Environmental Health is a broad-based scientific field that includes aspects of chemistry, toxicology, sociology, and epidemiology. Several introductory courses address all aspects of environmental health and are useful starting points for trainees unfamiliar with the field. Because the Neurodevelopmental Toxicology program will be based in the
Department of Environmental Health at HSPH, the training opportunities are particularly strong for this field. Much of the research conducted in this Department is inter-disciplinary, facilitated by several Centers and Programs that the Department supports, including the Harvard NIEHS Center for Environmental Health; the Harvard Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health; the Program in Environmental Science and Risk Management (with the Department of Health Policy and Management); the Program in Environmental Health and Human Habitation; the John B. Little Center for Radiation and Environmental Health Sciences; the Liberty Mutual-Harvard Program in Occupational Safety and Health; The BioImaging Laboratories; the Harvard University Committee on the Environment Program in Water and Health ; and the Program in Environmental Epidemiology.
Core Competencies and Training
Trainees will develop competencies in four basic areas of environmental health: human physiology, toxicology, environmental health principles, and environmental and occupational epidemiology. Through a combination of coursework and mentoring, fellows will thus develop learn skills in exposure assessment, biomarkers of exposure dose and toxicity, toxicology of xenobiotic agents, and analysis of environmental exposure data in predicting health effects.
Required coursework
The didactic coursework that is available to address the competencies described above are listed below. Individual trainees will be able to waive the requirement of taking courses to address one or more of these competencies if they are able to provide documentation of having attained them through prior training or coursework. Trainees will also be able to take more advanced coursework in environmental health, such as those relating to the use of biological markers in environmental epidemiology, the use of non-parametric techniques for modeling dose-response relationships, or methods used for environmental sampling.
One Introductory Course on Environmental Health
EH201 Introduction to Environmental Health (Fall-2.5 credits), EH202 Principles of Environmental Health (Spring-2.5 credits) or EH232 Introduction to Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Spring-2.5 credits)
One Course on Toxicology ID204 Principles of Toxicology (Fall-5.0 credits)
One Course on Environmental Epidemiology
ID215 Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology (Summer or Spring-2.5 credits)
One Course on Exposure Assessment or Environmental Statistics
EH269 Exposure Assessment for Environmental/Occupational Epidemiology (Spring 2.5 credits)
ID271 Advanced Regression for Environmental Epidemiology Spring (2.5 credits)
In addition, Dr. Robert Wright is a Staff Toxicologist at the Massachusetts Poison Control Center based in the Longwood Medical Area. A medical school rotation through the poison control center, which includes the Pediatric Environmental Health Subspecialty Unit at Boston Children's Hospital and the Occupational Medicine Clinic at nearby Mount Auburn Hospital, is well established for residents, medical students and non-physicians such as pharmacy and nursing students. These three clinics care for many environmental health exposures including lead poisoning, metal fumes, chemical sensitivity disorders, pesticide exposures and individual concerned regarding air, food or water contamination from almost at potential chemical contaminant. Non physician rotators from outside Harvard Medical School, such as the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, are routinely accommodated. He will arrange such a rotation for interested post-doctoral fellows.
