Learning objective of the course "Environmental Medicine"

Environmental medicine is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the scientific investigation, detection, treatment and prevention of environment-related or environment-associated health disorders. In contrast to environmental protection, which is concerned with protecting the environment from humans, environmental medicine is concerned with protecting humans from the environment. Many environmental pollutants that can lead to health disorders in humans are themselves of anthropogenic origin.

Traditionally, a distinction is made between population-oriented, preventive environmental medicine and individual-oriented, clinical environmental medicine. While the former is primarily directed towards research, detection and prevention of environment-related health disorders, the latter is predominantly aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of environment-associated diseases.

The lecture Environmental Medicine as part of the module 'Cross-media areas' for students in the Master's degree programme Safety Engineering focuses on preventive environmental medicine. In this course, students are taught in-depth content-related and methodological knowledge about the various sub-areas of environmental medicine (including environmental epidemiology and toxicology), as well as about health risks and disorders caused by environmental factors. The students should also be enabled to relate the newly acquired knowledge to operational practice in occupational health and safety.