Program Overview

Introduction to the Master of Science in Environmental Health Sciences

The Department of Environmental and Occupational Health provides graduate training in environmental health sciences and offers the M.S. in Environmental Health Sciences. This program provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to teach and/or conduct basic and applied research programs in various fields, including inhalation/pulmonary toxicology, neurotoxicology, reproductive and developmental toxicology, chemical pathology, toxicokinetics, radiation toxicology, molecular carcinogenesis, exposure sciences, risk assessments, environmental and occupational epidemiology, injury and violence prevention, social stressors, environmental justice, and community-based participatory research.

Program Overview

Environmental Toxicology involves the scientific study of the entry, distribution, biotransformation, and mechanism of the action of chemical and physical agents that are harmful to the body. The graduate program interprets environmental toxicology as the study of the effects and mechanisms of action of hazardous chemical and physical agents in food, air, water, and soil in the home, the workplace, and the community. It considers experimentally and theoretically such diverse research problems as:

• new scientific approaches to toxicological evaluation of environmental chemicals and physical agents at the molecular, cellular, and organism levels
• mechanisms of action in the toxicity of chemical and physical environmental agents
• the molecular pathology of tissue injury in acute and chronic toxicity

Environmental Epidemiology involves the study of effects of human exposure to broad environmental and occupational exposures on health outcomes. Human exposures cover social stressors, behavior factors, and chemical and physical exposures in different media such as air, water, food, and soil and via multiple routes including inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact. Research areas include:

• assessing individual level exposures to social, behavioral, and chemical and physical factors in environmental and occupational settings and examining associations of these exposures with health and disease outcomes
• new approaches to the evaluation of human exposures to environmental chemicals, including exposure measurement, modeling, and biomonitoring
• social and environmental justice and community-based participatory research to improve health equity
• intervention studies focusing on environmental health equity

Admission Requirements

In addition to meeting the general admission requirements set by the Graduate Division, applicants must be admitted by an Admissions Committee composed of faculty members of the graduate program. Candidates will be selected on the basis of a balanced evaluation of the following criteria:

1. prior scholastic performance, including a consideration of grades, course load, nature of courses taken, and college attended
2. recommendations by professors and others
3. experience in undergraduate and/or post-baccalaureate research
4. an interview by members of the Admissions Committee and other faculty members, when feasible
5. scores for the general Graduate Record Examination test (GRE), which is temporarily waived for Fall 2024 and 2025 enrollments

Undergraduate preparation of applicants should include one year of biology (one quarter of molecular biology, biochemistry, or chemistry is strongly recommended) and one year of mathematics (calculus and/or statistics). Outstanding applicants who lack one or two of these prerequisites may be given an opportunity to take the required course(s) either before admission or during the first year in the graduate program; in such circumstances, none of these required undergraduate courses may be used to satisfy the program elective or core course requirements. Upper-division or graduate science courses may be considered as substitutes for the above prerequisites by the Admissions Committee.

Curriculum Requirements

All courses must be passed with an average grade of B or better.

Core Courses

• Complete the following:
  • PUBHLTH 206A: Principles of Epidemiology
  • PUBHLTH 207A: Probability and Statistics in Public Health
  • EHS 264: Introduction to Environmental Health Science
  • PUBHLTH 200: Foundations of Public Health
• Select one of the following:
  • EHS 202: Principles of Environmental Toxicology
  • EHS 206A: Target Organ Toxicology I
  • EHS 206B: Target Organ Toxicology II
• Complete the following:
  • EHS 298: Seminar in Environmental Health Sciences 1
  • EHS 290: Independent Study in Environmental Toxicology
• Complete eight units from the approved elective pool, including options such as:
  • EHS 203: Occupational Epidemiology
  • EHS 204: Neurotoxicology
  • EHS 212: Inhalation Toxicology
  • EHS 220: Industrial Toxicology
  • EHS 269: Air Pollution, Climate, and Health
  • EHS 294: Health Psychology
  • EPIDEM 244: Toxic Chemicals in Environment
  • ANATOMY 203A: Human Microscopic Anatomy
  • ANATOMY 203B: Human Microscopic Anatomy
  • DEV BIO 231B: Cell Biology
  • MOL BIO 203: Nucleic Acid Structure and Function
  • MOL BIO 204: Protein Structure and Function
  • PHYSIO 206A: Introduction to Medical Physiology
  • PHYSIO 206B: Introduction to Medical Physiology
  • PUBHLTH 206B: Intermediate Epidemiology
  • PUBHLTH 204C: Biostatistics III: Advanced Statistical Methods
  • PUBHLTH 209: Methods of Demographic Analysis
  • PUBHLTH 281: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
  • PUBHLTH 208: Advances in Social Epidemiology
  • PUBHLTH 283: Geographic Information Systems for Public Health
  • PUBHLTH 286: Advanced Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Epidemiology
  • EPIDEM 232: Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention
  • STATS 203: Statistical Methods for Data Analysis III
  • PUBHLTH 222A: Health Policy and Management
  • PUBHLTH 223: Risk Communication
  • CHC/LAT 211A: Latinos/Latinas and Medical Care: Contemporary Issues
  • CHC/LAT 211B: Latinos/Latinas and Medical Care: Contemporary Issues
  • PUBHLTH 290: Special Topics in Public Health (Topic title: Violence Prevention & Control)
  • EPIDEM 205: Environmental Epidemiology
  • PUBHLTH 279: Special Topics in Environmental & Occupational Health
  • EHS 275: Environmental Modeling and Risk Management
  • PUBHLTH 287: Qualitative Research Methods in Public Health
  • STATS 295: Special Topics in Statistics (Topic title: Spatial Statistics)
  • PUBHLTH 292: Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research in Public Health
  • PUBHLTH 248: Fundamentals of Maternal and Child Health - Programs, Problems, and Policy
  • PUBHLTH 251: Models of Practice and Intervention at the Community Level
  • PUBHLTH 282: Climate Change and Global Health

Completion Plans

Complete one of the following plans:

• Plan I: Under the direction of a faculty advisor, prepare a thesis that is acceptable to the thesis committee.
• Plan II:
  1. Under the supervision of a faculty member, prepare a scholarly paper based on individual study in an area of environmental health sciences.
  2. Pass the comprehensive examination.

All graduate students in the program will be required to take EHS 298 every academic quarter they are enrolled in the graduate program.