Welcome to Chemistry 330: Environmental Chemistry, a three-credit, intermediate-level course dealing with the chemistry of air, soils, and water, human impacts on them, and the implications of these impacts for environmental and human health.

Issues concerning our health and environment have become increasingly important in recent years. Ozone depletion, the “greenhouse effect,” heavy metal poisoning and acid rain are only a few controversial issues that have come to the public’s attention through the media. Often, in discussions of these phenomena, “facts” are (intentionally or unintentionally) misrepresented, exaggerated, or taken out of context. It becomes difficult to weigh the importance of much of this information when one is constantly bombarded by media sensationalism.

It has become increasingly important for young scientists not only to be aware of environmental and health issues, but also to be well informed about them. Chemistry 330: Environmental Chemistry will provide a broad overview of many important environmental issues. It will also give students the most reliable and recent scientific information available, so that they may draw independent and informed conclusions about these issues.

Environmental chemistry is a multidisciplinary subject with inputs from such fields as meteorology, engineering, geology, ethics, politics, physics, medicine, toxicology, and chemistry. Students enrolled in this course must have completed Athabasca University’s Chemistry 217 and 218 (Chemical Principles I and II) or equivalent first-year chemistry courses at the university level.