Occupational and Environmental Health

Entry requirements

We require applicants to hold, or be about to obtain, an Upper Second class Honours degree, or the equivalent qualification gained outside the UK, in a related subject area for entry to a PhD programme. A Lower Second class Honours degree may be considered if applicants also hold a Master's degree with a Merit classification.

Months of entry

January, April, September

Course content

Themes of our work and illustrative papers are as follows:

Occupational exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents and risk of adverse health outcomes

• Cross-sectional study exploring the association between stressors and burnout in junior doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

• Evaluation of proteins in natural rubber latex gloves and pulmonary function amongst female nurses in two tertiary hospitals in southern, Thailand.

• Insufficient respiratory hazard identification in the safety data sheets for cleaning and disinfection products used in healthcare organisations across England and Wales.

• Improving Exposure Assessment Methodologies for Epidemiological Studies on Pesticides: Study Protocol.

Environmental exposure and risk of adverse health outcomes

• Geochemical compositional controls on DNA strand breaks induced in in vitro cell-free assays by crushed rock powders from the Panasqueira mine area, Portugal.

• Air pollution and placental function

• Variations in semen quality and sperm DNA damage in a longitudinal study

Biomarkers of occupational and environmental exposures

• The marker of alkyl DNA base damage, N7-methylguanine, is associated with semen quality in men.

• Reporting and prediction of work-related sickness absence by general practitioners.