Environmental Health Sciences

The Department of Environmental Health conducts research using multidisciplinary approaches from basic science, engineering, and medicine in order to identify environmental and health problems at the ecosystem level including the human environment, and to solve environmental problems that have a wide range of effects.

Environmental Health Sciences

The Department of Environmental Health identifies and studies the effects of harmful factors in the indoor and workplace environments as well as natural environments such as air, water, food, and soil, and studies control measures for them.

Detailed majors include Industrial Health, Environment/Chemical and Monitoring, Air pollution and Climate Change, Environmental Health Microbiology, Environmental Toxicity, Built Environment System and Technology, Human Exposure Assessment and Toxicology, Environmental Health Engineering, Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring and Modeling

Major in Industrial Health

Assessment and control of the exposure and occurrence of hazard factors caused by occupational and environmental conditions

  • The prediction, recognition, evaluation, and improvement of hazardous factors which arise in workplaces
  • Research on the methodologies and health research tools for the protection of workers and the public from hazard factors

Major in Environmental Chemistry/Monitoring

Study the transport and fate mechanisms of emerging environmental pollutants in the environment, especially in water systems

  • Environmental media, especially pollution monitoring in water
  • Pollution assessments of human health and ecosystems caused by environmental pollution
  • Exposure assessment and treatments to minimize adverse effects on humans and ecosystems

Major in Air Pollution and Climate Change

Study of the identify air pollutants and health effects caused by air pollution

  • Identify the contribution of pollutant sources by monitoring pollutants using a receptor model
  • Identify the major mechanisms to reduce mercury levels in ecosystems and establish a multimedia model of mercury behavior
  • Study/education to improve the reliability of national statistical practices and propose the calculation of greenhouse gas emission

Major in Environmental Health Microbiology

Research on the identification of causes of microorganisms and human diseases in environmental media, and the development and reduction of microbial diagnosis methods
  • A Study on the Detection and Control of Viruses and Surface Microorganisms
  • Human Microbiome’s Study on the Link between Chronic Disease and Human Disease and Ultimate Treatment

Major in Environmental Toxicology

Toxicological investigation of the effects of environmental pollutants on ecosystems, including humans
  • Research using molecular biology and genetic tools at the cellular and experimental animal levels
  • Identifying the correlation between exposure assessment of harmful substances in human populations and their potential health effects
  • Environmental pollutants and physicochemical hazards.A study on the effect of phosphorus on various receptors in ecosystem

Major in Built Environment System and Technology

The study of health effects and toxicity and evaluating the exposure of environmentally harmful substances to the human body
  • Measure harmful substances in human samples with LC-MS/MS, and analyze the exposure amount, exposure source, and exposure route of harmful substances.
  • A study on the differences in toxicity responses in different people using animal models and human panel
  • Risk assessment using the Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model

Major in Human Exposure Assessment and Toxicology

Focused on internal dose of in human population and health outcomes after exposure to environmental contaminants
  • Determine biomarkers of environmental toxicants using instruments such as LC-MS/MS and explore the dose, source and pathways of the exposure
  • Investigate interindividual variability of toxic effects with animal model and human pannel
  • Apply physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models (PBPK) to estimation of the intake amounts of environmental contaminants and risk assessment

Major in Environmental Genomics

  • Elucidation of environmental distribution and dynamics of pathogenic factors (e.g., resistome, and parasitome) using molecular biological methods
  • Research on atmospheric bioaerosols
  • Research on wildlife pathogens and dietary content in Korea (‘One Health’)

Major in Environmental Health Engineering

Study on the understanding of human health impacts caused by atmospheric aerosols and bioaerosols

  • Application of molecular biology-based methods to understand transport and risk of atmospheric biological particles
  • Development of the Personal Aeroallergen Sampler (PAAS) to facilitate personal exposure assessments for biological particles
  • Application of A-PCR and next generation sequencing method to study microbial characteristics in indoor and outdoor environments

Major in Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring and Modeling

A study on the effects of air pollutants on the air environment, climate change and health by understanding the physical and chemical properties of air pollutants and chemical reactions in the air
  • Studies on lifecycle (formation, growth and aging mechanism) and physico-chemical properties of air pollutants through chamber experiment and chemical modeling.
  • Studies on climate effect of air pollutants by monitoring and parameterization of the chemical and optical properties
  • Studies on health effects of aerosols by investigating the generation activity of physico-chemical property dependent reactive oxygen species.