The environmental health sciences are concerned with the impact of environmental conditions on human health -- in particular the health effects in people that can arise from exposures to agents (chemical, biological, physical, or even behavior) through the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food they eat, and the manner in which they go about their lives and their work. It is an essential component of public health, and includes environmental chemistry, physics and biology, environmental and occupational health, toxicology and human nutrition. Environmental health is a multidisciplinary field grounded in the physical life sciences with applications to the social, management and political sciences.

Mission of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences

The mission of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health is to provide outstanding scholarship across the spectrum of environmental health sciences through its academic programs and its research activities, with the aim of improving the quality of the environments in which we live and work.