Environmental and workforce health is population health. If you do not have a healthy environment or workforce, your communities will be unhealthy. The Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences looks through the lenses of environmental justice and worker justice to improve population health. In doing so, the EOHS MPH trains students how to advocate for and protect home, work, and community environments. Coming from the only CEPH-accredited school of public health in Illinois, specific training includes exposure and risk assessment, environmental and occupational toxicity and injury, risk management and evaluation, and policy. Students select a concentration in Industrial Hygiene (ANSAC-ABET accredited), Occupational Safety, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Water Quality and Health or as a Generalist (detailed on this page).
Research and community work led by students, faculty and alumni solve occupational and environmental health problems, prevent acute traumatic injury in the occupational setting, address the effects of climate change and promote environmental justice in Chicago neighborhoods and communities around the globe.
About environmental and worker justice Heading link
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Environmental justice
Environmental justice is based on the principle that all people should be protected from environmental pollution and have the right to a clean and healthy environment.
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Worker justice
Worker justice centers on fair and healthy work that features livable wages, safe workplaces, protection from toxic exposures, reasonable hours of work and decent living standards.
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EOHS in action Heading link
Global health opportunities Heading link
SPH faculty, staff and students are collaborating to advance public health in 65 nations across the world. MPH students develop global health skills through SPH’s global health program and global applied practice experiences. In particular, SPH’s Program in Kenya provides diverse opportunities for students interested in water quality and health to take part in developing and testing novel methods for clean water access.
Collaborating in communities locally and globally Heading link
Strengthening the health of precarious workers
The UIC Center for Healthy Work is one of only ten research and education centers nationwide funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The Center works to strengthen the health of low-wage workers in the increasingly contingent workforce across Chicago, Illinois and the nation by addressing hazardous and exploitative work, equitable wages and job security.
Climate change preparedness
While far from hurricanes and wildfires, Illinois is facing its own climate challenges: extreme precipitation, altered growing seasons and increasing rates of insect-borne illnesses. SPH earned funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to launch a Climate and Health Institute to prepare practitioners to build adaptations and mitigations to climate change.
Reproductive and children's environmental health
SPH’s Great Lakes Center for Reproductive and Children’s Environmental Health is one of ten Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units nationwide in partnership with the U.S. EPA to provide expertise to physicians, parents, schools, community groups and public health agencies to address reproductive and children’s environmental health issues.