Department of Occupational and Environmental Health

History and present
　　The former Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases, and former Department of Environmental Health were established in 1976, founded by Professor Yuliang Zhou and Professor Qiao Zhang, and Professor Chen Chengzhang, respectively. They had been approved by Minister of Education to grant master’s degrees in occupational health and environmental health since 1979 and 1983, and to grant doctor’s degrees since 2003. In 2001, the Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases, the Department of Health Toxicology, the Department of Environmental Health, the Department of Hygiene and the Department of Hygiene Chemistry co-established the Department of Preventive Medicine, which grant doctoral degrees in preventive medicine. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health was established in April 2019.

Faculty
　　At present there are 16 faculty members including three Professors, seven Associate Professors one Senior Lecturer one Associate Research Fellow and four Postdocs. Three of them were inducted under the “Hundred-Talents Program” of Sun Yat-sen University. The Department through its unique blend of competitive curriculum, outstanding teaching quality, excellent faculties, and cutting-edge research has carved its way to be one of the leading and prestigious academic units of the country.

Teaching and courses
　　For more than 40 years, the Faculty has been adhering to the Teaching philosophy of striving for excellence and has gained a reputation both at home and abroad. At present, the Department offers five-, seven- and eight-year postgraduate courses: Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, Environmental Hygiene, and Hygienic analytical chemistry, Environmental Medicine, Progress in Preventive Medicine Research, Occupational and Environmental Health, Environmental Physiology, Health Regulations, Health Legal System and Supervision, Sanitary Microbiology, Preventive Medicine and Hygiene, etc. The department is committed to promote diversity and international students are inducted in all the programs. The language of teaching is English. 
In terms of student training and external communication, the Department has established long-term cooperative relations with Johns Hopkins University, State University of New York, Munich University, Melbourne University, University of Sydney, University of Queensland and Monash University for academic exchanges and joint training of students. Since 2015, teachers and graduate students have visited and studied overseas such as the United States, Australia, and Finland, achieving remarkable results.

Research
　　Since the reform and opening up, the Occupational and Environmental Health have been playing the leading role on the domestic study of liver damage caused by occupational exposure, genetic damage by pesticide exposure, environmental pollution and microwave-induced immune damage, as well as the revision of national health standards. At present, the main research fields of the department are: air pollution health risk assessment, health effects of new persistent organic pollutant, blood and hearing impairment induced by occupational harmful factors, health effects of heavy metals and environmental nerve poisons and their prevention and treatment. In 2014, it was approved to build the Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health Risk Assessment and passed the acceptance test in 2018. In 2017, it was approved to establish the Center of Guangdong Environmental Pollution Health Assessment Technology. In the past five years, more than 60 projects were hosted, including 3 national key research and development programs and more than 20 Natural Science Funding Programs. More than 150 research papers were published in peer-reviewed journals like JAMA Network Open, Lancet Planetary Health, EHP and EST. The department won the first prize of China Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award, second prize of Guangdong Natural Science Award and second prize of Zhongshan University Teaching Achievement.