Environmental health focuses on the study of how people interact with their environment-the air and water around us, the plants and animals we encounter, and the workplaces and homes where we spend much of our lives. The field is broad, encompassing the direct effects of the environment on human health, and the factors that adversely affect the ecological balances essential to human health and environmental quality. The environmental health program educates students about the intersection of human health and the environment, specifically, the analysis, prevention and mitigation of potential environmental hazards that could be biological, chemical or physical. The program prepares students for employment in private industry, government agencies, and non-governmental agencies concerned with pollution abatement, protection of public health, and research in health science or advanced study in the science of environmental health or the allied health professions.