Education & Training

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.

• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Continuing Education
• Case Studies in Environmental Medicine (CSEM)
• Grand Rounds in Environmental Medicine
• Patient Education and Care Instruction Sheets
• Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit

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.

• Community Environmental Health Education Presentations

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

• Spanish Version – Fundamentos de Principios y Prácticas para la Comunicación de Riesgo para la Salud
  Audiencia: Profesionales de la Salud que responden a preocupaciones del público relacionadas con la exposición a sustancias peligrosas.
  Nivel Técnico: Intermedio

The current web-based training course, “Public Health Assessment Overview 1 – Mission and Community” not only explains ATSDR’s role in the public health assessment process; it also shows how affected community members can become constructively involved in that process.

Intended Audience: Public health professionals and trainees

Go to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/training/pha_professional1/html/index.html to start the training.

The current web-based training course, “Public Health Assessment Overview 2-Exposure Pathways and Toxicologic Evaluation” explains how health assessors conduct an exposure pathways analysis to find out how, when, and where people are coming in contact with chemicals. Toxicologic evaluation involves estimating the amount of the chemical that enters the body and considering additional data about health effects associated with the chemical.

Intended Audience: Public health professionals and trainees

Go to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/training/pha_professional2/ to start the training.

The current web-based training course, “Public Health Assessment Overview 3 – Evaluating Health Effects Data, and Determining Conclusions and Recommendations” is a follow-up to the previous module on exposure pathways and a continuation of the health evaluation. The final part of this module explains the process by which ATSDR develops health conclusions about the site, and the types of recommendations and health actions it may conduct. The course concludes with a discussion of the types of documents health assessors may use to report the results of the investigation.

Intended Audience: Public health professionals and trainees

Go to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/training/pha_professional3/ to start the 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

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.