The World Health Organization has developed a free introductory short course for health workers to bring awareness to the health risks associated with air pollution. This four-hour course is a part of a larger resource, the Air Pollution and Health Training Toolkit for Health Workers, set to be released by the end of this year.
Upon completion participants receive a certificate of achievement from WHO. Enrol for free here
About the toolkit for health workers
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat and one of the main risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. Globally, air pollution is responsible for about 7 million premature deaths per year due to ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, but also from acute lower respiratory tract infections.
Despite most of health curricula do not address the health impacts of air pollution, the international community recently recognized that health workers have a more prominent role to play in the battle for clean air.
Mandated by its Member States, WHO is developing the Air Pollution and Health Training (APHT) toolkit for health workers.
The APHT toolkit is a set of materials designed to enable health workers, in both the clinical and public health fields, to understand the health risks of air pollution and identify risk reduction measures. Health workers can use the health argument to advocate for clean air interventions and promote the collaboration between civil society relevant actors and governmental institutions for policy implementation. Using a train-the-trainer approach, the APHT toolkit also helps facilitate the organization of in-person workshops, online courses and other learning opportunities.
Enrol
An official Certificate of Achievement, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be available to participants who score at least 80% in the final assessment.
You can enrol here.
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
