Environmental Determinants of Health - Session 1

Question 1

What are the 4 major classes of infectious agents?

Answer 1

viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths

Question 2

Definition of diarrhea

Answer 2

the pass of 3 or more loose or liquid stools per day

Question 3

Why can diarrhea be deadly?

Answer 3

water and electrolytes are lost, dehydration occurs, and severe dehydration can lead to death

Question 4

diarrhea that lasts several hours, and includes cholera

Answer 4

acute watery diarrhea

Question 5

dysentery

Answer 5

acute bloody diarrhea

Question 6

diarrhea that last 14 days or longer

Answer 6

persistent diarrhea

Question 7

Which infectious agent accounts for 85% of all diarrhea deaths worldwide

Answer 7

rotavirus - and there is a vaccine for it!

Question 8

How is diarrhea treated?

Answer 8

rehydration, zinc supplements, nutrient rich food, and antibiotic treatment

Question 9

What is an oral rehydration solution?

Answer 9

A mixture of clean water, salt, and sugar

Question 10

What is the interplay between diarrhea and malnutrition?

Answer 10

It’s more likely to cause death in malnourished children - they can’t invest the nutrients of the little food they are taking in

Question 11

an acute intestinal infection cause by ingestion of contaminated food or water - has a short incubation period and produces an enterotoxin that causes copious painless watery diarrhea

Answer 11

cholera

Question 12

What is the lifecycle of cholera?

Answer 12

aquatic reservoir - human host - contaminated food and water

Question 13

What are the environmental factors that effect cholera outbreaks over time?

Answer 13

plankton levels in the water and the water temperature

Question 14

How do we treat cholera infections?

Answer 14

oral rehydration solution and itnerevenous fluids with antibiotics

Question 15

What is the main cause of death with cholera?

Answer 15

dehydration

Question 16

A microscopic parasite that is the leading cause of diarrheal disease in the US - infects both animals and humans, has an outer shell that makes it tolerant to chlorine disinfectance

Answer 16

cryptosporidium

Question 17

What is the main symptom of cryptosporidium?

Answer 17

diarrhea

Question 18

Which population within NYC is at greatest risk of a crypto infection?

Answer 18

immunocompromised patietns

Question 19

Why is cryptosporidium such a problem in our drinking water?

Answer 19

tolerant to chlorine, and has animal reservoirs

Question 20

What are some known health effects associated with arsenic exposure?

Answer 20

skin lesions, cancers, cardiovascular problems,and otehrs

Question 21

How is arsenic eliminated from our bodies?

Answer 21

methylation

Question 22

What helps to methylate arensic?

Answer 22

folate supplements

Question 23

What are the strategies for arsenic mitigation?

Answer 23

well switching, and dig deeper wells

Question 24

What was the finding of the global enteric multi center study?

Answer 24

the school based education intervention lead to a significant reduction urinary arsenic

Question 25

What are some examples of bioaerosals?

Answer 25

viruses, bacteria, endotoxins, fungal spots, protozoa, algae, pollen, animal effluents

Question 26

A heterogeneous conditions characterize by variable airflow obstruction that is partially or completely reversible with appropriate treatment

Answer 26

ASthma

Question 27

drug for asthma

Answer 27

Albuterol

Question 28

symptoms of asthma

Answer 28

wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing

Question 29

What does asthma result from

Answer 29

airway inflammation leading to allergic hyper responsiveness

Question 30

What are some known risk factors of asthma?

Answer 30

allergies, smoking, obesity, exercise

Question 31

What are some environmental factors that have been used to explain the epidemic?

Answer 31

dust mites and cockroaches, combustion by-products,, traffic, diesel exhaust, reduced viral exposure, reduced infectious diseases, lack of farm exposure, micronutrients, obesity, acetaminophen, phthalates,

Question 32

the hypothesis that increased cleanliness has lead to an increase in number of allergic individuals

Answer 32

hygiene hypothesis

Question 33

How are IgE antibodies involved in allergic reactions?

Answer 33

The creation of IgE antibodies results in an allergic reaction

Question 34

What are the two stages of an asthma attack?

Answer 34

rapid bronchoconstriction and inflammation

Question 35

How are allergies and asthma related?

Answer 35

an allergen often triggers an asthma attack

Question 36

What is the atopic march?

Answer 36

the progression of allergic disease in the early stages of life

Question 37

a substance (usually a protein) capable of inducing allergy or a specific hypersensitivity

Answer 37

an allergen

Question 38

What are some common allergens associated with asthma

Answer 38

dust mites, cockroach, cats, mice

Question 39

What is the revenant agent?

Answer 39

the actual protein on the source that causes the allergic reaction

Question 40

How does water become contaminated?

Answer 40

Waste seeps into the water, infectious agents are endemic, or get there through human excrement.

Question 41

What is the evidence that water sanitation leads to improved health

Answer 41

switching to ground instead of river, or filtering, and sanitation lead to the greatest reduction in infectious diseases, not antibiotics

Question 42

What are the federal regulations around E-waste?

Answer 42

none- shio it off to developing countries, where it is burned in open air, riverside acid baths, and dummping

Question 43

What are some new EPA regulations for municipal solid waste landfills?

Answer 43

bottom liner and leachate collection, must be treated - can't be near airports, wetlands, or near earthquake faults

Question 44

To promote better management of solid waste, provided financial assistance for states to develop solid waste management plans

Answer 44

Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965

Question 45

Changed the emphasis from solid waste disposal to recycling and energy recovery - required the US PHS and EPA to police waste disposal

Answer 45

Resource Recovery Act os 1970

Question 46

significant changes in requirements for the control of hazardous waste storage, treatment, and disposal

Answer 46

resource Conservation Recovery Act on 1976

Question 47

Directed EPA to regulate disposal of all hazardous waste, treat contaminated surface water running off of landfills, and regulated wastewater sew sludge at landfills

Answer 47

Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984

Question 48

What makes up garbage?

Answer 48

organic materials are the largest component that could be composted - plastics, metals, rubber, and textiles that could be reused or recycled

Question 49

Where is a lot of the hazardous waste stored?

Answer 49

shipped off to developing countries - always contains various hazard substances, child workers are often engaged in e-recycling, and there are many exposures known to be harmful to health - contaminates food, water, homes, and leads to perinatal exposures among others

Question 50

What are some strategies to better manage waste?

Answer 50

risk avoidance, risk containment, risk destruction

Question 51

What is one problem associated with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act?

Answer 51

excludes many hazardous wastes due to lobbying by industry leaders and oil companies - many hazardous materials aren't being treated as such.

Question 52

What are some problems with recycled materials?

Answer 52

purity is not uniform, prices can greatly fluctuate, and lack of market development

Question 53

What are 3 simple ways to treat water for consumption?

Answer 53

chlorine, sunlight, filtration

Question 54

What factors influence water quantity?

Answer 54

number of people at a filling point, access to water containers, ability to store water, distance to water source, safety

Question 55

What is the best to worst ranking of defecation solutions?

Answer 55

toilets, latrines, defecation fields

Question 56

What are some ways to prevent fecal contamination in food or water sources?

Answer 56

The more latrines, the better, and family based latrines are better than community based - since no one maintains it

Question 57

What are the steps of a complete water treatment cycle?

Answer 57

Coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, storage

Question 58

What are 4 was fecal matter can be transmitted to food?

Answer 58

unclean hands, flies, social, or water sources

Question 59

What are three barriers to the Fecal oral transmission?

Answer 59

use toilets, drink safe water, hygiene and handwashing

Question 60

essential for calcium uptake - low levels can lead to osteoporosis and rickets

Answer 60

vitamin D

Question 61

Which UV light is blocked by the ozone?

Answer 61

UVB is blocked, expect for the longer wavelength portion, and UVC is blocked completely

Question 62

What is the relationship between sun exposure and vitamin D/

Answer 62

as sun exposure increases, vitamin d increases

Question 63

How does the ozone benefit our health/

Answer 63

ozone absorbs UV light, protecting us from harmful rays

Question 64

UVA

Answer 64

has longer wavelengths, transmitted by normal glass

Question 65

UVB

Answer 65

medium wavelengths

Question 66

UV-C

Answer 66

short wavelengths, absorbed by the sun

Question 67

how did we "fix" the ozone hole?

Answer 67

eliminated freon and other chloroflurocardon from refridgerators

Question 68

why are CFCs so bad?

Answer 68

they are catalysts that create chlorine ions - this splits up the ozone

Question 69

the shorter the wavelengths of light the ___ energy

Answer 69

more

Question 70

what happens with DNA absorbs energetic UV light

Answer 70

causes the DNA to mutate

Question 71

what happens when there are mutations in somatic cells?

Answer 71

cancer

Question 72

What are risk factor for skin cancer?

Answer 72

age genetics, environment, and personal habits

Question 73

Which UV causes most skin cancer?

Answer 73

UVB, since UVC is blocked

Question 74

What are the two skin cancers grouped under non-melanoma?

Answer 74

basal cell and squamous cell

Question 75

which is the most deadly form, accounting for 79% of all skin cancer deaths?

Answer 75

melanoma

Question 76

protects us from the sun by absorbing rays - people with darker skin produce more

Answer 76

melanin

Question 77

How does melanin protect us?

Answer 77

uv lights attach the pyrimidines rings structure, but uv is absorbed by melanin instead since it has a similar structure

Question 78

how do sunscreens work?

Answer 78

filters that allow some UV through at varying rates, but not all, in order to significantly decrease amount

Question 79

international, legally binding commitments that required industrialized countries to reduce/eliminatn ozone harming chemicals

Answer 79

The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol

Question 80

what are the four main factors of a cancerous cell?

Answer 80

malignancy and uncontrolled growth, clonal, and needs to accumulate mutations

Question 81

a disease of the somatic cells, due to mutation in growth control genes - requires multiple mutations

Answer 81

cancer

Question 82

the ability to spread to tissues or organs beyond where it originated from

Answer 82

metastasis

Question 83

normal functioning growth regulating genes

Answer 83

proto-oncogenes

Question 84

mutations that slow or block cell growth

Answer 84

tumor suppressor genes

Question 85

src

Answer 85

an example of an oncogene

Question 86

where did our molecular understanding from dance come from?

Answer 86

a retrovirus that captured protooncogenes that mutated into oncogenes

Question 87

Whats lead to the decrease in stomach cancer?

Answer 87

h pylori and reduction of salted or cured food

Question 88

What are some diseases associated with asbestos?

Answer 88

lung cancer, mesothelioma

Question 89

why has colorectal cancer increased?

Answer 89

red meat consumption, obesity and physical activity

Question 90

why has there been an increase in hepatocellular carcinoma??

Answer 90

HBV infection

Question 91

What makes aflatoxin carcinogenic?

Answer 91

a potent carcinogen pushed by a molt that created a specific codon mutation

Question 92

Why was breast cancer originally nun's disease?

Answer 92

association with estrogen, women who have higher exposures are more at risk of breast cancer