Chapter 8 Vocabulary Flashcards
Health
A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Disease
An abnormal change in the body’s condition that impairs important physical or psychological functions.
Morbidity
Illness or disease.
Mortality
Death rate in a population; the probability of dying.
Environmental Health
The science of external factors that cause disease, including elements of the natural, social, cultural and technological worlds in which we live.
DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years)
A measure of premature deaths and losses due to illnesses in a population.
Pathogens
An organism that produces disease in a host organism, disease being an alteration of one or more metabolic functions in response to the presence of the organism.
Emergent Diseases
A new disease or one that has been absent for at least 20 years.
Ecological Diseases
Emergent diseases (new or rarely seen diseases) that cause devastating epidemics among wildlife and domestic animals.
Conservation Medicine
A medical field that attempts to understand how environmental changes threaten our own health as well as that of the natural communities on which we depend for ecological services.
Toxins
Poisonous chemicals that react with specific cellular components to kill cells or to alter growth or development in undesirable ways; often harmful, even in dilute concentrations.
Allergens
Substances that activate the immune system.
Antigens
Chemical compounds to which antibodies bond.
Sick Building Syndrome
Headaches, allergies, chronic fatigue and other symptoms caused by poorly vented indoor air contaminated by pathogens or toxins.
Endocrine Disrupters
Chemicals that disrupt normal hormone functions.
