Occupational and Environmental Health

Overview

The Department of Occupational Health, and Department of Environmental Health, which authorized to confer master and doctoral degree from 1981 to 1986, merged into a new department and renamed as the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health. According to the new catalogue of the professional enrollment issued by the Ministry of Education in 2001, the newly formed discipline of Occupational and Environment Medicine was awarded as the national key discipline and has maintained as No. 1 in the national discipline rankings since then.

There are 24 staffs in this department, including 11 professors, 6 associate professors, 2 lecturers, and 5 technicians. The Department offers two national-level high-quality courses, including Occupational Medicine and Environmental Medicine. Some compulsory courses, such as Preventive Medicine and Hygiene, and some optional courses such as Ergonomics, Biomechanics, Trace Elements and Health, Occupational Psychology, Sub-health Medicine, and Environment and Reproduction, were also provided by the Department.

The department established the teaching philosophy by integrating education training, scientific research, and social service together to fulfill the social demand. Professors in the Department believe that high-quality education and training can cultivate outstanding students. In recent years, the Department has won 2 second prize for the National Teaching Achievement Award, 3 first prize of provincal Excellent Teaching Achievements, and 3 first prize of Excellent Teaching Achievements at the University level. The graduates have been awarded many honors, for instance, the excellent thesis for graduates of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Hubei province.

Major areas of research interests include toxicology of environmental chemicals, occupational and environmental epidemiology, water pollution on health and effective preventive methods, mechanisms of susceptibility to environmental hazards, identification of environmental chemicals and health risk assessment, and mechanisms of biogeochemical disease.

In the past 5 years, the department has obtained research funds with a total of over 80 million yuan from various sources, e.g. National Key Research & Development Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Major Program, Key Program, Distinguished Young Scholar, Excellent Young Scholar, General Program etc.), and other ministries and provincial-level funding agencies, as well as international collaborative research programs. In the past 5 years, the Department has published more than 200 scientific articles in international leading biomedical journals, such asJAMA,Circulation,Cir Res,Gut,Hepatology,Int J Epidemiol,Environ Health Prospect. The staff of the department have won numeral awards, such as the Second Prize for the State Natural Science Award, Second Prize for the National Science & Technology Progress Award, First prize for the Hubei Province Science & Technology Progress Award (n=2), National Excellent Doctoral Thesis Award (n=1), and Nomination Award for the National Excellent Doctoral Thesis (n=2).

The department is actively engaged in training practice and international academic exchanges, and cooperates with Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Institute of Industrial Health, Wuhan Iron & Steel Corporation, Shanxi Coking Coal Corporation, and Daye Iron Mine Corporation. Since 1985, the department has started long-term academic and personnel exchanges with well-known universities from United States, Canada, and Germany, and national scientific institutions on occupational health, has carried out international cooperation and academic exchanges with Harvard University, Yale University, Institute of occupational safety and health in American, Laval University, Dortmund University, and Institute of occupational safety and health in Germany. The department has also hosted many international academic conferences and seminars.

Contact:Prof. He Maian

Email:hemeian@hotmail.com

Faculty

Main Research