| Course Code |
Course Title |
Description |
|
ENV 4001H
|
Seminars in Environment & Health
|
There is a pressing need to study the complex relationships between the environment and human health especially as we are increasingly challenged by environmental health issues. This course creates an academic environment of inquiry and dialogue in which experts and graduate students from various academic disciplines who share a common interest in the environment and health can exchange ideas, information, insights and questions. The course introduces graduate students from one discipline to the research methods, concepts, and forms of inquiry utilized by graduate students in another discipline. The aim is to expose the students to the many ways that issues related to the environment and health are framed, examined, discussed and engaged. The course will stimulate the students to reflect on this diverse discussion and to integrate their work into a broader context and perspective. It helps the students to identify and explore linkages between environmental factors and health issues as these intersect with environmental and health policy, standards and guidelines; biological impacts; psychosocial factors; economic factors; and ethical and legal issues.
|
|
ENV 1703H
|
Water Resources Management
|
Renewable freshwater resources at both the global and local levels are likely to become increasingly more scarce, partly due to population growth; increasing demands for energy and food; and climate change and partly due to poor management and wasteful use, particularly in farming. This course focuses on water management and policy in the context of expected water scarcity with special emphasis on science-based policies for sustainable aquatic ecosystems and interdisciplinary discourse. Special topics include water resources management in (a) megacities in developed and developing countries (e.g. Greater Toronto and Beijing),(b) small islands, particularly tourism-intensive economies, (c) Canadian water issues (e.g. Great Lakes and the Alberta tar sands).
|
|
ENV 1704H
|
Environmental Risk Analysis and Management
|
This course introduces the principles of environmental toxicology and risk assessment. Study of the basic principles of toxicology, including routes of exposure, dose response, and target organ effects from exposure to environmental toxicants will be covered. The course presents the quantitative methods used to assess the human and ecological health risks associated with exposure to toxicants, focusing on the four major components of risk assessment - hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Risk communication and public consultation will also be addressed. The course will include an overview of Canadian regulations and policies and their impact on the practical realties facing practitioners, policy makers and stakeholders. We will explore risk assessment issues related to exposure to contaminated sites, air quality and projects undergoing environmental assessment. The intent is to make this course hands on and practical so that you are able to participate as a team member conducting human health and ecological risk assessment upon its completion. The course will be based on actual undertakings of Canadian risk assessment projects.
|
|
ENV 3000H
|
Special Topics: Environment and Health
|
Special Reading Course. Before registering for this course, students will write a proposal to the Centre for Environment's Coordinator of Graduate Studies, including the name of the instructor who has agreed to supervise this course.
|
|
ENV 4002H
|
Environment and Health of Vulnerable Populations
|
The seminar will introduce students to a wide range of topics and issues as they relate to the environment and health of vulnerable populations. Through readings and discussion, students will explore the potential health effects of exposures in children and other vulnerable populations to a variety of chemical and physical agents in both the indoor and outdoor environments. A number of case studies or topics will be examined to exemplify why certain populations may be especially vulnerable to various environmental hazards. Topics for discussion will be chosen to demonstrate the wide range of potential human health effects due to chemical and other exposures. Policy instruments and tools in place to protect the health of vulnerable populations, as well as issues related to equity and justice, will be critically examined.
|
|
CHL 5416H
|
Environmental Epidemiology
|
Much of both the current and projected future global burden of disease and injury is attributed to environmental sources of exposure e.g. contaminated water or air, or changes in environmental conditions e.g. climate change. Environmental epidemiologists have; determined whether increases in adverse health outcomes are attributable to environmental exposures e.g. cluster investigations; tracked down etiological linkages between environmental exposures-conditions and health status in particular populations; estimated the attributable burden both in the past and projecting into the future e.g. risk and health impact assessment to inform programs and policies; and increasingly, evaluated the impact of policy and program interventions aimed at reducing the environmental burden of disease. This environmental epidemiology course will include each of these activities in environmental epidemiology.
|
|
CHL 5902H
|
Advanced Occupational Hygiene
|
Objective: At the end of this course, students will be able to analyze and investigate any occupational health problem into all of its technical and non-technical elements, and develop strategies to manage any of the elements. The student will be able to communicate these strategies effectively to workers, managers, regulatory agencies, and the public. Class breakout seminars will allow students to develop team building and facilitation skills. For more detailed discription, please click HERE.
|
|
CHL 5903H
|
Environmental Health
|
Relationship of the environment to human health and the principles in environmental management. Objectives: * to understand how pollution of the air, water and soil occurs; the impact on the environment and health; and the ways reduce the impact * to know how to critically analyze any environmental risk situation and recommend and communicate optimum conditions for risk reduction * to participate in case studies to develop skills in environmental risk assessment * to understand the socio-political aspects for promulgating regulations and policies to protect the public from environmental risks
|
|
CHL 5916H
|
Environmental Health Policy
|
TO BE ADDED
|
|
GGR 1504H
|
Health, Place and Difference
|
This course is a reading seminar that will focus on the complex intersections between health, place and difference. The readings in this course will challenge current understandings of health and its determinants by emphasizing the importance of social and place-based differences. The course will first critically examine key population health frameworks, which form the basis of much contemporary health discourse. In particular, the limitations of the frameworks in their approaches to and understandings of context and difference will be emphasized. Next, the links between health, place, and difference will be examined through the exploration of specific topics (e.g., gender, culture and ethnicity, disability, inequalities, social exclusion, etc.). Additional topics will be discussed depending on student interest. The course will conclude with a discussion of future directions in population health.
|
|
JGE 1212H
|
Fate of Contaminants in the Environment
|
The course covers the nature, sources, movement, and effects of chemical contaminants in the environment. Contaminant movement is discussed within and between media, and from local to global scales. The concepts of chemical persistence, bioavailability, mobility, exposure, environmental toxicology and ecotoxicology are addressed qualitatively and quantitatively. The behaviour, movement and implications are illustrated with examples including those of contaminants in the Arctic and urban environments. Examination of potential effects due to chemical exposure will be addressed through risk assessment. For a full course outline, please click HERE.
|
|
JNC 2503H
|
Environmental Pathways
|
The course is jointly offered between Chemical Engineering and IES. The objective of this course is to convey an appreciation of the sources, behaviour, fate and effects of selected toxic compounds which may be present in the environment. Emphasis will be on organic compounds, including hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons and pesticides. The approach will be to examine, for each compound, physical and chemical properties, sources, uses, mechanisms of release into the environment, major environmental pathways and fates (including atmospheric dispersion and deposition), movement in aquatic systems (including volatilization, incorporation into sediments, biodegradation, photolysis, sorption), movement in soils, and bioconcentration. Toxicology and analytical methodology will be described very briefly. Each student will undertake a detailed individual study of a specific toxic compound.
|
|
JNP 1014Y
|
Interdisciplinary Toxicology
|
This is a survey course covering several contemporary topics in toxicology with emphasis on human toxicology. The topics covered include principles of toxicology, drug safety, management of acute poisonings, drugs in pregnancy and lactation, natural toxins, forensic toxicology, food toxicology, environmental chemistry, pesticides, dioxins, endocrine disruptors, metals, chemical carcinogenesis, toxicological testing and risk assessment, regulatory toxicology, and toxicities attributed to ethanol, drugs of abuse, tobacco smoking, and herbal products. Students are evaluated by three short-answer examinations, two assignments, and one review paper that critiques the literature on a current topic in toxicology. It is recommended that students have a thorough understanding of the basic aspects of biochemistry, physiology, and toxicology. For a full course outline, please click HERE.
|
|
JNP 1016H
|
Graduate Seminar in Toxicology
|
This discussion-oriented course is designed to develop presentation skills and the ability to critique scientific literature, while exploring specific principles and topics in toxicology. Each student is required to prepare two written and oral critiques of published papers on current issues in toxicology. This is a compulsory course for all M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the Collaborative Program in Biomedical Toxicology. It is also open to other qualified graduate students if space permits.
|
|
JPG 1421H
|
Health in Urban Environments
|
This course explores ways of theorizing, evaluating, and improving health in urban areas. Through readings, group discussion, and individual and group inquiry, students will examine the key mechanisms by which urban environments (broadly defined) impact on the people living in them, and how - and to what extent - urban residents can in turn alter their environments to facilitate health. While this course is grounded in the practice-oriented discourses of urban planning and health promotion, a critical awareness of, and debate about, the strengths and limitations of various approaches to promoting and maintaining the health of urban residents in both developed and developing countries will be encouraged. For a complete course syllabus, please click HERE.
|
|
TPS 1837H
|
Environmental Health, Transformative Higher Education and Policy Changes
|
In this course, environmental health is framed as a field of research, education, policy and advocacy endeavours that links the natural, health and social sciences with the worlds of the academy, community, business, economics, labour, governments and media. It includes physical, social, cultural, spiritual and societal relationships which are multi directional and interlinked with the health and well being of all life. In the context of transformative higher education, the course will help students to develop critical thinking, investigative, analytical and practical skills to better understand the constraints of scientific certainty and uncertainty in today's complex world in order to address lifestyle as well as public policy changes. The issues are framed within the broad socioenvironmental perspectives on health promotion reflected in the goals of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion - strengthening community action, developing personal skills, creating supportive environments, helping in skills development to educate, enable, mediate and advocate. This framework stresses social issues in environmental health contexts of gender, race, class, culture, ethnicity, age, poverty and other systems of oppression. Readings include selected works by Steingraber, Bertell, Brophy and Keith, Chu, Davis, Hancock, Chaudhuri, Van Esterik and Health Canada. The course includes a module on children’s health and the environment relevant to key Canadian/North American health outcomes with epidemiological evidence of links to environmental hazards such as asthma, cancer, neuro-behavioural and developmental effects, low birth weight and birth defects (Rod Raphael, Director General, Safe Environments Programme, Healthy Environments, Consumer Safety Branch, (2000)).
For more information and the full course outline, please see ROSI and/or contact Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg at dgoldinrosenberg@oise.utoronto.ca or 416 960 4944
|