Risk Analysis
What shape is a dose-responsive study graph?
Logistic; s-shaped
What causes more deaths chronic or acute? Why?
Chronic
What's LD50?
LD50: lethal dose that kills 50 percent of individuals in a dose-responsive study
What does the endocrine system do?
Release hormones that regulate growth, metabolism, & development of reproductive organs
What animals are dose-response studies conducted on instead of humans?
What agency regulates harmful chemicals in the US? Do they use more of a precautionary principle or an innocent-until-guilty principle?
Environmental Protective Agency
What's the scientific name for Mad Cow Disease?
What's bioaccumulation and biomagnification?
Bioaccumulation: increased concentration of a chemical within an organism over time
Biomagnification: increase in chemical concentration in animal tissues as the chemical moves up the food chain
What's a teratogen? What's an example of one?
A chemical that interferes with the normal development of embryos and fetuses. Examples are alcohol and thalidomide (used to be prescribed for morning sickness).
What is a sublethal effect? Examples?
Causes a change in behavior, physiology, or reproduction.
Ex. male fish laying eggs,
Name some risk factors for health problems in developing and developed countries.
3rd:no adequate access to food, water, or sanitization
1st: sedentary lifestyle; use of tobacco and drugs; not sufficient nutrients in diet
How does drug resistance work? What disease treatment is especially linked to drug resistance?
Pathogens evolve to be resistant to medications; HIVes.
What's a prion?
Proteins that determine how other proteins fold
What type of harmful chemicals do pesticides typically use?
What's a synergistic interaction?
Two risks together cause more harm than expected based on the separate effects of each risk alone
Risk Formula
Probability of being exposed to a hazard x the probability of being harmed if exposed
What does it mean for a disease to be dormant in the body? What disease can be dormant?
Dormant: being a host for the pathogen, but not being expressed and therefore no symptoms
Tuberculosis
A list of 12 chemicals to be banned, phased out, or reduced due to the Stockholm Agreement
If 1 mg/kg of mass of a pesticide is the LD50 for rats in an experiment, what would be considered the same exposure for humans?
0.001 mg/kg
What is chemical persistence? How is it calculated?
Persistence: how long the chemical remains in the environment; Found using half-life
What are the 3 steps of risk assessment? Describe each section
Risk Assessment
Risk Acceptance
Risk Management
What diseases are transmitted via mosquitos?
Zika virus, malaria, West Nile virus
What's the difference between a dose-responsive study, a prospective study, and a retrospective study?
Dose-Responsive Study: expose animals to different amounts of chemicals and then watch responses
Retrospective Study: monitors people who have been exposed to an environmental hazard and compares them to those not exposed over a lifetime
Prospective Study: studies those who might become exposed to an environmental hazard in the future
Name 3 carcinogens
arsenic, asbestos, PCBs, Radon, vinyl chloride
Precautionary because the safety of the chemical needs to be determined before consumers are in contact