Environmental control and public health
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| 7 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| Examination | No residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
If you want to develop a career or keep up-to-date in environmental and pollution management, this course is ideal. It provides an understanding of our natural resources (land, air, and water); how they fit together; related environmental problems caused by human activity; and environmental legislation. Preparatory sections cover basic mathematics and statistics; chemistry; and biology related to environmental matters. You’ll then consider different kinds of pollution (air; water; noise; domestic and hazardous wastes) in relation to monitoring, health and environmental effects, and methods of control. You’ll also cover safety aspects of food processing and distribution, and conclude with a preliminary environmental impact assessment.
Course content
The course begins with preparatory material covering the mathematics and statistics, chemistry and biology needed for the course. The first block, ‘The Environment: Risk and Public Health’, details important consequences of pollution on humans. Four of the following blocks discuss the monitoring, health and environmental effects, and methods of control of pollution related to air, water, noise and wastes (both domestic and hazardous). There is also a block on Food Processing and Distribution because of its national importance and the fact that it encompasses all the media mentioned. The various blocks are brought together for a final text on Environmental Impact Assessment. There is a Home Equipment Kit with a variety of practical exercises. These form an essential part of the course.
You will need a personal computer and internet access for many of the assignments in the course, as well as for communications with your tutor, the course team and other students. By the end of the course you should be able to:
- define and describe pollution and pollutants
- explain the necessity for the conservation of land, air and water resources, and for keeping pollution to the minimum
- understand that no problem of pollution or resource management can be tackled without taking pollution conversion and amenity into consideration
- quantify and assess the nature and extent of pollution, its dangers and its effects on the physical environment
- outline the legislation, both already in force and proposed, regarding pollution control and public health (including food safety), and the methods and difficulties of making it work
- describe and discuss methods of identification, assessment, measurement and control in the fields of land, air, water and noise pollution, and food safety
- understand some of the techniques associated with epidemiological investigation of pollution, and relate these to public-health problems
- understand the significance of the environment as a whole in any planning, industrial or technological context
- carry out basic measurements related to water quality, noise and wastes
- read, interpret and criticise published data and undertake relevant calculations in the fields of epidemiology, food safety, water pollution control, wastes, noise control, and air-quality management
- communicate effectively on the subjects of pollution control and food safety
- undertake a preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment for a development.
Entry
You should already be able to interpret graphs, manipulate equations, understand logarithms and operate a scientific calculator. You are also expected to have some knowledge of biology and chemistry, including familiarity with chemical symbols and equations, pH, certain simple reactions and the biological processes of photosynthesis and respiration. The Open University courses Environment: journeys through a changing world (U116) (or the discontinued course T172) and Exploring science (S104) (or the discontinued course S103) would be good preparation. There is a basic introduction to the topics necessary for the rest of the course in the first three preparatory units, but the amount of work you will need to do on this will depend on whether you already have any biological or chemical knowledge.
T210 is a Level 2 course and you need a good knowledge of the subject area, obtained either from Level 1 study with the OU or from equivalent work at another university. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service. The number of places on this course is limited, so you are advised to apply early.
Outside the UK
Because of restrictions on exporting the home experiment kit, this course is not available in Finland, Sweden or Greece.
Qualifications
T210 is a compulsory course in our
T210 is an optional course in our
- BA/BSc (Honours) Environmental Studies (B19)
- BSc (Honours) Technology (B20)
- BSc (Honours) Geosciences (B25)
- BA/BSc (Honours) Nursing Studies (B47)
- BSc (Honours) Nursing Practice (B53)
- BSc (Honours) Environmental Science (B52)
- Diploma in Geosciences (E02)
- Advanced Diploma in Environmental Decision Making (C18)
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it can help to weight your degree towards a BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
Excluded combinations
Sometimes you will not be able to count a course towards a qualification if you have already taken another course with similar content. To check any excluded combinations relating to this course, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
If you have restricted manual dexterity or impaired sight you are likely to have some difficulties because of the work with the home experiment kit and you are strongly advised to contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service for advice. It will be necessary to use a burette for titrations. The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Large print versions of the course material can be provided on request. Written transcripts are available for the audio-visual material. You will need to spend considerable amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, course DVD; home experiment kit; online forums; course website.
You will need
A scientific calculator; the facility to play DVDs.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. Some of your course software will be provided on disk.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you can use an Apple Mac or Linux computer if you can run Windows using Boot Camp or similar.
Materials to buy
Set books
- Porteous, Andrew Dictionary of Environmental Science and Technology (4th edn), Wiley £24.95 - ISBN 9780470061954
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with understanding the course material, who will mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will be offered group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You can choose whether to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) on paper or online through the eTMA system. You may want to use the eTMA system for some of your assignments but submit on paper for others. This is entirely your choice.
Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a 'score'. In T210 this rule can apply to one TMA only (with the exception of TMA04 which must be completed). You will be given more detailed information when you begin the course.
Professional recognition
This course may help you to gain recognition from a professional body. Ask our Student Registration & Enquiry Service for Recognition Leaflets 3.3 Professional Engineering Institutions, 3.4 Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, 3.8 Scientific Institutions and 3.11 Other Professional Bodies.
By completing this course plus Environmental decision making: a systems approach (T863) and Enterprise and the environment (T862), students can automatically gain Associate Membership of IEMA, the Institution of Environmental Management and Assessment (AIEMA).
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in February 2010 when it will be presented for the last time. A replacement course is not planned.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Environment, Development and International Studies, Engineering and Technology and Science.
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Student Reviews
This was an excellent course with a wide range of topics relating to the assessment and control of environmental impacts. ...
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Hello, don't believe other comments - the course is not difficult at all. During the course I also finished NVQ ...
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