Course Syllabus (PDF)

Course Syllabus

Synopsis

The topics covered will allow obtaining knowledge around the main aspects of biosafety in a lab and an occupational setting but also in the environment taking consciousness on the risks posed by toxins, diseases, chemicals, climate change in the context of the One-health concept, where humans are integral part of the ecosystems. Critical analysis of the field will be done taking the precautionary approach as the ruling principle in the international and European legislative context. Different aspects of zoonoses and wild vectors of diseases affecting life-stocks and humans will be also studied. Following these concepts, new trends in environmental epidemiology will be introduced in the framework of human exposure to environmental chemicals. The legislation and security procedures related to the work in an experimental lab will be covered.

Aims

To define the concepts of biosafety and biosecurity in the context of the precautionary principle and the One-Health paradigm.

Objectives

At the end of this Unit, you should:

  1. Understand the differences between biosafety and biosecurity.
  2. Understand the extended One-Health concept.
  3. Understand the precautionary principle in contrast to the innovation principle.
  4. Understand the main pathologies affecting life-stock and humans in relation to environmental alterations under a climate change scenario.
  5. Understand the research priorities in environmental epidemiology with the national health systems.
  6. Understand the concept of Medical Geology.
  7. Understand the precautionary principle in order to mitigate the possible deleterious effects on ecosystems and human health of actions impacting the environment.
  8. Understand the principles of environmental epidemiology and its applications to the study of chemical and biological contamination.
  9. Understand the concepts and procedures of Experimental Biosafety facilities.
  10. Understand the concepts and procedures for the manipulation and isolation of high-risk substances.

Key skills acquired

At the end of this Unit, you should obtain skills that will allow you to:

  1. Know the analytical/experimental approaches to understand the health effects of environmental issues
  2. Distinguish between good and bad analytical practices in a laboratory set up
  3. Understand the cohort concept in environmental epidemiology
  4. Critically analyze the legislative framework in relation to environmental and biosafety issues.
  5. Critically understand of the place of humans as part of the ecosystem affected by the alterations in the physical and biological environment.

Syllabus

Topics covered include:

  • Introduction to the precautionary principle and the One-Health concept
  • Emerging contaminants and their pleiotropic effects
  • Waste water treatment plant facilities as sources of emerging contaminants
  • Pathologies and environment
  • Geology and human and animal health
  • Environmental epidemiology, zoonoses and disease vectors
  • Biosafety Experimental facilities
  • Research with experimental organisms

Learning & Teaching

  • Lectures: 25 hr
  • Seminars (for case studies): 5 hr
  • Laboratory work and visits to laboratories, animal facilities and a waste water treatment plant: 10 hr

Teaching Staff: I Cancio (Coord.), M Ortiz-Zarragoitia, A Cevidanes, A. Irizar

Semester: 3

Timetable slot: To be advised

ECTS: 4   

Level: Optional

Bibliography

  • Baptista, F, Garcia, P.V., Rodrigues, A.S., Ladeira, C. 2025. Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity assessment of volatile organic compounds in pathology professionals through the buccal micronuclei assay. Toxics 13(5):411. doi: 10.3390/toxics13050411. DOI: 10.3390/toxics13050411
  • Eritja et al., 2025. Integrating citizen science and field sampling into next-generation early-warning systems for vector surveillance: twenty years of municipal detections of Aedes invasive mosquito species in Spain. Insects. 16(9):904. doi: 10.3390/insects16090904.
  • European Environmental Agency. Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000. Environmental issue report 22/2001 https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/environmental_issue_report_2001_22.
  • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 2024. The European Union One Health 2023 Zoonoses report. EFSA Journal. DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2024.9106.
  • Frumkin, E. (Ed.). 2016. Environmental Health: From Global to Local (3rd Edition). Wiley Publisher. ISBN: 978-1-118-98476-5
  • Hutchinson, T.H , Ankley, G.T; Segner, H., Charles R Tyler C.R. 2006. Screening and testing for endocrine disruption in fish-biomarkers as “signposts,” not “traffic lights,” in risk assessment Environ Health Perspect. 114 (Suppl 1):106-14. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8062.
  • Ortiz-Zarragoitia, M. Diaz de Cerio, O; Rojo-Bartolomé, I; Bizarro, C; Cajaraville, M.P. & Cancio, I. 2014. Mugilid fish are sentinels of exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds in coastal and estuarine waters. Mar. Drugs 12: 4756-4782.
  • Osinga et al., 2025. Association of gestational thyroid function and thyroid autoimmunity with gestational diabetes: a systematic review and individual participant meta-analysis. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 13(8): 651-661. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(25)00068-3.
  • P; Miglioli, A; LaLone, C; Baumann, L; Baynes, A; Blanc-Legendre, M; Cancio, I; Cousin, X; Dang, Z; Dumollard, R; Ford, A; Green, C; Iguchi, T; Kearney, P; Knigge, T; Minier, C; Monsinjon, T; Monteiro, M.S; Sturve, J; Watanabe, H; Yamamoto, H; Ankley, G;. Power, D.M; Katsiadaki, I. Prioritizing research on endocrine disruption in the marine environment: a global perspective following a state-of-the-science review. Biological Reviews (doi: 10.1111/brv.70106)
  • Rowland S; Molina, M. JOHN H. (2001). CHAFEE Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment. 1st National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment. https://www.gcseglobal.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/ChafeeMemorialLecture_2000.pdf National Council for Science and the Environment.
  • Sateesh, M.K. 2008. Bioethics and Biosafety. IK International. ISBN 978-8190675703
  • Wooley, D.P., Byers, K. B. (Eds.). 2017. Biological Safety: Principles and Practices (5th Edition). ASM Press. ISBN 9781555816209

Assessment

  • Written theory examination test (15%)
  • Written theory examination short questions (15%)
  • Case study and oral presentation (70%)

Course Evaluation

By completion of University Unit Evaluation Questionnaire by students, annual assessment by Unit Coordinator

Course Syllabus (PDF)