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Course Purpose & Course Objectives

COURSE PURPOSE

This course provides a broad understanding of environmental and occupational health policy issues, focusing on the relationship between public health science and the public policy process. The course will examine how science, values, and politics interact in the process of setting public policy. There will be an emphasis on how political forces shape occupational and environmental health policies and how laws are developed and administered by public agencies. The course will provide a framework and tools for occupational and environmental health professionals to use in bridging the gap between science and practice. Each year several timely environmental or occupational health hazards will be chosen for concentrated examination through didactic presentations, group discussion, and written exercises.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this course, the student should be able to:

• Review occupational and environmental injury and illness and their effects on human health.
• Discuss the basic approaches to assessing and controlling environmental and occupational contaminants
• Describe how occupational and environmental health policies are established and implemented
• Describe the difference between policy and politics and the role played by each.
• Identify regulatory authorities directed to manage air, water, or workplace contaminants
• Describe the roles played by statutes, stakeholders, and institutions in public policy setting
• Discuss how science, values, social and economic systems, and the political process interact in the policy process to affect environmental and occupational injuries and illnesses.
• Describe a variety of decision frameworks and how they have been used in environmental and occupational health policy-setting
• Discuss how the Occupational Safety and Health Act and selected environmental laws have been developed, implemented, and changed
• Contrast the skills, language, and models for written and spoken communication used by diverse stakeholder groups
• Describe relationship between research and public policy
• Identify role of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in occupational and environmental health regulation
• Discuss some of the economic impact of occupational and environmental regulations
• Discuss the role of the court system in interpreting regulations and statutes and how court decisions influence the implementation of occupational and environmental laws
• Outline different regulatory compliance strategies
• Describe the basics elements of the Washington State Workers' Compensation system
• Organize data and information on an occupational or environmental health hazard and prepare written and oral testimony for an in-class congressional or legislative committee hearing
• Communicate environmental and occupational health risks and intervention strategies to regulatory authorities and to business, labor, and community groups

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2012 Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Washington

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