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Unit of study_

PUBH5121: Environmental Health

2025 unit information

This course aims to describe the interrelation between our environment and human populations, local communities and individuals and the health risks of environmental hazards. The unit will explore the major categories of environmental health hazards including air quality, water quality, chemical hazards (eg soils and contaminated sites), physical hazards (eg noise and radiation), microbiological hazards (eg Legionnaires' disease) and food safety. Regional and global issues of sustainability, climate change and land use planning will also be covered. The disciplines of epidemiology, toxicology and ecology will be applied within a risk assessment framework. Students completing this unit will appreciate: the multi-disciplinary nature of environmental health; the application of a risk assessment framework to characterise health risks due to environmental hazards, determine risk management options, and inform risk communication strategies; the need to work closely with a broad range of stakeholders including commonwealth and state health, environment and planning agencies, local government, industry, researchers and the community.

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Medicine and Health

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Public Health
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
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None
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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None
Assumed knowledge:
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None

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. identify the major categories of hazards and setting in environmental health
  • LO2. describe the major pathways of exposure to environmental contaminants
  • LO3. understand and apply the core disciplines in environmental health: epidemiology, toxicology and ecology
  • LO4. apply a systematic approach for investigating environmental hazards and conducting risk assessment and management
  • LO5. identify and critically appraise management tools, such as policies, programs, guidelines and legislation, used to control environmental health hazards
  • LO6. appreciate the multidisciplinary nature of environmental health and the close links with environmental protection
  • LO7. appreciate the potential health effects of large-scale ecological change, eg: urbanisation, climate change.

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2024
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2024
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2025
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Semester 2 2025
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 Early 2020
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 Early 2020
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2021
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2021
Normal day Remote
Semester 2 2021
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2022
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2022
Normal day Remote
Semester 2 2022
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2023
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2023
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

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Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.