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SPRING 2008 Environmental Health Sciences Division The Health Implications of Climate Change and Society's Response Fridays 2-4pm - 332 Giannini PH 298.38 - CC#76642 (2 units P/NP) "Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to public health, and changes the way we must look at protecting vulnerable populations." - WHO, 2007. How and why is the global climate changing? What are the health implications of these changes and society's responses to them? What roles do health scientists have in addressing the risks created by climate change? This course will begin by providing a basic foundation in the physical and societal basis of climate change, including atmospheric structure and feedbacks, carbon cycling, and the sources and trends of human and natural greenhouse pollutant emissions. Forecasts of future climate, and their uncertainties, will be discussed, emphasizing parameters of potential relevance to human health. We will explore epidemiologic, risk assessment, and statistical methods appropriate for understanding the impact of climate on health in different populations, including reviews of current burden of disease estimates of avoidable and attributable risk. The public health implications, positive and negative, of society's efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be elaborated, including discussions of ethical, political and economic aspects. Each student's performance will be evaluated based on a term paper and participation in student-led sessions on selected aspects of the subject matter. The material will be presented with minimal expectation of a background in physical science, although some additional reading may be needed for students with no university science courses. Prerequisite: PH150A, PH250A/B or other introductory course in epidemiology. Grading will be pass/not pass, although individual requests for a grading option will be considered. Instructors: Justin Remais, Research Scientist, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Kirk R. Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health For more information, contact Justin Remais <mailto:jvr@berkeley.edu><jvr@berkeley.edu> or Kirk R. Smith <mailto:krksmith@berkeley.edu><krksmith@berkeley.edu> in the Environmental Health Sciences Division.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) in Public Health. Selected case studies will be presented in order to highlight principles, methods, and techniques of spatial analysis. Topics include making effective disease surveillance maps, color theory and visualization, global positions systems (GPS), remote sensing data acquisition, visualization, classification, and accuray assessment. Relevant studies will be presented for students interested in infectious diseases, vector control, cancer cluster detection, environmental health, and healthcare access. Hands-on exercises and a project will provide practical experience in the use of GIS and RS tools and methods.

The course introduces students to technical, legal, administrative, and political elements that contribute to environmental health policy in the U.S. and how their interplay shapes policy decisions. The course covers major approaches to making policy decisions for environmental contaminants; technical methods used in policy analysis including risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and technology-related review; the role of legislative and administrative institutions; and the role of interests and political actors in policy debates, particularly those with technical components. The course will also examine emerging approaches to assessment of environmental and health problems including use of precautionary principles and environmental justice, comparing these to the currently predominant environmental management paradigm.

The scientific knowledge necessary to assess the hazards of chemical exposure to human male and female reproduction. Includes the effects of exposures in the environment. Nonchemical hazards to reproduction, e.g., radiation, are not discussed.

Topics in environmental medicine will provide students with an overview of the health impacts, disease mechanisms, and public health controversies related to selected environmental exposures. The course will cover established environmental diseases as well as impacts of some emerging exposures of concern. The focus will primarily be on pathophysiology, issues related to exposure pathways, and the susceptibilities of specific human populations. No prior medical knowledge required.

Presents an overview of and introduction to the occupational safety function including a discussion of the various safety function components: safety program management, safety engineering, fire protection engineering, environmental health engineering, system safety engineering, risk management, accident investigation, hazard investigation and control, accident/injury analysis and reporting, and legal/regulatory requirements.

Principles underlying the use of air monitoring methods in industry and the environment. Topics include behavior of gases, vapors, and aerosols; mechanisms of absorption and elimination of inhaled toxicants; methods for measuring of airborne chemicals.

This course introduces the basic scientific components of environmental and occupational health risk assessment and describes the policy context in which decisions to manage environmental health risks are made. The course presents the quantitative methods used to assess the human health risks associated with exposure to toxic chemicals, focusing on the four major components of risk assessment: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Students use these tools to develop their own risk assessment for an environmental health problem. The course also provides a broad overview of occupational and environmental health regulations with consideration of how hazard, risk, cost, and benefits are considered. Current political controversies about environmental policy will be examined.

This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of the field of public health and a basic understanding of the contributions of the environmental, behavioral, and management sciences to the practice of public health. A central organizing principle of the course will be the concept of risk, particularly as this relates to an analysis of public health and the environment, behavior, and the management sciences. By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to discuss and describe seminal as well as current theories and methods underlying societal efforts to 1) manage ambient and place-specific toxins; 2) manage behaviors that increase individual and collective risk of illness; 3) build organizations that manage toxins as well as individual and collective risk taking; and 4) use the power of the state to manage toxins as well as individual and collective risk taking.

Course examines the determinants of family size and the role played by contraception, voluntary sterilization, and induced abortion in the transition to small families. It looks at the factors controlling access to fertility regulation in developed and developing countries and discusses the factors that have made for successful family programs as well as those that have generated controversy. The course looks at the relationship between family planning and the health of women and children and at the role of family size in economic development and environmental problems. It looks at advances in family planning, organization, and promotion of services and discusses ethical issues facing providers.