Undergraduate - UnitHSC3102 - Environmental determinants of health and disease

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Caulfield First semester 2014 (Day) Clayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Ewan MacFarlane (Caulfield, Clayton)

Synopsis

This unit explores the role of environmental factors in human health, how environmental health hazards are identified and how the risks can be assessed and managed. This unit will cover chemical, biological and physical hazards and their potential health effects in a range of environmental contexts.
This unit will encourage students to critically evaluate environmental health information and its application in realistic situations. In this unit students will explore practical examples of environmental health hazards to identify the human health risks present, ways to assess exposure and options and strategies for assessment and management of the health risks identified.

Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

Describe the essential principles of hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.
Demonstrate fluency with the basic concepts and terms used to describe chemical, physical and biological hazards.
Describe basic principles of identifying common hazards and nominate ways to assess the risks presented.
Nominate common interventions used to control environmental risks and the key personal, social and economic factors which may reduce the effectiveness or prevent control measures being successful.
Critically evaluate environmental health research evidence and to explain the limitations, relevance and application of the evidence to specific situations.

Assessment

1 x in-class quiz (1 hour): 15%
1 x minor written assignment (1,500 words): 25%
1 x major written assignment (2,000 words): 30%
Written examination (2 hour): 30%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance at seminars.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Ewan MacFarlane

Workload requirements

3 contact hours per week

Prerequisites

HSC2141 or BMS1042 or BND1002