Broader environmental concerns
- Air pollution and indoor air quality
- Land / Soil pollution
- Noise pollution
- Water pollution
Core concepts in environmental health
- Community resources and action
- Dose / Response
- Environmental justice
- Exposure
- Individual susceptibility
- Risks and benefits
- Toxicity
Workplace environment
- Freezing climates
- High altitude
- Radioactive substances
- Underwater – diving
- Very hot climates
Environmental risk assessments
- Environmental risk assessment limitations
- Exposure guidelines and monitoring
- Interpret air and water monitoring results
- Interpret relevant technical reports to elicit information on hazardous exposure monitoring
- Qualitative and/or quantitative risk assessments to evaluate potential exposure levels (and reference to environmental exposure standards, such as air and water) to assess potential human health risks from environmental hazards
Reference regulations and regulatory bodies
- National air quality measures and relevant national and state regulations
- National standards for drinking water
- Regulatory bodies, including additions such as the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) taskforce, that oversee:
- air quality
- chemical approval and use
- environmental pollutants from industry, such as mining and pastoral
- radiation – ionising and non-ionising
- sanitation systems
- water quality
Environmental issues related to work practice
- Community response management for environmental exposures or health clusters
- Difference between occupational and environmental standards, and the different contexts in which they are applied
- Disposal systems, environmental and/or health effects, and scale of:
- burning of coal, gas, wood, and other sources of carbon
- exhausts for diesel and petrol
- key waste streams
- PFAS, including specifically perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)
- recycling waste streams
- recycling wastewater
- Government decision making approaches to heath and the environment
- Key environmental regulations
- Laws and standards of the transport and storage of hazardous substances, including radioactive substances
- Programs that predict and mitigate health effects in occupational groups working in:
- bushfire smoke
- post-flood areas
- Special interest groups and their involvement with environmental issues groups
- Strengths and limitations of environmental standards
- The impact of climate change on health and the environment, and initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, such as city greening
- The importance of advocating for health benefits within business environments
- The susceptibility of population sub-groups due to:
- age
- infirmity
- pregnancy
- social circumstances
Health-affecting environmental issues
- Common types of health-affecting environmental issues
- Modifiable environmental issues contributing to the burden of disease within Australia and/or Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Population health monitoring, including the use of:
- assessment of sub-clinical effects
- biomarkers
- clusters of health events
- The health inputs in developing business measurement tools, such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG)
- The World Health Organization’s summaries on environmental health covering main environmental issues contributing to the global burden of diseases
Social and environmental justice
- Chemicals widely used in the environment that could affect health within their country of practice
- Current predictions on changes to weather systems within regions; these predictions should be able to be used to modify adverse health effects within the occupational community and the wider population
- Health needs in camps for refugees or internally displaced people
- Industrial activities impacting environmental justice in communities
- The concepts of distributive and procedural justice
- The current environmental issues affecting the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples
- The history and philosophical concepts of the environmental justice movement
- The impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples face living remotely, as defined by these communities
- The understanding of te ao Māori, and the importance of te taiao (the environment that surrounds us) in terms of whakapapa; elements such as awa (river), maunga (mountain), and whenua (land) are not property or commodities, but ancestors with whom we are intimately connected, and resources of cultural and spiritual significance. Maintaining environmental relationships in healthy balance is a fundamental for wai ora (healthy environments), including:
- access to sanitation facilities and hygiene hardware
- animal and pest management
- drinking water quality
- dust and weed management
- energy poverty related to cooling and heating
- indoor air quality related to cooking methods
- location of rural and remote communities
- quality of housing and maintenance
- regular power supply
- sewage and waste management
