Exam 1 Flashcards
(63 cards)
Epidemiologic Triad
interaction between susceptible host, external agent, adn environment that bring these two together
Environmental Contamination
Can be natural: not caused by humans, fires, volcanoes
Anthropogenic: caused by humans, pollution
Climate change
more extreme weather, food and water scarcity, and emerging diseases
Eutrophication
Water body receives excessive nutrients –> overgrowth of algae –> algae die and decomposes –> lack of oxygen which kills aquatic animals.
Water quality
inorganic contaminants: Pb, Hg
organic: carbon
waterborne illness: Hep A, cholera, protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium
Bioaccumulation
accumulation of toxic chemical in the tissue
Biomagnification
a special type of bioaccumulation that occurs through the food chain
results in dramatically increasing concentrations of a toxic chemical in the bodies of animals as you go up the food chain. example: mercury
ecosystem services
functions of natural earth systems that gives human value for free
- regulating services
- provisioning services
- supporting or habitat services
- cultural services
Provisioning services
- materials benefits from ecosystems
- examples: wild caught fish, raw materials, clean freshwater, medicinal resources
cultural services
tourism, recreation, fishing hunting
Regulating services
- help keep the world climate and resources stable
- often invisible and taken for granted
- examples: maintaining quality of air, soil, or water, regulating water flow
Beavers in wetland help to restore agriculture
beaver are like ecosystem engineers (species that change biotic or abiotic materials to influence habitat)
keystone species
very important for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function
supporting services
- providing habitat for all organism
- maintaining biodiversity
Greenhouse effect
natural greenhouse effect: most heat escapes into space
human enhanced: less heat escapes into space because there is a lot of greehouse gases which the heat is just re emitted
Main gases: CO2, Methane CH4, Nitrous Oxide N2O, Gases that contain fluorine
CO2 and Ocean acidification
-CO2 uptake results in increase H+(proton) concentration in ocean water
increased H+ –> changes seawater chemistry and interferes with marine animals ability
Environmental Health
- examines the relationships between people and their environment
- promotes human health and healthy communities
- promotes policies and programs to reduce exposure to contaminant in air, water, soil
routes of exposure to environmental contaminants
- chemicals in the environment affect you when they are absorbed into your body
- inhalation; through respiratory system
- ingestions: through gastrointestinal tract
- dermal: through the skin
- in clinical practice: injection
Respiratory tract
- surface area of lungs is large and allows for rapid uptake and release of certain molecules
- particulate matter: smaller particles move deeper into the respiratory system
GI tract
- ingestion: the small intestine has a large surface area to faciliate nutrient absorption; chemical can also be absorbed into the body
Skin
- damaged skin (cuts, etc)
- thickness of outer layer
- skin temperature
top 10 causes of death from environment
- ischemic heart disease
- chronic respiratory disease
- cancers
- unintentional injuries
- respiratory infections
- stroke
- diarrhoeal disease
- diabetes
- malaria
- neonatal conditions
Criteria air pollutant: regulated air contaminant
- particulate matter
- ground level ozone
- carbon monoxide
- lead
- sulfur dioxide
- nitrogen dioxide
particulate matter
- less than 10 microns in diameter
- can cause: premature death, nonfatal heart attack, irregular heartbeat, asthma
- children, older adults, and people with heart or lung diseases are most susceptible to the effects
carbon monoxide
- high levels of CO dont typically occur outdoors
- elevated CO outdoors can cause problems for people who have reduced ability to get oxygenated blood to the heart
- during exercise or stress they may experience reduced oxygen to the heart and angina (a type of chest pain)