Guidelines for Assignments (due Dec 4th)

EHS 100 Fall 2007

 

1. Review of 1 journal article (5%)

 

One to two page review of a scientific journal article published within the last two years that involves the impact of the environment on health. A good journal is Environmental Health Perspectives.  You may find it useful to search Pubmed or Google Scholar for a topic that interests you and pertains to the environment and health.  The review should include an objective or hypothesis being tested, the main methods used; results, brief discussion. 

 

2. Review of 1 research lecture (5%)

 

One or two page review of a research lecture relating to environmental health. The review should include a problem being addressed, methods, results and discussion. However if that was not the format of the lecture, the student should provide a summary of the lecture and a discussion.

 

3. Risk Assessment on chemical of choice (5%)

 

One to two page assessment of a chemical of your choice. The student may choose any chemical.  One way to do the assignment is to look for a chemical on the EPA website: www.epa.gov .  Then write a summary that contains the following: 

 

                        • Chemical and type (metal, PAH, etc)

                        • Use (solvent, pesticide, etc)

•Toxicology (absorption -sites:dermal,lung,etc),distribution, metabolized (P450,             conjugation), excreted (breath, urine, feces)

                        • Pathological endpoint used in risk assessment to calculate NOAEL or benchmark dose

                        • Risk Assessment (NOAEL or benchmark value)

                        • Replacement chemicals if known

                        •Standards and regulations 

 

You may also utilize the links on the class website: www.ph.ucla.edu/ehs/ehs100  and go to links. There are several websites that have databases of chemicals and contain useful information on those chemicals.

 

            4. Proposal outlining a testable model of environmental injury (5%)

 

One to two page assignment. Should include 1) problem relating an environmental agent to a health effect, 2) falsifiable hypothesis that explains the relationship between the agent and the health effect; 3) methods used to test the hypothesis that have the capability of showing the hypothesis is false; 4) results-how data will be analyzed and what will it look like if it shows the hypothesis is supported and what they will look like if they hypothesis is not supported (false); 5) conclusion-assume results support the hypothesis, what knowledge to they provide about the relationship between the agent and the health effect.

SUGGESTIONS

 

Paper 1 . Journal Articles- From UCLA computers, you can use PubMed to find papers.  Many journals maybe accessed electronically on from the BioMed Library: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/.   

Paper 2. Check out the EHS seminars this fall using the link on the EHS 100 website.

Paper 3. Select a chemical agent on the EPA, CDC, or ATSDR websites.  You may look as some PowerPoints produced by EHS students on the EHS website under “Student Hazard Reports” at:  http://www.ph.ucla.edu/ehs/hazard.htm.

Paper 4: Don’t leave this to last!