Academics
Academic Programs offered:
B.Sc. (Hons) in Environmental Health Sciences (BEHS)
The B.Sc. (Hons) Environmental Health Sciences (BEHS) is a full time undergraduate degree program. The duration of B.Sc. (Hons) Environmental Health Sciences program is Four Years (3 academic years, comprising six semesters and 1 year of exclusive training in various laboratories). During the final year the students will be rotated to laboratories, governmental and non-governmental organizations for gaining practical training to facilitate learning by observation and practice. According to WHO estimates, 12.6 million people died as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment. The deaths of 1.7 million children under 5 and 4.9 million adults aged 50 to 75 could be prevented through better environmental management (https://www.who.int/news-room). Rapidly developing countries, including India bear a large proportion of this burden, but yet lack capacities to recognize, assess and manage environmental hazards. Skilled human resources are scarce in the area of environmental health. This program lays a strong foundation to the students for preparing themselves as future leaders in environmental health sciences.
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Master of Public Health (Occupational & Environmental Health)
The MPH in Occupational and Environmental Health is a full time postgraduate degree program, aimed at training students to become proficient occupational and environmental health professionals with capacities in recognition, prevention and management of occupational and environmental health risks. The program has a dual focus on laboratory and field based methods to build skills for application in academic, industrial, governmental and other professional organizational settings. The program also specifically aims at enhancing research and analytical skills to enable students design and conduct sophisticated, multidisciplinary research studies in the area of occupational and environmental health. This program was developed through long-term collaborations between SRMC and the University of California (Berkeley) with support from the International Training and Research on Occupational and Environmental Health (I.T.R.O.E.H.) program of the Fogarty International Centre, NIH, USA and additional expert support from GTZ-Centre for International Migration (GTZ-CIM).The degree is awarded by Sri Ramachandra University.
M.Sc. (Industrial Hygiene & Safety):
The M.Sc. (Industrial Hygiene and Safety), 3-year part time postgraduate program, has been introduced in response to the growing awareness among industries for the need to employ qualified hygiene, health and safety professionals to assess and manage work-related health risks. This program structure allows the students to enroll while being employed. The students receive in-depth training in a diverse array of subjects including industrial hygiene, safety engineering, safety management, occupational health, human physiology, industrial toxicology and ergonomics. In addition they are introduced to concepts in epidemiology and biostatistics for potential application in their work-settings. Through a combination of hands-on training in the laboratory and in workplace, the program prepares the students to anticipate, recognize, evaluate and control work-related hazards, unsafe acts and conditions that may cause injury, illness, disease, or discomfort to the employees. The degree is awarded by Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute (Deemed University).
Associate Fellowship in Industrial Health (AFIH):
The Associate Fellow in Industrial Health program is a 3-month full time program that intends to provide certified training for medical professionals required for occupational health practice. The program contents and curricula have been framed as per guidelines issued by the Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), Mumbai. The program is focused on building skills to recognize and prevent occupational and work related diseases in industries. The certification awarded by DGFASLI fulfills the requirements for employment as Factory Medical Officers of Hazardous Process Industries as required under the Factories (Amendment) Act, India.
NEBOSH Certification:
NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), was formed in 1979 as an independent examining board and awarding body for training and awarding certificates/Diploma on Occupational Safety and Health in UK. The certification meets the health, safety, environmental and risk management needs of all places of work in both the private and public sectors and is widely recognized all over the world. SRMC offers the NEBOSH Level -3 International General Certificate Course in collaboration with Safety Engineers Association of India with certification issued by NEBOSH, UK.
Teachers / Faculty Training:
Faculty in the department have undergone extensive training under support from training grants provided by the International Training in Occupational and Environmental Helath (ITREOH) program of Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health. Between 2002-2011, 7 faculty members from SRMC, Dr. S. Sankar, Dr. P. Jayachandran, Mr. R. Ayyappan, Mr. Santu Ghosh, Dr. G. Thangavel, Dr. Krishnendu Mukhopadhyay and R. Padmavathi have spent 1-2 semesters each at UC Berkeley and completed semester long courses in exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, global burden of disease, occupational medicine, geographical information systems, environmental health and safety, biostatistics and epidemiology.
In 2010, Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan completed the Global Health Leadership Certification awarded by the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2011, faculty members continue to benefit through the opportunities provided by the Global Health Equity Fellowships by the Fogarty Center, NIH. In addition, several UC Berkeley faculty members have been involved in administering faculty training at SRU. These include Dr. Kirk R Smith, Dr. Allan Smith, Dr. Michael Bates, Dr. Jack Colford, Dr. Katherine Hammond, Dr. Nina Holland, Dr. John Balmes, Dr. Mark Nicus, Dr. Asheena Khalakdina, Ms. Alisa Jenny and Ms. Mirriam Rafiq. With 5 research projects and over 30 publications resulting from the collaboration, The SRMC-Berkeley ITREOH training program was adjudged to be among the best training grant efforts with developing countries by the advisory board of Fogarty International Center in 2015.
Faculty members have also been trained by visiting experts from Germany under the Integrated Experts program of the GIZ. Dr. Jorg Arnold, Dr. Jurgen Hannka, Dr. Nobert Wagner, Dr. Ralf Steinberg and Dr. Dieter Borgers from academic and industry related institutions in Germany were deputed for a total of 12 person years to train our faculty aquire advanced capacities to undertake occupational health and hygiene services as well as to frame and offer academic trainings in this discipline. Finally, faculty members are also deputed routinely for short-term trainings at national and international institutions, the details of which may be found in the relevant faculty profiles.
Achievements:
The department has merited many national and international recognitions besides being a WHO-Collaborating Cneter and an ICMR Center for Advanced Research, including recognitions by the ILO as a ILO centre for information dissemination, UNIDO as a Occupational Safety and Health Centre, The Gas Authority of India as an Air Pollution Related Disease Diagnostic Centre and the CII as a Technology Transfer Centre. With over 150 peer reviewed publications in high impact factor journals (including Lancet, PNAS, Environmental Health Perspectives)and over 200 conference presentations, research conducted by the department has been widely disseminated and cited. The findings from the research have also contributed to multiple translational research efforts through inclusion in policy guidance documentation and the framework for policy actions. Finally, the extensive resources created by the research projects have allowed the university to use them as a base to launch post-graduate teaching programs that fill critical human resource needs in India (such as the MPH, MSc and Ph.D programs in occupational and environmental health).
BSc Public Health:
The B.Sc. Public Health program is aimed at creating professionally competent graduates to meet the growing demand in the area of public health. This 3-year Degree Program focuses on integrating life science, social science and environmental science, with health science to arrive at a holistic approach in preventing disease and promoting population health. Each of the 6 semesters will have either a field practicum or a laboratory practical as relevant. This program will prepare the students to become efficient leaders and managers of public health with a sound knowledge on the foundations of population health and proficient in community healthcare delivery. The program will impart an essential skill set that aims at integrating the science of population health with the art of management. The Government of India has highlighted that a large number of specialists should be trained in Public Health (National Health Policy, 2002). Moreover, the World Health Organization (Calcutta Declaration) has also emphasized the need for Public Health training.
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