Fakultät für Gesundheitswissenschaften

Environmental epidemiology is a sub-discipline of epidemiology that examines the relationships between environmental factors and human health. Its aim is to understand how environmental pollutants—such as air pollution, noise, chemical substances, climate change, and radiation—affect public health, and to develop measures to mitigate these effects. Environmental epidemiology combines epidemiological approaches and uses, for example, long-term observation of population groups exposed to certain environmental factors (cohort studies).

Planetary health is an interdisciplinary field of research and action that investigates the links between the health of the planet and human health. The focus is primarily on climate change, which is considered by the World Health Organisation to be the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century.

Environmental health literacy is a concept that addresses the ability of individuals and communities to understand, evaluate and apply information about environmental factors and their impact on human health. The goal is to empower people to make informed decisions that protect their health and the environment. It includes the knowledge, skills and awareness to recognise environmental risks, understand the health risks of these threats and take appropriate action to minimise these risks.

Through our interdisciplinary research, we contribute to expanding knowledge of the complex interactions between environmental risks and health, and to developing solutions that protect the environment while promoting human health. We adopt a global perspective to analyze transnational processes in their full context.