Ch 3 Flashcards
Persistent chemicals
Chemicals that don’t readily degrade overtime
Toxins
Chemicals that cause direct damage upon exposure
EPA
The federal agency responsible for setting policy and enforcing US environmental laws
Risk assessment
Weighing the risks and benefits of a particular action in order to decide how to proceed
Precautionary principle
A rule of thumb that calls for leaving a safety margin when the data about a particular substance’s potential for harm are uncertain and where the substance may cause unexpected or unpredictable effects
Information literacy
The ability to find and evaluate the quality of information
Primary sources
Sources that present new and original data or information, including novel scientific experiments or observations and first-hand accounts of any given event
Peer review
A process where researchers submit a report of their work to outside experts who evaluate the study’s design and results to determine if it is of high enough quality to publish
Secondary sources
Sources that present and interpret information from primary sources. Secondary sources include newspapers, magazines, books, and most information from the Internet
Tertiary sources
Sources the present and interpret information from the secondary sources
Persistence
The length of time it takes a substance to break down in the environment
Solubility
A
Bioaccumulation
A
Biomagnification
A
Epidemiologists
A
