Chapter 3

Question 1

toxins

Answer 1

chemicals that cause direct damage upon exposure

Question 2

persistent chemicals

Answer 2

chemicals that don’t readily degrade over time

Question 3

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Answer 3

The federal agency responsible for setting policy and enforcing U.S. environmental laws.

Question 4

risk assessment

Answer 4

weighing the risks and benefits of a particular action in order to decide how to proceed.

Question 5

precautionary principle

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

information literacy

Answer 6

the ability to find and evaluate the quality of information.

Question 7

primary sources

Answer 7

sources that present new and original data or information, including novel scientific experiments or observations and first hand accounts of any given event.

Question 8

peer review

Answer 8

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 a high-enough quality to publish.

Question 9

secondary sources

Answer 9

sources that present and interpret information from primary sources. Secondary sources include newspapers, magazines, books, and most information from the Internet.

Question 10

tertiary sources

Answer 10

Sources and present and interpret information from secondary sources.

Question 11

persistence

Answer 11

the length of time it takes a substance to break down in the environment.

Question 12

solubility

Answer 12

the ability of a substance to dissolve in a liquid or gas.

Question 13

bioaccumulation

Answer 13

the buildup of fat-soluble substances in the tissue of an organism over the course of its lifetime.

Question 14

biomagnification

Answer 14

the increased levels of fat-soluble substances in the tissue of predatory animals that have consumed organisms that have bioaccumulated toxins.

Question 15

epidemiologist

Answer 15

a scientist who studies the cause and patterns of disease in human populations.

Question 16

toxicologists

Answer 16

scientists who study the specific properties of any given potential toxin.

Question 17

in vivo study

Answer 17

research that studies the effect of an experiment treatment in intact organisms.

Question 18

in vitro study

Answer 18

research that studies the effects of experimental treatment cells in culture dishes rather than in intact organisms.

Question 19

additive effects

Answer 19

exposure to two or more chemicals has an effect equivalent to the sum of their individual effects.

Question 20

antagonistic effects

Answer 20

exposure to two or more chemicals has a lesser effect than the sum of their individual effects would predict.

Question 21

synergistic effects

Answer 21

exposure to two or more chemicals has a greater effect than the sum of their individual effects would predict.

Question 22

endocrine disruptor

Answer 22

a molecule that interferes with the endocrine system, typically by mimicking a hormone or preventing a hormone from having an effect.

Question 23

hormone

Answer 23

a molecule released by the body that directs cellular activity and produces changes in how the body functions.

Question 24

receptor

Answer 24

a structure on or inside a cell that binds a hormone, thus allowing the hormone to affect the cell.

Question 25

dose-response curve

Answer 25

a graph of the effects of a substance at different concentrations or levels of exposures.

Question 26

LD50 (lethal dose 50%)

Answer 26

the dose of a substance that would kill 50% of the test population.

Question 27

critical thinking

Answer 27

skills that enable individuals to logically asses the information they find, and reach their own conclusions.

Question 28

logical fallacies

Answer 28

arguments which attempt to sway the reader without using actual evidence.