This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 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.

HSC3102 - Environmental determinants of health and disease

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Organisational Unit

Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine

Coordinator(s)

Dr Ewan MacFarlane

Offered

Caulfield

First semester 2016 (Day)

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

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should 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 explain the limitations, relevance and application of the evidence to specific situations.

Assessment

In-class quiz (1 hour) (20%)
Written assignment (2,500 words) (40%)
Written assignment (2,500 words) (40%)

Hurdle: 80% attendance at seminars.

Workload requirements

3 contact hours plus 9 hours of private study per week.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Ewan MacFarlane

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Health science

Prerequisites

One of (BND1002, BMS1042, HSC2141, NUT1002, PHH2141).

Prohibitions

PBH3003