#Trash
Effluent created from the reaction of water with substances contained in trash.
What is leachate?
The largest reservoir of phosphorous
What is sedimentary rock?
Substances produced within cells or the bodies of organisms.
What are toxins?
Two opposing philosophical approaches to product innovation and control of potentially toxic substances.
What are innocent-until-proven-guilty and the Precautionary Principal?
The law established in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites in the United States
What is CERCLA?
Ignitability, corrosivity, toxicity, and reactivity.
What are the characteristics of hazardous waste?
A significant pathway for carbon shifting from the lithosphere to the atmosphere.
Combustion of fossil fuels
A response that may occur only above a certain dose.
What is a threshold dose?
An organism that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal, human, or plant to another.
What is a vector?
A reservoir that accepts more materials than it releases.
What is a sink?
Deep well injection; surface impoundments; specialized landfills
What are the methods for disposal of hazardous waste?
A process that has greatly enhanced human ability to to fix nitrogen.
What is the Haber-Bosch process?
Substances (such as alcohol, recreational drugs, and thalidomide) and diseases (such as rubella) that cause harm to unborn persons (such as birth defects).
What are teratogens?
Substances resulting from more complex toxicants that may be more or less harmful than the parent compounds.
What are breakdown products?
A system that is said to be in dynamic equilibrium.
What is a negative feedback loop?
Purchasing goods with less packaging; reusing already owned goods; products designed to use fewer resources; increasing efficiency of manufacturing
What are examples of source reduction?
Name an environmental consequence for altering each of the biogeochemical cycles we've studied
Eutrophication
Acid rain
Climate change
Particle pollution
Nutrient deposition
Groundwater contamination
Ocean acidification
Groundwater loss (increased runoff and decreased recharge)
Increased evaporation (leading to loss of surface water resources)
Speed of toxin uptake in ascending order
Dermal -> Ingestion -> Inhalation -> Injection
Cancer; cardiovascular disease; stroke; injuries
Examples of non-infectious diseases
An invasive species of insect enters an ecosystem and begins to quickly reproduce. The increased offspring lead to even more reproduction, which result in still more offspring the following year. This eventually creates exponential growth.
Positive feedback loop
Name 5 components of an American sanitary landfill
Leachate collection pipes
Compacted impermeable clay
Plastic liner
Soil
Gravel
Granular drainage layer
Groundwater monitoring well
Methane gas recovery well / flare
Two types of microorganisms that enable fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.
What are diazotrophs and rhizobia?
A high fat diet; tetradotoxin; UV radiation; thalidomide
Examples of the four types of environmental hazards in order - Cultural, biological, physical, chemical
Fat-soluble toxins, when present in the environment, build up in the fatty tissues of organisms over time to high concentrations.
What is bioaccumulation?
The American law gives the EPA the authority to regulate the introduction of new or already existing chemicals.
What is the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976?