Fall 2024 Environmental Health Sciences P8317 section 001

Frameworks for Environmental Health Poli

FRAMEWORKS FOR ENVIR HLTH

Call Number 15675
Day & Time
Location
T 1:00pm-3:50pm
1102 ROSENFIELD B
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Darby W Jack
Type LECTURE
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description How should society regulate environmental health risks? Some argue that the health of the citizenry is paramount, and that the role of government should be to protect against any possibility of harm. Others back an approach based on a full accounting of the benefits and costs of environmental protection. And in the current political environment, ideological positions sometimes eclipse analysis. These debates occur against a backdrop of uncertainty about the health risks posed by specific environmental insults. In spite of all this ambiguity and complexity, policy happens: congress makes laws, regulatory agencies enforce the law, and most polluters comply.

In this class we will study several frameworks for thinking about these questions. Environmental economics, in the form of benefit-cost analyses, is the primary framing used by the US Federal Government. We will explore its conceptual foundations and its applications in the US regulatory context. In our discussions of the sociology of science perspective, we will examine how environmental health scientists interact with the policy process, and think through how such interactions might be improved. The third perspective is decision theory, and in particular, choice under uncertainty. We will consider the basic analytics of expected value, and some permutations and applications that are germane to the environmental health policy domain. In addition to these conceptual frameworks, we will analyze and interpret cases drawn from recent experiences with environmental health regulation in the United States.

This course is designed to introduce Mailman students to core frameworks for thinking about environmental health policy. The course is open to all students.
Web Site Vergil
Department Environmental Health Sciences
Enrollment 10 students (35 max) as of 9:06AM Saturday, December 14, 2024
Subject Environmental Health Sciences
Number P8317
Section 001
Division School of Public Health
Open To GSAS, Public Health
Section key 20243EHSC8317P001