Education & Training

Links to online education and training for medical providers, health assessors, and other public health and environmental professionals.

ATSDR’s Environmental Health and Medicine Education

ATSDR Environmental Medicine Education for Health Professionals

ATSDR’s newly developed or revised environmental medicine education products present current environmental medicine content drawn from peer-reviewed medical literature. These products are accredited for free continuing education.

ATSDR provides community members, health educators, health care providers, and other health professionals with community environmental health education products to increase environmental health literacy. These products include information about specific types of exposures to hazardous substances, exposure routes and pathways, health effects, treatment options, and how to prevent or minimize exposures to hazardous substances in the environment.

Environmental Health Resources Self Learning Modules

The Environmental Health Resources Self Learning Modules provide health agencies with an overview of environmental health topics. Click on the links below for an overview and to select individual modules.

Don’t Mess With Mercury
Mercury: Danger in Your School

This video educates teachers, school administrators, and school staff about the dangers of mercury. It describes how to prepare and respond to a spill and encourages them to make their schools mercury free. Information is provided on planning for a spill cleanup, source identification and alternatives, and communication. Run time: 22:53
Video URL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmqeuw83Xfs

Mercury Spill Cleanup

This video is targeted to teachers and school staff, especially custodial and maintenance professionals. The video takes you through the proper clean-up of a mercury spill, including step by step instructions for a small spill clean-up. Run time: 25:24
Video URL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5swmzop3y8k

A primer explaining ATSDR’s comprehensive efforts to prevent or mitigate adverse human health outcomes related to hazardous substance exposure, how the process works, and some general principles for improving effectiveness. This primer will also present key principles and techniques to assist federal decision-makers and health risk communicators to improve their overall effectiveness in evaluating health risk messages and materials.

Intended Audience:Health Professionals who respond to public concerns about exposure to hazardous substances

Technical Level: Medium

Community Stress Resource Center

The ATSDR Community Stress Resource Center provides a framework and resources for reducing stress and building resilience as part of public health responses to environmental contamination.

ATSDR’s Environmental Public Health Training

The ATSDR Public Health Assessment Training (PHAT) provides ATSDR staff and partners with the basics and fundamental information needed to conduct a public health assessment (PHA).

PHAT consists of eight modules, based on a realistic environmental health case study, problem-solving exercises, and comprehensive resources and references to conduct PHAs. Currently, you can visit PHAT’s home page to complete Module 1 through Module 8. You can receive a Certificate of Completion for Modules 1-4. You can also receive Continuing Education Credits for Modules 5-8.

Provides public health professionals with information about the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and its method, which is known as the Public Health Assessment.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Provides more details about the Public Health Assessment and how to work with communities affected by hazardous waste sites.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Explains how to obtain and document the site information and data needed for the Public Health Assessment.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Explains how to evaluate exposure pathways for contaminants at hazardous waste sites.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Explains how to select sampling data that are appropriate for use in the Public Health Assessment.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Describes ATSDR’s screening analysis and how to sort through the sampling data and identify potential contaminants of concern that need to be evaluated more closely.

Intended Audience: Environmental and public health professionals

Describes how to conduct the health effects evaluation to closely examine those contaminants of concern identified throughout the public health assessment process.

Intended Audience: Environmental and Public Health Professionals

Explains the principles of writing and communicating environmental health information in clear, plain language.

Intended Audience: Environmental and Public Health Professionals

Emergency Preparedness and Response Training

Any community might be subject to a disaster, whether natural or of human origin. Community responses to these disasters tend to be more efficient and effective when prior planning takes place. Disaster planning is only as good as the assumptions and information on which it is based. Experience from hundreds of actual disasters shows that planning assumptions often are incorrect. Disaster planning based on incorrect assumptions can create an illusion of preparedness. Disaster plans, when developed, should be tested and revised as necessary.

This web page discusses training programs and tools developed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to help communities develop sound, evidence-based assumptions in preparing for hazardous materials (HazMat) emergencies and disasters.

Intended Audience: Emergency Responders

Internships

The National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) in Atlanta, Georgia invites rising collegiate juniors and seniors who currently major in Environmental studies or related fields to apply for this 10-week Collegiate Leaders in Environmental Health summer internship.

Undergraduate students who are passionate about the environment, about health, and about the link between the two will be paired with mentors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to gain experience in the fascinating field of Environmental Public Health. The mission of the internship is to offer selected students a broad overview of environmental health at the federal level and to foster an interest in environmental health as a career.

Intended Audience: Undergraduate students who are rising juniors/seniors majoring in environmental studies and related fields.

The National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) in Atlanta, Georgia invites graduate students with majors or interests deemed to be in support of Environmental Health missions at NCEH/ATSDR to apply for this 10-week Graduate Environmental Health Internship (GEH) summer internship.

Graduate Students who are passionate about the environment, about health, and about the link between the two will be paired with mentors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to gain experience in the fascinating field of Environmental Public Health. During the program interns will be assigned to projects that utilize the skills they’ve acquired through graduate studies and personal experiences. The mission of the internship is to offer selected students a broad overview of environmental health at the federal level and to foster an interest in environmental health as a career.

Intended Audience: Graduate students with majors or interests deemed to be in support of environmental health missions at NCEH/ATSDR.