Undergraduate Diploma in Environmental and Health Problems

Created by RESOLUTION C.S. No. 396/2020

Academic Coordinator: Alejandro Oliva

Technical Secretary: Ornela Barbieri

:: RATIONALE: Different aspects provide a reference framework for the development of this Diploma: a regional approach to the problem and its conflicts; a transdisciplinary approach; a translation of the events and their causes – in our region – within the reach of the general population based on regional research; the participation of populations in the transformations of the environmental and health scenario.
El regional focusl attempts to develop the specific problems that have arisen in recent years in the region. Perhaps the main one is related to the application of agrochemicals on crops and their impact on human health. Another, more silent one, related to the qualities of drinking water and air. And, no less important, environmental climate changes. Including its possible synergisms.
El transdisciplinary approach, given that it is not possible to address these scenarios from a single discipline. It is necessary to resort to the confluence of several of them: medical-biological; agrarian; climatological; sociological; demographics; economic. All of them coming together on this environment/health interface, as an object of analysis.
A -communicational- translation of the events and their causes in our region, available to the general population based on local research. There are different investigations in the region on different aspects of this interrelation, which are the substrate - inputs - that must be prepared in terms understandable to the general population, maintaining the necessary academic level, which allows working on a theoretical body applicable to the context and building a environmental scenario relating it to health problems.
The participation of populations in the transformations of the scenario. Community participation is the central axis to transform realities. The fundamental condition for this participation is complete knowledge of the problematic context, based on rigorous local – regional – research that, translated into accessible language, allows the construction and deconstruction of environmental scenarios in their relationship with health care. This task must be carried out by the communities exploring possible transformative paths, as instruments of change.

:: GOALS:

– Train citizens interested in the problems related to the influence of environmental scenarios on health.
– Link the Public Universities of the Central Region with the community and generate a space for sharing, theoretical-critical reflection and training on the problem.

:: MODALITY:

The Diploma in Environmental and Health Problems will be taught under the “distance” modality, through the Virtual Campus that the university has. Universidad Nacional de Rosario (https://www.campusvirtualunr.edu.ar/). The campus is hosted on the free access educational platform called Moodle and allows the use of multiple technical and didactic tools for the correct pedagogical development of the Diploma.
In this context, the teachers in charge and the tutors, together with the coordination of the course, are trained to understand the logic of the interactions and processes necessary to enhance the production of meanings in the virtual space, generating practices that allow the development of the educational model. -communicational proposed,
The virtual classroom will be used as a repository of materials (written, sound, audiovisual, pictorial, etc.), a space for communication and production of collaborative materials and as a student monitoring and evaluation tool.

:: RECIPIENTS:
It is intended for anyone who is interested in the topic proposed by the diploma, and for those who have previous training and are interested in the problem of the interrelation of environmental factors and their participation in the origin - and evolution - of different diseases, issues which will be addressed based on academic studies carried out in the region.

::PROGRAM: 

1 ENVIRONMENTAL EXHIBITIONS
Definitions of environmental exposures. Types and characteristics.
Direct and indirect (intermediated) effects. Acute and chronic (deferred in time). Sources, emission and reception. Dose concept. Individual, population, transgenerational. Synergisms and antagonisms.
2 ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH INTERRELATIONSHIPS (AIR-WATER-SOILS-CLIMATE CHANGE)
Air and water as transporters of pollutants. Soils as reservoirs. Climate as an amplifier or buffer of environmental effects. Agrochemicals and solvents; arsenic and nitrates; emerging contaminants.
3 GENETICS, FERTILITY AND CANCER
Environmental impacts on genetics. Maternal/paternal exposures and impacts on their children. Transmission modes. Effects on male/female fertility. Infertility, pregnancy complications and childbirth. Malformations. Puberty. The environment at the origin of the cancer disease and its evolution.
4 NEURODEVELOPMENT. CHILDHOOD-OLD AGE
Environment and neurological development. Impact during fetal and infant development. Maturation, motor development, learning, socialization. Senescence, neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's.
5 FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND SECURITY
Environment and food/nutritional quality, safety. Environment and self-sufficiency, sovereignty. Food production models, their capabilities and limitations. Industrial agriculture and food. Agroecology (organic agriculture) and food. Food production and emerging contaminants.
6 POPULATION DYNAMICS AND SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS
Population and environment. Community participation. Needs and planning. Social culture, community stories, ideologies and environment. Relationships between communities and the environment. Imaginaries and social representations and community habits in relation to health and the environment. Social organization and environment.
7 APPROACH METHODOLOGIES
Identification of environmental problems. Environmental characterizations. Risk factors and different types of exposures. Political, academic and community participation. Health and environmental records. The ecological, the epidemiological, the experimental.
8 MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS IN HEALTH
Relationship between identification, characterization and risk management. Identification and communities. Academia and characterization. Politics, its laws, and management. The community present in all spaces. A community observatory on surveillance and prevention.
9 COMMUNITY COMMUNICATION
Environmental and health news. Consistencies and inconsistencies. Information management, who. Permanent community, environmental and health communication. The use of information and communication.
10 INTEGRATION OF CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES
Articulation of the different concepts. Integration models. Community appropriation of knowledge and its applicability. Participation models. Community versus (or with) governments, community versus (or with) academies.
Modality of subject practices
They will be carried out on practical theoretical models proposed by teachers or, primarily, on models of environmental scenarios proposed by students according to their community insertion.
In addition, publications carried out on research in the region will be used as material for practical discussion of approaches carried out.
Students will be provided with videos made by those responsible for the corresponding curricular space, showing the places to visit with an audio and written explanation of the visit. These managers will be the ones who act as guides in the digital visit, ensuring that the students have understood the contents that articulate theory with practice and, remaining available, to answer any questions that may arise after said virtual visits through the forums they have. available on the UNR virtual campus.
The activities will have a biweekly frequency, allowing for reading and elaboration of the contents offered in the interval.

:: REPORTS: diploambientesalud@gmail.com

Attached files:

R CS 396 20 – Diploma in Environmental and Health Issues – MaD