Environmental Health Course

The Environmental Health Course examines environmental health issues in the Peruvian population, and includes coursework and field visits in Lima, the biggest urban setting in Peru, and Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon. Topics include urbanization and health, Peruvian environmental legislation and policies, One Health approaches in Peru, climate change impacts in Peru, heavy metal contamination, and biodiversity and sustain able consumption. Students will be asked to present a project at the end of the course, describing causes, exposure pathways, and impacts to human health of a chosen environmental health issue, and suggest solutions through a research proposal or a community intervention.

Location: Lima, Iquitos
Term: Summer (July 1, 2019 – July 26, 2019)
Language of instruction: English
Language prerequisite: Intermediate Spanish
Contact hours: 96 academic hours
Credits: 6
Cost: $2,100 (includes housing in and round-trip flight to Iquitos)
Application deadline: May 17, 2019

Requests for sample syllabi can be made to the Program Manager through Contact Us.

Academics

During the Environmental Health Course, we will examine the most relevant environmental health issues in Peru. The course will include coursework and field visits in Lima and Iquitos.

Lima is the capital and the biggest urban setting in Peru, the third largest desert city in the world, and home to nearly 10 million people. Health issues in Lima are commonly related to informal peri-urban settlements that lack of water and sanitation, poor air quality that exacerbates respiratory problems, and an emerging concern for food and water insecurity caused by landslides during the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) season.

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon. Locals rely heavily on local sources for food, which is affected by pollution, deforestation, and unsustainable consumption. Education and community engagement is necessary to preserve and restore natural resources and human health in the Amazon.

Arguably Peru’s most important socio-environmental issues are related to extractive industries, specifically mining and petroleum exploitation. While these activities are extremely lucrative, they present significant impacts to human and environmental health.

Students will be asked to present a poster at the end of the course, describing causes, exposure pathways, and impacts to human health of a chosen environmental health issue, and suggest solutions through a research proposal or a community intervention.

Preliminary program