Lecture 8 Environmental Hazards

Question 1

what are the types of envrionmental hazards

Answer 1

extreme events: windespread and long term nuclear accidnets, cumculative effects pesticides
rare catastrophes: aireplane crashes, mine collapses, shipwrecks
common: automobile accidents, poisions

Question 2

what are culumalive effects

Answer 2

condion the worsens slowly over time as exposure to a concentration increases

Question 3

what is radon and why is it an envrionmental risk

Answer 3

radon gas in from the natural decay of uranium in rock and soil, damages lung tissue, basements are at higher risk due to poor ar ciruclation

Question 4

how does radon enter a home

Answer 4

through shower, cracks and windows in basement

Question 5

how to minimize the risk of radon

Answer 5

foundations need to be maintained, seal cracks in walls and floors around pipes and rais and have radon dectors

Question 6

what are the sources of raiation

Answer 6

mining of uranium

Question 7

what are nucear reactors

Answer 7

located near a large water source, located near a market for electricty, considered clean because it does not emit green house gases

Question 8

what is a nucealr accident

Answer 8

nucealr metldown is damage that results from over heating, heat generted exceeds heat removed by cooling system, in a meltdown fuel rods trun to liquid and the walls of the reactor core could melt

Question 9

what happened in 3 mile island

Answer 9

one of 3 reactors in Pensylvania expereiced a partial meltdow, caused by failure of a valve no direst injuries and minor amounts of radiation were relseased

Question 10

what happened in chernobyl

Answer 10

1986, accident as a result of flawed design, operator error and diresgard to safety, 30 workers died, 2500 deaths caused by the accident years later

Question 11

describe the titanic shipwreck

Answer 11

1912 the ship lef wih 2224 passengers, death toll was 1500 due to lack of life boats, carpathia arrived to pick up survivors from the life boats

Question 12

describe the exxon valez and the deep water oil horrizon oil spills

Answer 12

exxon valdez caused by oil tanker, 75 million L wors oil spill until
deep horizon, oil rig explosion, 11 workers died, 8.5 million L a day for 5 months, due to a series of cost cutting hoies on maintenance, did not have proper system to ensure safety

Question 13

describe the infrastructure failure in Minneaolis

Answer 13

rush hour killing 13 people, due to excessive weight from vehicales and contruction equipent, burdge supports were not proper thickness

Question 14

describe the challenger accident

Answer 14

1986, 73 seconds, due to a faulty o-ring seal failed to seal a joint leading to the relseas of h gas that lead to the failure of the rocket booster, night before luanch had left ice on rocket

Question 15

describe the colubia shuttle accident

Answer 15

in space for 16 days, during luanch a peice of insulation broke off rom the external tank struck left win and damage the system that protet the qing from intsense heat produced by atmosphereic gases upn rentry