Environmental Health

There is a very important intersection between the environment, public health, and socioeconomic factors (Braveman, 2014). These include waste disposal, water use and quality, road safety, ecosystem services, and many more. Environmental health stresses, “the health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological agents in the environment and workplace, and learns to develop strategies to measure and control major environmental health problems both locally…and in settings around the globe” (UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 2017). This overarching umbrella can have emphases in environmental epidemiology, exposure science, climate change, ergonomics, home and industrial hygiene, and molecular epidemiology. Exploring each of these branches will prove that sustainable curriculum within an interdisciplinary environmental health approach, is essential for educational institutions. Chapman University has a wide range of majors and minors that do not capitalize on the environmental health aspects of an interdisciplinary approach. Research labs are available that emphasize the effects of environmental hazards on humans, but this theme does not infiltrate into curriculum as strongly. The development of a public health framework will help guide the process for this project. According to the Center of Disease Control, the most effective programs have procedures that are “useful, feasible, ethical, and accurate” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 1999). The two objectives for this project are: make current classes more robust with environmental health ideology in the College of Educational Studies, Wilkinson College, and Schmid College of Science and Technology; create a solidified global health pathway for students across varied disciplines as a Public/Global Health Minor