Another remarkable achievement of the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). The Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health (BS-EH) has been granted accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) for six years (2021-2026). CEPH is an independent agency recognized by the US Department of Education. It accredits leading schools and programs of public health within and outside the US. Globally, the BS-EH at FHS is one of only two BS in Environmental Health programs to be CEPH accredited outside the Americas.
The BS-EH was established in 1961 as the first environmental health program in Lebanon and the region. The Environmental Health curriculum provides training in environmental health within a broad basic sciences framework in alignment with critical public health domains. The program provides a fundamental knowledge of various disciplines within environmental health, namely water quality and management, solid and wastewater management, occupational health and safety, toxicology, indoor and outdoor air quality, and environmental assessment and management. The program emphasizes the evaluation and control of environmental health problems in Lebanon and the region and underlines global environmental health challenges.
During the accreditation process, the BS-EH program underwent a thorough evaluation that assured the compliance of the program with critical public health domains specified by CEPH. The revised BS-EH curriculum covers all these domains, namely, learning the history and the core concepts of public health, addressing the public health needs of target populations, and assessing the effect of environment on human health. BS-EH graduates also acquire a basic knowledge about health systems, health policy ethics and economics, health communications, and use of evidence-based approaches in project implementation.
This holistic approach adopted by the revised curriculum comes at a critical time when Lebanon and the Arab region are suffering severe environmental health crises that directly translate to public health problems. This CEPH accreditation is a testimony to the quality of the program and its graduates — competent environmental health specialists who are ready to serve and to fulfil the FHS pledge for a better public health.