knowledge throughout this course. Simply click the links to freely access them. Feel free to browse through our other sets of flashcards. Dive in and happy studying!

In these documents, we also summarized key topics you will encounter throughout the course to help you study. Please note that these notes do not cover all of the material in its entirety; you are still encouraged to read and study all of the required learning resources.

• Topic 1_ Introduction to Environmental and Occupational Health
  
• Topic 2_ Estimating Health Risks Due to Environmental Hazards
• Topic 3_ Major Environmental Hazards and Related Health Impacts
• Topic 4_ Psychosocial Impacts of Environmental Risk
• Topic 5_ Mitigation Measures - Strategies to Combat Environmental Diseases

Learning Outcome:

By the end of this section, you should have a basic understanding of the extent of the ways in which the environment can impact health.

Learning Outcome:

By the end of this section, you should have a basic understanding of the methods used to identify environmental hazards and the health risks associated with exposure to these hazards.

Learning Outcome:

By the end of this section, you should be able to understand the health impacts of some of the more important environmental hazards: chemicals, air pollution, water and sanitation, and waste.

Learning Outcome:

By the end of this section, you should understand the link between environmental health and mental health, including the potential implications of disasters on substance use disorders and strategies to provide psychosocial support.

Learning Outcome: 

By the end of this section, you should be able to understand the direct and indirect controls to mitigate the adverse impact of the environment on health, including the policy models and required development and modification of infrastructure.

This section summarises and concludes the course.

The learning outcome is to have reviewed the main points in the course so that you are ready to take the quiz and earn a certificate.

To take the final exam, you must complete all quizzes and complete all the required activities. 

To access the exam, click on the name of the exam provided above. On the following screen, click the Attempt Quiz button to respond to the questions.

In this section, you can provide feedback about this course to help us make NextGenU.org better. Once evaluations are completed, you will be able to download your certificate of completion.

Please take this quiz to assess the knowledge you have gained.

You will gain a Certificate of Completion if you pass the quiz and have accessed the resources in each section.