Environmental Health MSc

Course content

What will you study on the MSc Environmental Health?

This degree will cover the impact of different factors on public health, the spread and control of diseases, health protection measures, and human anatomy, physiology and toxicology. You will also explore inequality and deprivation, housing and health, and law and ethics. You will focus food safety including understand food-borne illnesses, methods of food storage and processing, legal requirements and food safety standards.

What will you gain?

As well as gaining an in-depth understanding of all five key areas of environmental health (food safety, housing, environmental protection, occupational health, and public health), you will also gain the knowledge to identify and assess health and safety risks. You will be competent in implementing measures to safeguard and improve health and safety in a variety of settings.

To provide skills in legislative literacy to be able to select appropriate legal approaches to manage factors that determine environmental standards so that ill health is prevented and well being in our society is enhanced. To be able to outline the role of different institutions public, private and NGO in framing the law. To evaluate the different management approaches to implementing the law to ensure compliance.

To combine the acquired knowledge and skills with real world examples to develop a level of practice skills commensurate with Masters level. To display mastery in the professional practice of environmental health through exploring the application of knowledge and skills in the development of innovative solutions to complex environmental health problems taking account of the social, psychological and physiological context in which they present themselves. To explore available interventions across all areas of environmental health, including food safety, health and safety, housing and environmental protection, to ensure a holistic approach to professional practice. To be able to connect related elements of risk that affect individual wellbeing and to critically analyse the wider public health implications of proposed interventions. To provide range of cognitive skills to acquire professional knowledge that can be used to raise public awareness and modify individual or organisational behaviour in a variety of contexts.

To interpret and analyse the range of stressors that act on the physical, social and human worlds, the various mechanisms and points of impact and the implications that arise out of these impacts. To be able to review the potential and actual health implications that may arise from these impacts. To reflect on the role of health demographics and indicators of these such as the surveillance of communicable and non communicable diseases.

To thoroughly appraise the factors that shape occupational health and safety at work. By evaluating these factors - legal, policy, human and organisational students will be able to determine the legal and theoretical basis to the current approaches to occupational health and how change is caused by external influencing factors.

To thoroughly appraise and evaluate the theoretical and practical aspects of identifying, managing and controlling occupational health and safety risks.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them to assess, judge and determine the effects of pollution and disease causing agents, the likely or recognised impact on humans and how this impact can be minimised through control strategies and methodologies.

In this module students will be expected to: Identify and evaluate a range of food stuffs, state their condition and recognise unfit food. Explore a range of possible food safety interventions and recommend the most satisfactory course of action in order to achieve public health food safety. Evaluate the relevant statutory provisions and appraise the role of the enforcement officer and other relevant factors in determining the most satisfactory course of action to improve food safety.

To educate participants in the theoretical and practical dimensions of risk management in the field of environmental health. To determine the scientific and technical basis on which risk can be assessed and learn the process of decision making and factors that affect it. To learn the skills of review that measure the success of these risk based interventions through information gathering and analyses. Ensure that risk decisions encourage positive health outcomes and protect human health in the areas of food safety, occupational safety and housing.

To educate students in the remediation and reduction of impacts arising from waste, waste water from contaminated sites, contaminated land, air pollution and noise. To inform students so as to enable them to critically review new and existent technologies and practices for monitoring, prevention, treatment and control of potentially hazardous materials. To ensure students are aware of legal remedies to deal with pollution sources.

To thoroughly appraise the factors that determine food safety provision including legal requirements, management responsibilities, systems and control options. Students by evaluating these factors will be able to determine the appropriateness of legal and managerial approaches in light of current best practice and the influence of external factors.

To thoroughly appraise and evaluate the theoretical and practical aspects of identifying, managing and controlling food safety risks.

This module aims to provide detailed knowledge and insight into the sources and impacts of pollution in the three environmental compartments of water air and land, but with a primary focus on land, noise and air. The characteristics and sources of the major environmental pollutants will be identified and their behaviour examined. The module also aims to familiarise students with the health, ecological and climatic impact of a wide range of pollutants, both independently and synergistically.

To provide students with the organisational and management skills to administer an MSc research project. Management skills are supported by knowledge of experimental design, quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques, presentation skills and interactive computing skills. These skills will be applied in the completion of a practitioner based research including the developing of original and independent investigations aimed at integrating theoretical knowledge and technical expertise to solve a practical problem at a relevant postgraduate level.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Module and programme information is indicative and may be subject to change.