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Transcript
Chapter 17
Human Health and Environmental Risks
Three categories of human health
risks

Physical – environmental factors (natural disasters) that
cause injury and loss of life (Sunburn as well)

Biological – associated with diseases

Chemical – associated with chemicals and pesticides
Biological Risks

Infectious diseases- those caused by infectious
agents, known as pathogens.

Examples: pneumonia and venereal diseases

Diseases not caused by pathogens include
respiratory, digestive, and cancers
Biological Risks

Chronic disease- slowly impairs the functioning of a
person’s body.


Heart disease and most cancers
Acute diseases- rapidly impair the functioning of a
person’s body.

Ebola
Risk factors of chronic disease

Low – income countries top risk factors for chronic
disease are poverty, unsafe drinking water, poor
sanitation, and malnutrition

High –income countries increased availability of
tobacco, combination of less active lifestyle, poor
nutrition and overeating.
Epidemic vs. Pandemic

Epidemic – when a pathogen causes a rapid increase
in disease

Pandemic – when an epidemic occurs over a large
geographic region such as an entire continent.
Historical Diseases

Plague – most familiar disease of human history (Black
death)

Caused by an infection from a bacterium that is carried
in fleas.

Mice and fleas.. Bad combination

Killed nearly ¼ of the Eurpoean population in the
1300’s

Last major pandemic was in Asia in the early 1900’s
Historical Diseases

Malaria – caused by infection from any one of several species
of protist.

Parasite spends one stage of its life inside a mosquito and
anther stage inside a human

Hits sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, middle east, and central and
south America.
Historical Diseases

Tuberculosis – highly contagious diseases caused by a
bacterium that primarily infects the lungs.

Spread when a person coughs and expels the bacteria
into the air

Can be treated with antibiotics for a year.
Emergent Diseases

Emergent disease – defined as infectious diseases that were
previously not describe or have not been common for at
least the prior 20 years.

HIV/AIDS

Origin was mystery until 2006 – found in chimpanzees
living in the African nation of Cameroon.

Hunters exposed to virus when butchering or eating the
chimps.

More than 33 million people have died from AIDS related
illness.
Emergent Diseases

Ebola

Discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Death occurs within 2 weeks and there are no drugs
available.

Natural source remains unknown
Emergent Diseases

Mad Cow Disease

Pathogens slowly damages a cow’s nervous system.

Can be transmitted to humans who eat meat from infected
cattle
Emergent Diseases

Bird Flu

Also known as Spanish flu and caused by H1N1

Normally only infects birds

H5N1 another strain that jumped from birds to people.
More than 400 ppl had been infected by H5N1 nad half
have died
Emergent Diseases

West Nile Virus

Lives in hundreds of species of birds and
transmitted among birds by mosquitos.

First human case was in 1937 in the West Nile region
of Uganda.

In 1999 appeared in New York and quickly spread in
the US.

Chemical Risks
Neurotoxins- chemicals that disrupt the nervous system


Carcinogens- chemicals that cause cancer


Ex. insecticides, lead, mercury
Cause cell death, ex. asbestos, radon, and the chemical
found in tobacco
Teratogens- chemicals that interfere with the normal
development of embryos or fetuses

Ex. alcohol

Allergens- chemicals that cause allergic reactions

Endocrine disruptors- chemicals that interfere with the
normal functioning of hormones in an animal’s body
Dose-Response Studies

Dose Response Study – expose animals or plants to
different amounts of a chemical and then observe a
variety of possible responses including mortality or
changes in behavior or reproduction.

Can be measured in concentration of chemical or
dose of chemical.

LD50- lethal dose that kills 50% of the individuals


By quantifying the LD50 value, scientists can
compare the value to thousands of previous tests.
ED50- effective dose that causes 50% of the animals
to display the harmful but nonlethal effect
Retrospective versus Prospective
Studies

Retrospective studies monitor people who have
been exposed to a chemical at some time in the past.


Group that has been exposed to chemical and
group that has not and observe the death rate in
each group
Prospective studies monitor people who might
become exposed to harmful chemicals in the future.
Ex. tobacco use

Synergistic interactions- when two risks come
together and cause more harm that one
would. For example, the health impact of a
carcinogen such as asbestos can be much
higher if an individual also smokes tobacco.
Routes of Exposure
Bioaccumulation

bioaccumulation- an increased concentration
of a chemical within an organism over time

Involves the biological sequestering of
substances that enter the organism through
respiration, food intake, or skin contact with
the substance.

Level at which a given substance is
bioaccumulated depends on:
 Rate of uptake
 Mode of uptake
 Rate the substance is eliminated from the
organism
 Transformation of the substance
 Fat content of the organism
 Environmental factors
Biomagnification

Biomagnification- the increase in a
chemical concentration in animal
tissues as the chemical moves up
the food chain.

Must be long-lived, mobile,
soluble in fats, and biologically
active.
Bioaccumulation vs.
Biomagnification

Methylmercury taken up by bacteria and
phytoplankton

Small fish eat the bacteria and
ACCUMULATE the mercury.

Small fish are eaten by larger fish, which are
then eaten by humans and animals resulting
in the biomagnification of large concentration
of mercury in human and animal tissue.

The more fat-like a substance, the more likely
it is to bioacculumate in organisms, such as
fish.
Persistence

Persistence- how long a chemical remains in the
environment
Risk assessment

Objective esstimation of risk.

Includes indenfication of hazards, doseresponse assessment, exposure assessment,
and risk characterization
Risk acceptance

The level of risk that can be tolerate

4 levels

High risk – such as smoking or diriving
while intoxicated

Low risk – infrequent events that make
have a large consequence, such as an
earthquake

Very low risk – events that occurred in
recorded history, meteor striking NA

Mixed risk – outcomes the increase the
frequency against a background or
occurrences, additional cases of caner
beyond that normally expected
Risk Management

Process of determing what to do about risk.

Includes risk identification and use of trying
to reduce the risk.
Risk Analysis
Qualitative Risk Assessment

Making a judgment of the relative risks of various
decisions

Probability- the statistical likelihood of an event
occurring and the probability of that event causing
harm
Quantitative Risk Assessment

The approach to conducting a quantitative risk
assessment is:

Risk= probability of being exposed to a hazard X
probability of being harmed if exposed
Stockholm Convention

In 2001, a group of 127 nations gathered in Stockholm,
Sweden, to reach an agreement on restricting the
global use of some chemicals

12 chemicals were to be banned, phased out, or
reduced

These include DDT, PCBs, and certain chemicals that
are by-products of manufacturing processes.