SOC 3720 - Environmental Health Disparities

This course will focus on inequalities (or disparities) in illnesses associated with environmental hazards, be they physical, chemical or biological agents in air, water, soil or food. The health consequences of environmental hazards are generally underappreciated and inadequately recognized. According to World Health Organization estimates, more people die each year worldwide from air pollution alone than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Health disparities occur when groups of people systematically face obstacles that adversely affect their health based on their race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or sex/gender identity (among others characteristics historically linked to social and spatial exclusion). The elimination of environmental health disparities requires attention to environmental hazards and social conditions; it necessitates an interdisciplinary perspective.