Environmental Hazards
This type of environmental hazard includes viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing organisms.
What are biological hazards?
This is the study of disease in human populations, examining how and where diseases occur.
What is epidemiology?
This phrase means that any chemical can be harmful in large enough amounts, even water.
What is 'the dose makes the poison'?
This colorless and odorless gas can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and death. Sources include leaky stoves and car exhaust.
What is carbon monoxide (CO)?
This is the probability that a hazard will cause a harmful response, such as death or disease.
What is risk?
Earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and UV radiation from sunlight are all examples of this type of environmental hazard.
What are physical hazards?
This is the study of how poisonous substances affect an organism's health.
What is toxicology?
These chemicals cause cancer in humans and are one of the six main types of chemical hazards.
What are carcinogens?
This radioactive gas is colorless and odorless, seeps up from the ground, and can build up in basements with poor air circulation.
What is radon?
This group of people tends to be more sensitive to harmful chemicals because they are smaller and their organ systems are still developing.
Fetuses, infants, and young children
These hazards result from where we live, our jobs, or our lifestyle choices, such as smoking cigarettes or living near a polluting factory.
What are social hazards?
This curve shows how an organism's response changes with increasing doses of a toxican
What is a dose-response curve?
These chemicals harm embryos and fetuses during development.
What are teratogens?
This mineral forms long, thin microscopic fibers and was used as insulation. When disturbed, it can cause serious lung diseases including cancer.
What is asbestos?
This author wrote 'Silent Spring,' which raised awareness about the harmful effects of DDT on wildlife and the environment.
Who is Rachel Carson?
According to the WHO, climate change is expected to cause approximately this many additional deaths per year between 2030-2050 from malnutrition, malaria, and heat stress.
What is 250,000 deaths per year?
True or False: An organism always has the same response to a chemical regardless of the dose it is exposed to. Explain why.
What is FALSE? The response varies with the dose. For example, high doses of radiation can kill an organism, while lower doses may only make the organism sick
These chemicals interfere with the endocrine (hormone) system in the body.
What are endocrine disruptors?
VOCs stands for this, and they are carbon-containing compounds released by plastics, perfumes, and pesticides.
What are Volatile Organic Compounds?
People respond differently to environmental hazards due to individual differences. Name THREE factors that affect individual sensitivity.
Age, gender, weight, health issues, and genetic makeup
Name THREE ways climate change impacts human health.
What are: extreme heat/heat stress, air quality/respiratory issues, vector-borne diseases, water quality/waterborne diseases, food security/malnutrition, mental health impacts, or extreme weather injuries?
A substance's toxicity depends on these TWO factors.
What the substance is, and how much of the substance is needed to cause harm (dose)
Name at least FOUR of the six main types of chemical hazards discussed in class.
Carcinogens, chemical mutagens, teratogens, neurotoxins, allergens, and endocrine disruptors
Exposure to this element through paint, water, contaminated soil, and dust can cause brain damage, learning problems, behavior abnormalities, and hearing loss, especially in children.
What is lead?
DDT stands for this chemical compound, discovered as an insecticide in 1939 by Paul Muller.
What is dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane?