2009 - 2010
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This is an introductory course covering environmental health regulations and their implementation by government agencies. It is offered as an independent study course through the Extended MPH Degree Program.

Instructor: Charles D. (Chuck) Treser
Office: E-179 Health Sciences Center
Office Hours: 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 - 3:00 p.m., Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Other times by appointment.
Email: ctreser@u.washington.edu
Telephone: 206-616-2097


Preface: 

This syllabus has been prepared for students who are enrolled in Environmental Health Regulation, Part I (ENV H 518) and/or Part II (ENV H 519), through the Univeristy of Washington's, School of Public Health's Extended MPH Degree Program.

This study guide has been designed to provide structure and direction to your work.  Independent study can be an effective and efficient method for students to master certain types of material.  However, if you are to get the most out of this type of learning experience you must be organized and committed -- much more so than for courses in the traditional classroom setting.  This study guide is organized into three sections designed to help you accomplish this goal.

Introduction.  This is a general introduction to the course, describing its purpose, objectives, contents and materials.

Lessons.  This section is the instructional core of the course.  The course has been divided into two parts for the Extended Degree Program.  The first part, consisting of 6 lessons, provides a general overview of administrtative law and process as it applies to the practice of public health in general and environmental health in particular.  The six lessons in this part are:

Lesson 1-- Law and Environmetnal Health
Lesson 2 -- Devenlopment of Environmental Health Laws
Lesson 3 -- Sources of Legal Authority
Lesson 4 -- Scope and Limits of Legal Authority
Lesson 5 -- Information Gathering & Management
Lesson 6 -- Inspections and Investigations
The second part of the course goes into more depth, examining specific legal tools and enforcement procedures in environmental health.  It concludes with a lesson dealing with the issues surrounding liability -- both from the perspective of the agency and the indiviudal employee.
Lesson 7 -- Permits and licenses
Lesson 8 -- Administrative Orders and Citations
Lesson 9 -- Embargoes, Seizures and Condemnations
Lesson 10 - Administrative Remedies
Lesson 11 - Judicial Structure and Process
Lesson 12 - Judicidal Remedies: Criminal
Lesson 13 - Judicidal Remedies: Civil
Lesson 14 - Liability: Agency and Personal

Each of the lessons in the course contain a specific reading assignment, study notes and a series of exercises to help assess how well you are doing.  A lesson may also contain figures, a list of references, and/or some suggested readings for those students who would like to pursue a particular topic in more depth.

Supplementary Readings.  This section contains additional reading materials that supplement the information presented in the textbooks.  These materials include articles, key documents and excerpts from important cases.

One final word before your start.  This course was written for non-lawyers -- specifically for environmental health practitioners who have at least a minimal amount of field experience.  Various legal concepts and principles are discussed within the context of specific situations and activities taken from the field of environmental health.  Therefore, this experiential base is necessary so that the concepts and situations discussed will make sense.  Hence, this experiential background has been presumed in the construction of the lesson notes and progress assessment questions.  Students without this background may find that some of the materials appear unclear.

On the other hand, environmental health practitioners come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds -- biology, chemistry, environmental health sciences, engineering, etc.  There may be terms and concepts used in the course which are familiar and clear to some students but which are foreign and obscure to others.  Moreover, in law many terms have specific meaning depending upon the context in which they are used.  If you encounter a term with which you are not familiar, or which is used in an unfamiliar manner, you should make sure you understand its meaning and use before proceeding.  Access to a good law dictionary, such as Black's Law Dictionary would be helpful.  If you do not have access to such an aid or if the meaning is still unclear after you have consulted a dictionary, feel free to contact the instructor for clarification.

Getting Started. ExDP students should start by reading this Introducation and then follow the Syllabus and the links to the Chapters and Lessons available on this website. You will note that there are links at the bottom of each lesson to some additional lecture materials (and possibly additional reading assignments) and a progress assessment exercise that should be completed and turned in to the instructor before proceeding to the next lesson.

Announcements


In the News . . .

See what's happening around the world at the interface of the environment and human health. This site is updated frequently with articles from the Environmental News Network, Associated Press and other sources of news and events highlighting and exploring the linkbetween environmental factors and conditions and human health. Click here to go to the site.

For news articles from previous months see the archive.

Proceed to the Course Syllabus

Send mail to: ctreser@u.washington.edu
Last modified: 7/13/2009 8:39 am