Environmental Health, M.P.H.

About
Admission
Program Requirements
Contacts
Courses

About the Program

Environmental factors and sustainable development are the predominant determinants of health in individuals and communities. Proper environmental management is the key to protecting public health and avoiding most preventable illnesses, which are directly caused by environmental factors. The environment influences our health in many ways, including exposure to physical, chemical, and biological risk factors, and related changes in our behavior in response to those factors. The Master of Public Health in Environmental Health is a terminal, professional degree that prepares students for practice-oriented careers in environmental health and management, with an emphasis on examining environmental factors and environmental policies that affect the health and sustainable environments of communities.

Time Limit for Degree Completion: 4 years

Campus Location: Main. Some required and elective courses are offered at satellite campuses and through online courses, but the full M.P.H. program is currently available only at Main Campus.

Full-Time/Part-Time Status: Students can complete the degree program through evening classes and online courses. Full-time students usually complete the program within two academic years. Part-time students usually take three to four years to complete their degree.

Interdisciplinary Study: Interdisciplinary M.P.H. coursework, research, and interactions are encouraged to give students as broad a perspective as possible to excel in the complex, diverse, and dynamic state of public health. Through associations with the Center for Obesity Research and Education, Center for Women's Health, and others, students have access to over 100 faculty at Temple University and additional regional scholars who are actively involved in programs, research, and teaching in public health. Further, as with the other four M.P.H. degree programs offered by the College of Public Health, the M.P.H. in Environmental Health can be undertaken as part of these nine dual M.P.H. degree programs:

D.M.D./M.P.H. with Temple University's Kornberg School of Dentistry
D.O./M.P.H. with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
D.P.M./M.P.H. with the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine
J.D./M.P.H. with Temple University's Beasley School of Law
M.D./M.P.H. with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
M.H.A./M.P.H. with Temple University's Fox School of Business and Management
M.P.P./M.P.H. with Temple University's College of Liberal Arts
M.S. Health Informatics/M.P.H. within the Temple University College of Public Health
M.S.W./M.P.H. with the Temple University School of Social Work

For more information, visit https://cph.temple.edu/mph/dual-degrees.

Affiliation(s): Locally, the program has long-standing research affiliations with The Food Trust, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Health Federation of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), School District of Philadelphia, Temple University Health System, and numerous other community health agencies.

Study Abroad: Short-term intensive study abroad courses are offered as part of the M.P.H. program of study. These courses are offered during the Summer and are open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Accreditation: The M.P.H. is fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). Achieving accreditation in 1985, Temple's M.P.H. program is one of the longest established accredited M.P.H. programs in community health in the country.

Areas of Specialization: The M.P.H. degree program is offered in five specialty fields of study:

Applied Biostatistics (APBIO)
Environmental Health (EH)
Epidemiology (EPI)
Health Policy and Management (HPM)
Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS)

In addition, a certificate in Global Health is available to all students in the M.P.H. program. Students are able to complete this transcripted concentration by utilizing their three elective courses for Global Health classes.

Job Prospects: Graduates with an M.P.H. in Environmental Health have positions in a wide range of health-related settings, including state and local public health departments, community-based organizations, voluntary health agencies, health maintenance organizations, hospitals, clinics, schools, and work sites. Graduates are employed as infection control coordinators, project directors, evaluation specialists, marketing specialists, research directors, prevention specialists, environmental health specialists, senior health educators, and adjunct faculty and consultants. Virtually all students are placed within three to six months of graduation.

Licensure: Students who complete an M.P.H. at Temple University are eligible to sit for the Certification in Public Health (CPH) exam and the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam. For information regarding credentialing in public health, see http://www.nchec.org/.

Non-Matriculated Student Policy: Non-matriculated students are required to speak with an advisor before registering for classes and to obtain the permission of the professor. If accepted to the program, a maximum of three courses may be applied toward the degree program. Exceptions to this policy relate to formal certificate programs.

Financing Opportunities: The Graduate School awards fellowships on a competitive basis only to students with outstanding academic records who are admitted to Temple University for the Fall term. Applicants who wish to be considered for fellowships must apply no later than January 26 for consideration for the Fall term. The department's Admissions Committee nominates outstanding students for these awards, but the Graduate Board's Fellowship Committee makes all award decisions.

Limited Teaching and Research Assistantships are available in the College of Public Health. The Graduate School website details levels of support, benefits, and the terms and conditions of these types of graduate student support at http://www.temple.edu/grad/finances/. Assistantships are awarded on a term or annual basis. Students whose Fall applications are complete prior to or at the application deadline are reviewed for eligibility for Teaching Assistant (TA) positions. TAs are required to work 20 hours per week in any combination of teaching assignments made by the department and must meet the English Language Proficiency standards set by the University and the College. Students who hold Teaching or Research Assistantships are not permitted to hold other employment without the written prior approval of their advisor, the Director of Graduate Programs, and the Graduate School. To be considered for a Teaching or Research Assistantship, complete an application form that is sent to students upon admission to the M.P.H. program. The completed application must be returned to publichealth@temple.edu to be considered.

Students may also be eligible for financial support through the Office of Student Financial Services. See http://sfs.temple.edu/.

Admission Requirements and Deadlines

Application Deadline:

Fall: March 1
Spring: November 1

All applicants to the M.P.H. program must apply via the Centralized Application Service for Public Health (SOPHAS). The system can be accessed at https://portal.sophas.org/. A supplemental application is also required to be submitted directly to Temple University at http://www.temple.edu/apply/common/appcheck.asp. Late applications may be considered for admission.

Applicants should check their application status on the SOPHAS portal often and inquire directly of SOPHAS about receipt of materials. For other questions, please contact Theresa White, Senior Graduate Advisor, at theresawhite@temple.edu or 215-204-5105.

Letters of Reference:
Number Required: 3

From Whom: Letters of recommendation, which are completed electronically through the SOPHAS system, should be obtained from college/university faculty members familiar with academic competence. If the applicant has been out of school for a long time, please ensure that letters are from professional colleagues and that they address academic abilities, such as writing and research.

Coursework Required for Admission Consideration: Applicants' files are reviewed for undergraduate coursework in mathematics and/or statistics, social science, and writing.

Bachelor's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline: A baccalaureate degree is required.

Statement of Goals: In 500 to 1,000 words, address the following items:

What are your interests in Public Health, and why are you planning to pursue an M.P.H. in Environmental Health?
What are your future career goals, and what have you done either academically or professionally to guide your interest in Public Health?
Are there any exceptional circumstances related to previous academic performance that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider?

Standardized Test Scores:
GRE: Required. While the program takes a portfolio approach to admissions, standardized tests provide important insight into quantitative and verbal abilities. Minimum scores are 500 (old test) on both the verbal and quantitative sections or, on the new test, 153 on the verbal section and 144 on the quantitative section.

Standardized tests considered in lieu of the GRE include DAT, GMAT, MCAT, OAT, and PCAT. The LSAT, which is also considered for some M.P.H. specialties, is not accepted when applying for Applied Biostatistics or Epidemiology.

TOEFL: 79 iBT or 550 PBT minimum.

Clearances: The M.P.H. programs require students to complete clinical/field education experiences at facilities both on and off Temple University’s campuses. These placements may require criminal background checks, Act 33/34 clearances, and perhaps a drug screen. Placements may also require the student to maintain personal health insurance. The results of these requirements may limit and potentially eliminate placement options for the student, thus resulting in her/his inability to meet graduation requirements.

Resume: Current resume or CV required.

Transfer Credit: Graduate credits from an M.P.H. program accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) may be transferred into the M.P.H. The credits must be equivalent to coursework offered at Temple, and the grade must be a "B" or better in order to transfer. The M.P.H. advisor approves the transfer of credits based on a review of course materials provided by the student. The maximum number of credits a student may transfer is 9.

Test Waivers: Graduates with a terminal degree from a U.S. medical school, foreign-trained physicians who have obtained licensure to practice in the United States, and those with Ph.D.’s may have the GRE requirement waived.

Program Requirements

General Program Requirements:
Number of Credits Required Beyond the Baccalaureate: 45

Required Courses:

Course List
Code	Title	Credit Hours
College Core Course
HRPR 5001	Current and Emerging Issues in Public Health and Health Professions	0
Public Health Core Courses
ENVH 5103	Environmental Health	3
EPBI 5002	Biostatistics	3
EPBI 5101	Fundamentals of Epidemiology	3
HPM 5006	Political and Economic Aspects of Health	3
SBS 5001	Fundamentals of Public Health	3
SBS 5102	Theoretical Foundations of Health Behavior	3
Environmental Health Courses
ENVH 5305	Environmental Toxicology	3
ENVH 8207	Environmental Epidemiology	3
GUS 5062	Fundamentals of Geographical Information Systems	3
Environmental Health Elective
CTRP 8213	Environmental Planning	3
Electives		9
M.P.H. Fieldwork Experience
ENVH 9289	MPH Fieldwork I	3
ENVH 9389	MPH Fieldwork II	3
Total Credit Hours		45

Internship: An internship is required as part of a student's M.P.H. fieldwork.

Culminating Events:
Fieldwork Practicum:
M.P.H. fieldwork requires a student to synthesize and integrate the knowledge acquired in coursework and other learning experiences and to apply theory and principles in a situation that approximates some aspect of professional practice through an internship or practicum experience with a public health agency or under the supervision of a faculty preceptor. The M.P.H. fieldwork experience serves as the culminating event as required by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), the accrediting body of all U.S. schools of public health, for completion of the Master of Public Health degree. In addition, this culminating experience provides the student with the opportunity to develop expertise in a topic area and to contribute original and independent observations to a body of knowledge.

For the culminating experience to fulfill the requirements of ENVH 9289 and ENVH 9389, M.P.H. in Environmental Health students are expected to complete a fieldwork experience, which enables them to:

Describe environmental health hazards and their potential effects on human health; discuss methods for evaluating risks associated with such hazards; and discuss strategies for preventing or controlling hazards that pose risks to human health.
Identify chemical, biological, and physical agents by media, their principal sources, and general approaches for their quantification.
Specify pathways of exposure, including environmental transport and fate and routes of transfer from the source, through all environmental media, to humans.
Explain the general mechanisms of toxicity and the roles that dose-response and time-response play in eliciting a toxic effect.
Describe extrinsic (socioeconomic and behavioral) and intrinsic (genetic and physiologic) factors that affect environmental exposure-response relationships.
Discuss issues of environmental justice, equity, and health disparities.
Describe the local, regional, and global impact of environmental hazards (direct and indirect) on human and ecological health.
Identify the major causes of injury and illness in the workplace and approaches to reducing occupational health risks.
Describe the components of a risk assessment, including the types of evidence that are used and the sources of uncertainty and variability.
Discuss risk management and risk communication approaches for preventing and/or reducing environmental health risks, including regulatory, engineering, and behavioral interventions.
Develop a research question that pertains to an environmental hazard and its potential effects.

A final paper is the required deliverable for the M.P.H. fieldwork requirement. Students must also demonstrate their proficiency and the application of theory and principles in the paper and demonstrate mastery of the required competencies during the oral defense. The evaluation of the M.P.H. fieldwork practicum experience, therefore, is integrated into the culminating experience requirement.

Courses

ENVH 5013. Global Environmental Health. 3 Credit Hours.

This is an intermediate-level graduate course for those interested in environmental health and global health. Other graduate students may attend the course with the instructor's permission, provided they meet the course prerequisites. This course does not meet the core requirement for environmental health in the MPH program.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites:
ENVH 5103|Minimum Grade of B-|May not be taken concurrently
OR PBHL 5103|Minimum Grade of B-|May not be taken concurrently.

ENVH 5103. Environmental Health. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the effects of interactions between the environment and human health, and the ways that adverse effects may be mitigated. Environmental health hazards, including chemical, biological, and physical pollutants in air, water, soil, and food are addressed, as are risk analysis and risk communication as applied to environmental health. The course examines how problems and solutions are identified globally, nationally, and locally. The use of biological and chemical agents as weapons is also explored. This course is available online.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.
College Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Colleges: College of Public Health, Social Work.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5202. Man-Made Disasters: Radiological, Chemical & Biological Terrorism. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is designed to introduce students to the concepts and models of public health preparedness, mitigation, and evaluation in the context of man-made disasters, including radiological, chemical and biological incidents. The course addresses identified core competencies of emergency preparedness for public health professionals that include disaster management, risk assessment, risk communication, governmental resources, functional roles, surveillance, and preparedness evaluation. Man-made disasters are looked at in a historical, environmental, and psychological context in order to elucidate the role of public health in man-made disaster preparedness and evaluation. In addition, the role of cultural competency and the needs of special populations are addressed. Public perception of risk and media views of man-made disasters are explored.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5301. Industrial Hygiene and Safety. 3 Credit Hours.

Anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of occupational and environmental health hazards are the focus of this course. Topics include recognition of hazards from chemical, physical, and biological agents; analytical and survey methods of hazard evaluation; and engineering solutions, administrative actions, and personal protective equipment for hazard control. This course is available online.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5305. Environmental Toxicology. 3 Credit Hours.

This course reviews the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of environmental toxicants. Methods used to measure acute and chronic toxicity, including carcinogenesis, are explored.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5306. Analytical Instrumentation. 3 Credit Hours.

Sampling and analysis of chemical and physical agents using laboratory-based methods and real-time monitoring are studied as well as sample collection and proper handling. Analytical applications of absorption spectroscopy in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared; atomic absorption; emission spectroscopy; mass spectrometry; and separation methods, including liquid chromatography, are examined.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5307. HVAC in Environmental Health. 3 Credit Hours.

This course focuses on the use of ventilation to maintain suitable environmental conditions in work areas. Topics include dilution ventilation; comfort ventilation; local exhaust ventilation system design, including fan, duct, and hood selection; and ventilation system testing. This course is available online.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5308. Emergent Environmental Diseases. 3 Credit Hours.

This course focuses on the physiology and the relationship to occupational health of the following: allergies; cardiovascular system; ear, nose, and throat; eye; hematology; lung; neurology; neuromuscular-skeletal system; occupational hepatitis; psychiatry; and skin.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 5401. Curriculum Construction in Health Education. 3 Credit Hours.

This in-depth examination of constructing, delivering, and evaluating curricula provides opportunity to develop curricular materials for teaching in school situations.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 8016. Human Health Risk Analysis. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an introduction to the use of stochastic modeling to identify, assess, and manage environmental health hazards, risk assessment, and analysis through the lens of public health. Students will develop an understanding of the underlying sciences and mathematics that fall within exposure science and use Markov chain method to build exposure models.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites:
EPBI 5002|Minimum Grade of B|May be taken concurrently
OR PBHL 5002|Minimum Grade of B|May be taken concurrently.

ENVH 8019. Environmental Policy and Regulation. 3 Credit Hours.

This is an upper-level graduate course that focuses on the concepts of policy and regulatory systems meant for the protection and management of the environment in the United States, including the evolution of the regulatory systems and policy making process to address both legacy and emerging environmental issues and the factors that shape these policies and regulations. Emphasis will be placed on the development of the standards, enforcement, and compliance of selected federal environmental regulations and their equivalent enforcements at the state and local levels, and ultimately, how those regulations influence public health. The course might be of interest to those interested in understanding environmental policy and regulation in the U.S., identifying means to facilitate changes in environmental policy for human health and environmental protection, and how it provides foundation for other international policies and laws pertaining to environmental management and sustainability. Students may find this as an applied policy- and decision-making course. The course will bring in other experts, either in the form of team teaching or guest speakers, who will offer relevant and timely perspectives on topics of significant interest.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 8207. Environmental Epidemiology. 3 Credit Hours.

This intermediate course will cover selected topics in occupational and environmental epidemiology through a focus on specific health outcomes, such as non-malignant respiratory diseases, cancer, and musculoskeletal disorders, within the context of particular study designs or exposures. Students will have the opportunity to critically examine the current literature and to study contemporary issues in research. Exposure assessment, biomarkers, and emerging diseases within the context of the workplace and the environment will be addressed.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 8309. Exposure Assessment. 3 Credit Hours.

Exposure assessment is the multidisciplinary field that identifies and characterizes exposure to environmental agents; develops estimates of exposure for epidemiology, exposure-response, trend and surveillance, and risk assessment studies; and evaluates the significance of exposure of effectiveness of intervention strategies.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 9189. MPH Capstone Seminar. 3 Credit Hours.

This seminar is required of M.P.H. students during final year of study. The seminar includes integration of coursework and practice skills to develop a fieldwork project or internship in a public health agency.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

ENVH 9289. MPH Fieldwork I. 3 Credit Hours.

This course entails a fieldwork project or internship in a public health agency. It includes seminars, oral and written reports of progress, and joint supervision by a preceptor and faculty member.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENVH 9389. MPH Fieldwork II. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an evaluation of the fieldwork project or internship using a full range of research methodologies. Data are collected, analyzed, and reported in a comprehensive final report. Oral and/or poster presentations are presented to public health organizations. The course includes a final oral defense of the project or internship.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.