1: What are some of the chronic health effects of exposure to Benzene?
Blood disorders like lukemia
2: What are some of the potential sources of Benzene in the environment?
tobacco smoke and evaporating gasoline at service stations
3: Why is it so hard to link health problems to toxic air pollution?
Facilities are not breaking federal law and the people have grown near these facilities
4: Why it is said that between a state of health and a state of disease is a gray zone of suboptimal health, a state of imbalance?
People may not be diagnosed with a specific disease but may not be healthy
5: Explain what happened at Lake Nyos, Cameroon.
They pumped gas-rich water to the surface
6: What is the difference between a pollutant and a contaminant?
Pollutants are unwanted changes and contaminants make something unfit for a particular use
7: Define the following:
• Toxin: substances that are poisonous to living things
• Toxicology: science that studies toxins or suspected toxins
• Carcinogen: toxin that increases the risk of cancer
• Synergism: An important subject in considering pollution problems
• Point sources: Give example: Pollutants commonly introduced in the environment (smokestacks)
• Area sources (non-point): Give example: diffused over the land (urban runoff)
• Mobile sources: Give example: type of an area source (automobile exhaust)
8: Define the following: (Identify when they are used)
• ppm: measuring small amounts of pollutants
• ppb: measuring small amounts of pollutants
• mg/L: for units of concentration for a pollutant
• μg/m3: used when measuring air pollutants
9: What is an Infectious Agent? (Give examples):A infectious disease spread by the interaction between individuals and by the food,water,air,soil and animals (HIV)
A Closer Look 10.1
Sudbury Smelters: A Point Source
10: Explain what happened to the area surrounding the Sudbury Smelter as a result of the release of heavy metal pollution into the air
Nickel contaminated soils up to 50km from the stacks.
11: What are some common heavy metals found in the environment? What health hazards can they pose to humans?
gold, platinum, silver, bismuth and arsenic
12: What is the concept of Body Burden?
The quantity of heavy metals in our bodies
What are the body burdens for the following?
• Antimony: 8mg
• Mercury: 13mg
• Arsenic: 18mg
• Cadmium: 30mg
• Lead: 150mg
13: Define biomagnification/bioaccumulation:
accumulation or increasing concentration of a substance in living tissue
14: Describe how Cadmium is a good example of biomagnification.
Cadmium has low concentration in ash and soil taken into the plants as they grow
15: How does Mercury enter the environment?
from deposition from the atmosphere through precipitation
16: Define Methylation:
When mercury is in surface water
17: Define Volatilization:
Conversion of liquid mercury to vapor
What are the 4 major factors that must be considered in evaluating and treating toxic environmental pollutants?
Individuals vary in their response to exposure to the same dose or amount of a pollutant; pollutants may have a threshold; some effects are reversible and the chemical form of a pollutant, activity, and its potential to cause health problems may be changed markedly by ecological and biological processes.
18: Define: Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) and describe the properties that define them
How is Dioxin produced?
What happened in Times Beach, Missouri?
19: Give some examples of HAA’s:
20: Explain how PCB’s are harmful (found in plastics):
Read: A Closer Look 10.4- Demasculinization and Feminization of Frogs
Explain how hormone disruptors (Endocrine disruptors) work
21: How can Thermal Pollution affect a body of water and it’s biodiversity? Explain.
22: What are examples of particulates?
23: Why is asbestos harmful to humans?24: How can EMF (Electromagnetic Fields) be harmful to humans?
25: How is noise pollution measured?
26: What are some voluntary exposures to pollutants?
27: What is meant by the quote, “everything is poisonous, yet nothing is poisonous”?
Explain.
28: Describe the “dose-response”. Draw and label the generalized dose-response curve.
Explain each step.
29: Define the following:
• LD-50:
• ED-50:
• TD-50:
• LD-0:
30: Explain the concept of a threshold dose:
31: Define:
• Behavioral tolerance: • Physiological tolerance:
• Genetic tolerance:
32: Explain the difference between an acute and chronic effect.
33: Explain the steps of risk assessment:
34: What is the precautionary principle?
Read: “Is Lead in the Urban Environment Contributing to Antisocial Behavior”
35: What is the main point of the discussion about lead in the bones of children and
behavior?
36: Why is it difficult to establish standards for acceptable levels of pollution? In giving
your answer, consider physical, climatological, biological, social, and ethical reasons.
Blood disorders like lukemia
2: What are some of the potential sources of Benzene in the environment?
tobacco smoke and evaporating gasoline at service stations
3: Why is it so hard to link health problems to toxic air pollution?
Facilities are not breaking federal law and the people have grown near these facilities
4: Why it is said that between a state of health and a state of disease is a gray zone of suboptimal health, a state of imbalance?
People may not be diagnosed with a specific disease but may not be healthy
5: Explain what happened at Lake Nyos, Cameroon.
They pumped gas-rich water to the surface
6: What is the difference between a pollutant and a contaminant?
Pollutants are unwanted changes and contaminants make something unfit for a particular use
7: Define the following:
• Toxin: substances that are poisonous to living things
• Toxicology: science that studies toxins or suspected toxins
• Carcinogen: toxin that increases the risk of cancer
• Synergism: An important subject in considering pollution problems
• Point sources: Give example: Pollutants commonly introduced in the environment (smokestacks)
• Area sources (non-point): Give example: diffused over the land (urban runoff)
• Mobile sources: Give example: type of an area source (automobile exhaust)
8: Define the following: (Identify when they are used)
• ppm: measuring small amounts of pollutants
• ppb: measuring small amounts of pollutants
• mg/L: for units of concentration for a pollutant
• μg/m3: used when measuring air pollutants
9: What is an Infectious Agent? (Give examples):A infectious disease spread by the interaction between individuals and by the food,water,air,soil and animals (HIV)
A Closer Look 10.1
Sudbury Smelters: A Point Source
10: Explain what happened to the area surrounding the Sudbury Smelter as a result of the release of heavy metal pollution into the air
Nickel contaminated soils up to 50km from the stacks.
11: What are some common heavy metals found in the environment? What health hazards can they pose to humans?
gold, platinum, silver, bismuth and arsenic
12: What is the concept of Body Burden?
The quantity of heavy metals in our bodies
What are the body burdens for the following?
• Antimony: 8mg
• Mercury: 13mg
• Arsenic: 18mg
• Cadmium: 30mg
• Lead: 150mg
13: Define biomagnification/bioaccumulation:
accumulation or increasing concentration of a substance in living tissue
14: Describe how Cadmium is a good example of biomagnification.
Cadmium has low concentration in ash and soil taken into the plants as they grow
15: How does Mercury enter the environment?
from deposition from the atmosphere through precipitation
16: Define Methylation:
When mercury is in surface water
17: Define Volatilization:
Conversion of liquid mercury to vapor
What are the 4 major factors that must be considered in evaluating and treating toxic environmental pollutants?
Individuals vary in their response to exposure to the same dose or amount of a pollutant; pollutants may have a threshold; some effects are reversible and the chemical form of a pollutant, activity, and its potential to cause health problems may be changed markedly by ecological and biological processes.
18: Define: Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) and describe the properties that define them
How is Dioxin produced?
What happened in Times Beach, Missouri?
19: Give some examples of HAA’s:
20: Explain how PCB’s are harmful (found in plastics):
Read: A Closer Look 10.4- Demasculinization and Feminization of Frogs
Explain how hormone disruptors (Endocrine disruptors) work
21: How can Thermal Pollution affect a body of water and it’s biodiversity? Explain.
22: What are examples of particulates?
23: Why is asbestos harmful to humans?24: How can EMF (Electromagnetic Fields) be harmful to humans?
25: How is noise pollution measured?
26: What are some voluntary exposures to pollutants?
27: What is meant by the quote, “everything is poisonous, yet nothing is poisonous”?
Explain.
28: Describe the “dose-response”. Draw and label the generalized dose-response curve.
Explain each step.
29: Define the following:
• LD-50:
• ED-50:
• TD-50:
• LD-0:
30: Explain the concept of a threshold dose:
31: Define:
• Behavioral tolerance: • Physiological tolerance:
• Genetic tolerance:
32: Explain the difference between an acute and chronic effect.
33: Explain the steps of risk assessment:
34: What is the precautionary principle?
Read: “Is Lead in the Urban Environment Contributing to Antisocial Behavior”
35: What is the main point of the discussion about lead in the bones of children and
behavior?
36: Why is it difficult to establish standards for acceptable levels of pollution? In giving
your answer, consider physical, climatological, biological, social, and ethical reasons.