About SOEH
The School of Environmental Health (SOEH) is a teaching and research unit in the College for Interdisciplinary Studies. It has ~ 25 graduate students, 8 full-time faculty, ~ 25 other associated faculty from other UBC departments, from outside the university, and from other universities, and ~ 25 office, research & laboratory staff members.
The School's primary objective is to prepare professionals and researchers with the expertise to evaluate risks from physical, chemical and biological exposures and the skills and sensitivities to effect changes that will protect human health and well-being.
Its vision is a world in which risks from occupational and environmental hazards are minimized by their recognition, evaluation and control, to the benefit of workplace and community health and well-being. Its mission is to assist society in minimizing such risks by:
- providing an outstanding education to students and professionals,
- generating new knowledge through research, and
- effectively communicating this knowledge.
Teaching
SOEH's
teaching includes:
- an MSc Program, with project and thesis options,
- a PhD program,
- graduate courses, available to SOEH students, other UBC students, and interested individuals not registered at UBC,
- seminars open to the public and the University community,
- supervision of students from other departments with an interest in environment and health issues, and
- continuing education courses for professionals.
SOEH hosts conferences, including an annual joint UBC-University of Washington conference on Occupational and Environmental Health, held in Semiahmoo every January and attended by all students and faculty. Other examples include:
- Acoustics Week in Canada, 2008,
- two regional conferences on Health and Safety in Healthcare in 2007,
- the 2005 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health,
- the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America,
- the 2002 Joint Conference of the International Societies of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology.
SOEH also led the development of The
Bridge Program, a pioneering graduate fellowhip program which links engineering,
public policy, and the public, environmental and occupational health sciences.
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Research
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The School’s faculty and students have an outstanding record in occupational and environmental science research. The following is a sample of their research themes:
- Air pollution
- Bioaerosols
- Determinants of exposure
- Epidemiology and risk regulation
- Knowledge translation
- Musculoskeletal injuries and claims
- Nanosensors
- Noise in the built environment
- Noise and heart disease
- Occupational respiratory disease
- Occupational carcinogens
- Young workers
Although much of SOEH's research is based in BC, School faculty have strong collaborative links with researchers across Canada and around the world, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Finland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and the United States.
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SOEH faculty are also leaders in the development of research infrastructure and networking at UBC, in the province, and in Canada, including the following:
- BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network
- Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health
- Centre for Health and Environment Research (CHER)
- National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health
- Population Health and Learning Observatory which will expand the BC Linked Health Database to include occupational and environmental exposure data