Course Description
Extent and significance of toxic agents in the environment, and the physical, chemical, and biological processes which determine their behavior, fate, and ultimate effect on human health.
Athena Title
Environmental Toxicology
Prerequisite
CHEM 2211 and CHEM 2211L and (BIOL 1104 or BIOL 1108)
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to evaluate the chemical and biological properties of environmental toxicants.
- Students will be able to analyze the mechanisms by which environmental toxicants impact human health across populations.
- Students will be able to design and critique methodologies for detecting and measuring environmental toxicants.
- Students will be able to create evidence-based interventions to mitigate environmental toxicant exposure.
- Students will be able to integrate principles from anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry to theorize how toxicants affect specific organ systems.
- Students will be able to formulate dose-response relationships using experimental data and predict outcomes.
- Students will be able to generate comprehensive risk assessments examining chemical and microbial hazards and the differential exposures due to environmental racism and environmental justice.
- Students will be able to synthesize the four pillars of risk assessment to develop holistic environmental health frameworks.
- Students will be able to hypothesize mechanisms of carcinogenesis and predict potential culturally appropriate intervention points.
- Students will be able to communicate risks and interventions to a variety of stakeholders including scientists, the general public, and those in the political realm.
Topical Outline
- I. Introduction to Environmental Toxicology
- Environmental changes and environmental health
- Natural occurrence and categories of environmental toxicants
- Fate and transport of toxicants in the environment
- Bioaccumulation of persistent environmental toxicants
- Regulations and policies for controlling environmental pollution and contamination
- II. General Principles of Toxicology
- Absorption of toxicants
- Distribution and storage of toxicants
- Biotransformation of chemicals
- Excretion of toxic chemicals
- Factors modifying metabolism
- Mechanisms of toxic effects and conventional toxicity tests
- III. Organ-Specific Toxicology
- Mutagenesis and carcinogenesis
- Liver toxicology and immunotoxicology
- Renal toxicology
- Neurotoxicology
- Dermatoxicology and toxicology of the eye
- Inhalation toxicology
- Cardiovascular toxicology
- Reproductive toxicology
- Developmental toxicology
- IV. Assessment of Toxicity
- Overview of risk assessment and assignment of risk assessment projects
- Risk assessment: hazard evaluation
- Exposure assessment
- Risk assessment: toxicity assessment
- Risk characterization
- Environmental justice
- V. Classes of Toxic Chemicals
- Dietary toxins and food additives
- Therapeutic drugs and drugs of abuse
- Volatile organic compounds and solvents
- Industrial toxicants
- Metals and radionucleotides
- Pesticides
- Toxicity of chemicals in water, air, and soil
- Ecotoxicology
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
