HCOL 195 - Geology's intersection with health: Interpreting scientific evidence and how it impacts medical, policy, and legal cases

Course objectives:

Students will be able to apply basic principles of mineralogy and geochemistry to address the distribution and transport of minerals and contaminants in the environment.

Students will be able to assess the quality and inherent uncertainty associated with quantitiative geologic, chemical, health, and risk assessment data.

Students will be able to interpret scientific evidence and properly apply it to arguments concerning regulatory policy and law.

 This course will discuss several topical areas illustrating how geological processes can intersect human health problems, and the social, political, and legal ramifications of those problems.  We will focus on oil and gas use, asbestos mineral dusts, and groundwater arsenic contamination as examples of processes controlled by geological processes but which also importantly have effects on human health.  We will apply scientific method to these problems, and practice scientific investigations on parts of these problems.   Readings will be assigned regularly, for each reading students will be expected to turn in a ‘crib sheet’ with 1 page of notes based on the readings, including at least one question based on the reading.  There will be additional reports based on class exercises where we will generate scientific data to test particular hypotheses.  Each student will also prepare 2 papers during the course of the semester, one in the style of a peer-reviewed scientific paper and one in the style of a scientific news article.

Assignments/readings/presentations:

12-09-2010 - Final Writing Assignment:  In 500 (±50) words (I recommend using microsoft word and the word count tool to monitor this) state your position, in a ‘letter to the editor’ blog, why Vermont should, or should not, change its drinking water standard from 10ppb to 5 ppb.  Use specific data/info from references you have or find (bibliography at the end does not count towards the word total) to support your position.