Environmental Health Flashcards
Name some chemical hazards
Cleaning products, cigarette smoke, lead in drinking water, bisphenol A, carbon monoxide
Name some biological hazards
Tuberculossis, zika, influenza, salmonella, animals
Name some physical hazards
Ultraviolet radiation, musculoskeletal, noise, vibration, cell phone radiation
How many chemicals are there in U.S. commerce?
3,000
Of the 3000 chemicals used in high production volume (HPV), what percent have basic risk information?
7% of HPV chemicals have all basic risk information
Globally, rivers that serve ___ million/billion people are plagued by chemical, biological, and physical hazards?
> 5 billion people
How many Americans live in areas that exceed national air quality standards of pollution?
127 million Americans
How many liters of air do you inhale per day?
11,000 liters
What % of global death/disease is due to environmental hazards?
25% in adults and 33% in children
The exposure-disease model of environmental health follows the pathway…
Source -> movement of pollutants -> human exposure -> dose -> adverse health effects
What is environmental health?
All aspects of human health, including quality of life, as determined by factors in the environment; this includes physical, biological, social, and psychological factors
What’s driving environmental health issues?
Population growth
The carrying capacity of the earth is…
2-40 billion people
What is a hazard?
Something capable of harming human health
What is source in terms of environmental health?
The location or point from which a hazard originates
What are pathways?
How hazards travel from a source to humans
What is exposure?
The amount of contact with a hazard
What is dose?
The amount of agent actually deposited within or imparted onto the body
What is response?
The biological response to an agent
What is environmental fate?
The pathways that environmental pollutants take
What is an exposure route?
How a hazard gets into your body once it reaches you
What are the 4 types of exposure routes?
Inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, skin absorption
What is exposure assessment?
A measurement or estimation of human exposure
What are the key components of an exposure assessment?
Magnitude, frequency, duration
What is magnitude?
How much of an agent there is
What is frequency?
How often contact with a hazard occurs
What is duration?
How long contact with a hazard lasts
What is simple exposure?
A single short-duration, known exposure that is well documented
What is complex exposure?
Mixture of agents and high variability in exposure
Exposure leads to…
Dose
What is a dose-response assessment?
Characterizing of relationships between varying exposures and adverse effects in exposed populations
What are some examples of adverse health effects from environmental hazards?
Obesity, asphyxiation, asthma, death, GI illness, hearing loss, injuries, skin cancer, lung cancer, reproductive effects, skin rash, thyroid cancer, zika virus
