QUIZ 3 Flashcards
(19 cards)
ENV’T: route of exposure
inhalation, ingestion, absorption
exposures can either negative [absorption of lead via skin] OR positive [e.g. ingestion of nutritious foods]
ENV’T: body burden
the total amount of naturally occurring or synthetic chemicals that are present in the human body at a given point in time
sometimes it is also useful to consider the body burden of a specific, single chemical [e.g. lead, mercury, dioxin]
ENV’T: bioaccumulation
describes a process by which chemicals are taken up by an organism either directly from exposure to a contaminated medium or by consumption of food containing the chemical
e.g. pesticides used to treat vegetation, accumulation of heavy metals [mercury] in an aquatic food chain
ENV’T: tragedy of the commons
it is a theory which states that individuals acting independently and rationally according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource
ENV’T: climate change
agents and vectors of disease
- warmer temp.’s could promote survivability, shorter development rates and transmission
- disease agents/ microbes of species that benefit from warming will likely become more prevalent
ENV’T: lead exposure
adverse effects:
- inverse relationship b/w amount of lead and IQ
- decrease in proficiency in basic academic skills, dec’d school achievement and poor organizational skills
- association w/ attention, learning, behavioral [distractiability, hyperactivity] problems
the blood lead level of concern changed from 10 ug/dL to 5 ug/dL
- it is not a level of toxicologic effects but it is the level at which clinical and public health interventions are recommended
ENV’T: environmental justice v. injustice
it is the fair tx. and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income w/ respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies
EPI: case control studies
retrospective
select group of subjects w/ known diseases [“cases”] are compared to subjects who do not have the disease [“controls”] to determine proportion of the controls that were exposed and what proportion were not
selecting controls are critical to quality of study, they should resemble cases in other ways
- e.g. same SES, marital status, etc.
cons: recall bias may decrease quality of data
EPI: cohort studies
prospective
starts w/ pop. at risk measuring their baseline and follows-up the pop. over time w/ surveillance or re-examination
EPI: incidence
“new cases”
reflects the rate of disease occurrence
incidence rate = # of new cases in time period / pop. at risk at that time
EPI: prevalence
“all cases”
reflects the # of people who have a disease in a period of time
prevalence = incidence x duration
EPI: patient 0
the first person to become sick w/ a illness that others have also become sick w/
EPI: epidemic
occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people
EPI: pandemic
it is a global disease outbreak
e.g. HIV/AIDS
EPI: outbreak
it is when a disease occurs in greater numbers than expected in a community or region or during a season
EPI: endemic
it is regularly found among particular people or in a certain area
e.g. areas where malaria is endemic
upstream
addressing structural determinants
e.g. SES, income, racism, marginalization, policies
midstream
addressing intermediary determinants, or material circumstances
e.g. housing conditions, employment and food security
downstream
addresses immediate health needs of individuals and pop.’s
e.g. surgery for a gunshot wound or filling an asthma med. prescription]
