Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Health Teaching: Impacts for the Wider Profession

ChatGPT, a new, easily accessible, and user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) platform, as well as other emerging AI platforms, allow for the creation of well-crafted essays complete with citations, and quickly and mostly correct answers to multiple-choice questions. These types of platforms pose significant concerns for academic programs, including environmental health, as much of the students' learning is guided by written assignments. Academic integrity is an educational and professional attribute and breaches of ethical conduct risk the reputations of organizations and by association, those who work in them. To address this threat, the Environmental Health Community of Practice (CoP)--a group of academic professionals in environmental health from across the globe--has developed potential approaches to address AI within the academic and professional realms of environmental health.

Frontiers in Occupational Health and Safety Management.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is devoted to the "Frontiers in Occupational Health and Safety Management" [...].

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Environmental Health: Lessons Learned

Environmental health is historically an overlooked and underrated discipline. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of environmental health and environmental health professionals (EHPs). EHPs have a unique set of skills and knowledge that were, or could have been, significant in controlling the pandemic. This skill set includes a thorough understanding of legislation and regulations;the ability to conduct human health risk assessment and implement effective risk-control measures;enforcement, communication, and education skills;and a significant understanding of their own local communities. The opportunities for applying the skills of EHPs vary across the world depending on several factors, including legislative and regulatory frameworks in each jurisdiction. Here we present our early evaluation of the unique skills and knowledge base of EHPs and lessons that can be learned from EHP engagement in public health protection. We also argue that local knowledge and engagement need to be recognized as valuable tools in emergency preparedness. In our increasingly globalized world, mechanisms to maintain and value local knowledge are needed, which could be achieved by embedding the "value of local" into policy to ensure that the importance and value of local knowledge are captured. We also advocate for raising awareness of the value of public health, and specifically, environmental health.

How can Environmental Health Practitioners contribute to ensure population safety and health during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the relevance of public health professionals all over the world, in particular Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs), who played a major role in the containment of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. However, as in past disasters, their involvement was oriented towards urgent tasks, and did not fully utilize EHPs' competences and skills. Additionally, due to limited resources, during emergencies EHPs may temporarily transition away from their day-to-day role, potentially increasing other public health and safety risk factors without appropriate surveillance or intervention. To overcome this and prepare for possible future pandemics, it is important to identify and discuss the key roles of EHPs in different countries, providing a common framework for practices that can contribute to population safety and health. To this end, an international workgroup was established to discuss current environmental health practices and challenges across different countries during the pandemic. Findings from discussions concluded that, despite the observed differences across the countries, EHPs are one of the main public health emergency preparedness and response actors. However, since resources are still lagging significantly behind need, we argue that the role of these professionals during pandemics should be focused on practices that have higher impact to support population health and safety.