Human Health Risks, Health Equity, and Environmental Justice

The fourth and final course of the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health specialization will cover two topics. The first is environmental justice – that is, avoiding an inequitable distribution of environmental health threats in our population, and ensuring a healthy and safe environment and health equity for all. The second is risk assessment and management, a framework that can be utilized to assess and quantify human health risks, and to identify appropriate approaches to mitigating those risks and promoting better health. We will explore the steps involved in risk assessment, as well as how risk assessment can incorporate and address environmental justice issues.

• Week 1: Environmental Justice
• Welcome to Week 1! We start this week with an orientation to the course and our learning community. Then, we start our course by defining and discussing environmental justice, and exploring environmental justice issues in the U.S and around the world. Let’s find out more about environmental justice in the Week 1 module.
• Week 2: Vulnerable and Susceptible Populations
• Certain groups of people and communities are more susceptible and vulnerable to environmental health hazards than others. This means that equity and justice must be two main goals in developing policy approaches that address environmental injustices. Let’s find out about this in the Week 2 module.
• Week 3: Risk Assessment
• To evaluate potential environmental injustices, we can employ a four-step risk assessment process. What does this process entail, and how can it be applied in a real-life scenario? Let’s We’ll explore this in the Week 3 module.
• Week 4: Risk Management
• After employing a risk assessment, we can employ risk management to address and mitigate environmental injustices. What does the process of risk management involve, and how does it relate to risk assessment? Let’s find out the answers to these questions, and more, in Week 4, our last module.