| Call Number | 17301 |
|---|---|
| Day & Time Location |
W 8:10am-10:00am To be announced |
| Points | 3 |
| Grading Mode | Standard |
| Approvals Required | Instructor |
| Instructor | David Rosner |
| Type | LECTURE |
| Method of Instruction | In-Person |
| Course Description | This course will trace the growing importance of occupational and environmental diseases such as tobacco related cancers, asbestosis and mesothelioma, and lead poisoning. Through the use of documents gathered in lawsuits, searches of medical and public health literature and other documentary sources students will evaluate debates about responsibility for arising conditions and chronic diseases. It will focus on the rising awareness of the relationship between low-level environmental exposures to synthetic materials and new conditions such as endocrine disruptions linked to BPA, behavioral problems linked to low level lead poisoning, PCBs in the environment and mesothelioma due to low level exposures to asbestos, among other issues. This course will be run as a seminar. Students will present summaries of recent scholarship on environmental and occupational disease. They will also develop timelines, bibliographies and a historical narrative on the evolution of knowledge about danger for a particular chemical, toxin, environmental pollutant or disease. As the semester progresses and as students begin to form the basis of their final project, students will take more responsibility for directing the seminar. Throughout the course students will be exposed to internal corporate documents developed through court cases. It will sensitize students to the ways in which public understanding of danger was shaped by corporate behavior through close inspection of a number of specific industries, among them: lead, chemicals, food, asbestos, and silica. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to: analyze the history of knowledge regarding dangerous pollutants; critically discuss the variety of legal documents that address responsibility for disease; explain how historical knowledge can aid communities and individuals in quests for justice; utilize corporate internal documents in consumer court cases and education; appreciate the long history of debate over industrial and environmental damage. |
| Web Site | Vergil |
| Department | Sociomedical Sciences |
| Enrollment | 3 students (10 max) as of 9:05PM Monday, March 10, 2025 |
| Subject | Sociomedical Sciences |
| Number | P6785 |
| Section | 001 |
| Division | School of Public Health |
| Section key | 20241SOSC6785P001 |