AP/SOSC 3168 3.00
Environmental Health
In this course we will examine environmental health from a social science perspective. Our focus will be the sources of conflicts between health professionals, lay people policy makers and others over how environments cause diseases. We will pay particular attention to uncertain knowledge and how this creates problems for stakeholders both in defining the problem, setting policies, attributing blame, compensating victims, and addressing the issues. Themes include the politics of pollution, the social construction of environmental problems, different perceptions of risk and science, problems of requiring definitive proof that a substance is hazardous, claims-making and citizen responses.