HSOC 406 Community-Based Environmental Health
Cross-listed as ENVS 406
Offered:Spring 2010
Pepino TR 1:30-3
ABCS Course
Benjamin Franklin Seminar
Fulfills the STSC and HSOC Capstone requirement
course originates in Earth and Environmental Sciences
Over the last 20 years, the field of environmental health has matured and expanded to become one of the most comprehensive and humanly relevant disciplines in science. The environment affects health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe are all components of the environment. Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the environment contributes to more than 80 percent of health effects ; one clear example is asthma. Asthma data in Philadelphia suggest that about 10 percent of all children suffer asthma episodes during any given year, while up 22 percent of the City’s minority populations experience asthmatic attacks during the year. The existing regional air quality, both out-door and in-door, are clearly the overriding factors that exacerbate this urban epidemic.
Students in the University of Pennsylvania’s ABCS program will partner with a variety of residents and experts in the West Philadelphia communities to identify the most important environmental health issues in the area. Environmental Health is defined as the impact of a person’s surroundings and lifestyle on their health. Environmental factors can include air, water, toxic agents, infectious agents, nutrition, and housing. Your participation in this course will help to identify and clarify the important environmental health issues in our community, and your challenge will be to develop reasonable and practical solutions to reduce risks to vulnerable populations that are living in the Penn community.
This course will not only examine the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the current environment on human health. Selected topics in previous years have included endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs); the reciprocal relationships between of nutrition, obesity, and physical exercise; children’s environmental health issues; licensed and unlicensed day care centers; indoor air quality; occupational health risks; and environmental justice issues concerning the exposure to hazardous materials.
