Chapter 15 Midterm 2 Flashcards
environmental health
a branch of public health focused on identifying, understanding, and mitigating environmental hazards that affect human health and well-being
Leading causes of human mortality
cardiovascular, disease, cancer, respiratory disease, dementia
Leading causes of death in developed countries
non-communicable diseases
Developing countries suffer more from plus examples
communicable diseases- HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, COVID b/c of lack of access to PPE, ventilators, and intensive-care beds
Types of Environmental Hazards
Chemical, biological, physical, sociocultural
Toxicology
the study of the adverse effects of chemical, biological, and physical agents on living organisms
Chemical Hazards
hazards that threaten human health, exposed to at home, work, products we hands, air we breathe, water we drink, fod we consume, we all have toxins in our tissues
Examples of chemical hazards
mercury, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Biological Hazards
Biologics, in whole or part that threaten human health; viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, poisonous plants and animals
Physical Hazards
Physical agents that compromise human health (ex. Flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, noise)
Sociocultural Hazards
Sociological practices that threaten human life and place humans at greater risk of experiencing chemical, biological or physical hazards (ex. Smoking, lack of access to clean water)
Types of toxic agents
carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors
Carcinogens + examples
Cancer-causing agents. (perfluorooctanoic acid in Teflon, benzene in crude oil, arsenic in rice formaldehyde in particleboard, PCBs in old transformers, and radon gas, biological agents, physical agents)
cancer
generic term to describe a group of over 100 diseases commonly defined by uncontrolled division of malfunctioning cells
teratogen
agents that cause physical or functional defects of the human embryo or fetus
Ex. thalidomide, lead
neurotoxins
Natural or synthetic chemical that alters the structure and/or function of the nervous system
Pufferfish, agricultural insecticides
mutagen
A physical or chemical agent that alters a cell’s DNA.