The department of hygiene was founded in 1932. The vacancy of head of the department was filled by election of professor Anatoly Petrovich Mukhin, a well-known hygienist from Leningrad.
From 1934 the department of general hygiene was headed by associate professor I. N. Okulov, who in 1936 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences (M.D.) and rank of professor on the basis of total number of his scientific works. I.N.Okulov was the head of the department from 1934 till 1960. For merits in health service organization and training personnel Professor I. N. Okulov was awarded the Order of Lenin and medals as well, honorary diplomas of Presidium of Supreme Soviet of Kazakh SSR, Presidium of all-USSR Central Soviet of Trade Union, Crimean regional committee and executive board.
In I960, associate professor Valery Andreyevich Ovsyannikov became the head of the department of general hygiene. Under his guidance the interesting work started on macro- and microelement composition of foodstaffs from different climatic areas of the Crimea. Thorough researches were carried out on the Crimean largest chemical factories in Saki and Krasnoperekopsk. First time in world practice the unique methods of determining bromine in the air of industrial premises and in blood of workers were elaborated.
From 1974 Professor Sapegin Dmitry Ivanovich, being the head of the department, became the leader of a new scientific direction of the department in the field of hygienic toxicology, namely, “Scientific bases of hygiene and pesticide toxicology”. Six candidate's dissertations were defended on this theme.
Since 1994 the department has been headed by Professor S. E. Shibanov. For this period the particular attention has been paid to improvement of educational process, extensive research of ecology (in accordance with a new name of the department – “General Hygiene with Ecology”), approximation of general hygiene teaching to practical work of sanitary and epidemiological service (SES): the department got a new educational base in the city SES of Simferopol, Simferopol district SES and Republican SES, the chief state sanitary doctors of Crimea and Simferopol participate in the educational process).
The scientific work of the department is carried out on the problem of studying the effect of environmental contamination on people’s health in the Crimea and is conducted jointly with the departments of social medicine and normal physiology according to the Program of Ministry of Science, National Academy of Science of Ukraine and Council of Ministers of Crimea. For the recent 5 years 4 candidate's dissertations have been defended (S.G. Yashchenko, I. B. Butyrskaya, O.E. Kurkchi, S.V. Kozulya), and 2 doctoral dissertation are being prepared for defence.
Prof. S. E. Shibanov is the author of textbooks and manuals on general hygiene with medical ecology in the Russian and English languages; he is the coauthor of curricula on general hygiene of Ministry of Health Protection of Ukraine (years 2002 and 2005) and textbook on general hygiene and medical ecology (Kiev, 2006). At present the teaching of General Hygiene at the department is carried out according to the requirements of Bologna declaration, after the course of studies the students take the complex practically-oriented final state examination. Apart from General Hygiene, the following subjects ate taught at the department: Bases of Ecology, Life Safety Fundamentals, Labor Protection in Medicine and Pharmacy.
