APES Chapter 13-14 Modules
In which of the following years was the sea surface temperature more than 1ºC above the average temperature?
1983, 1987, 1997
In which of the following years did the incidence of cholera reach its lowest level?
1989
The graph shows the different trends in population growth in less developed regions of the world versus more developed regions of the world. Solid lines in the graph indicate past data, and dashed lines indicate future projections. (Projections of data are based on models, simulations, or extrapolations from past data.) According to the projected data, after what year will the majority of people in less developed regions be living in urban areas?
2018
According to a 2002 study by scientists at the National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA), ________ % of U.S. streams contain traces of wastewater contaminants.
80
Which of the following statements is supported by the graph?
As urban sprawl increases, automobile use also increases.
How do the rates of land use and gasoline consumption in Australian cities compare with those in U.S. cities?
At any level of per capita land consumption, people in U.S. cities use more gasoline than those in Australian cities.
Which of the following can be inferred from the data shown in parts (a) and (b) of the figure?
Buses are inefficient when there are few people riding on them.
________ are substances that cause cancer.
Carcinogens
Which of the following is a positive effect that cities have on the environment?
Cities give people places to live with smaller land use.
Insecticide used to kill mosquitoes; banned in the United States in 1973 due to its toxicity −
DDT
The "dirty dozen" POPs targeted by the Stockholm Convention include ________.
DDT and PCBs
Which of the following is a method that governments use to improve urban transportation?
Designate lanes as carpool-only.
The ________ regulates pesticides in the United States.
EPA
_____ studies are comparisons that track the fate of large groups of people for long periods of time in order to help answer an environmental question.
Epidemiological
What do the orange dots represent?
European cities
Pregnant women and children are warned not to eat certain kinds of fish that have high mercury content. Why do some fish tend to have higher mercury levels than other fish?
Fish that are high in the food chain eat prey that already have biomagnified levels of methylmercury, thus further biomagnifying the pollutant.
Why are many contaminants found at higher concentrations in polar bears and people living in Greenland than they are in bears and people living in temperate and tropical areas?
Global atmospheric circulation carries airborne toxins toward the poles, where their deposition exceeds evaporation.
Which important environmental book exposed the hazards of using the insecticide DDT?
Silent Spring
A low LD50 indicates _______.
a high toxicity
Which of the following is a cultural hazard?
a high-fat diet
Which of the following is an example of a "new urbanist" neighborhood?
a neighborhood in which people can live, work, eat, and shop all within walking distance
What is a light rail system?
a smaller rail system powered by electricity
Although it is not harmful, when compound D is inhaled, it activates the body's defenses in a small percentage of people, causing respiratory problems.
allergen
Infectious disease accounts for ________% of deaths globally.
almost 17
The LD50 indicates the ________.
amount of toxicant it takes to kill half the population
A resource sink is ________.
an area that produces almost none of the things that it needs
Bisphenol-A is ________.
an estrogen mimic that is used in plastic manufacturing
Scientists are interested in the effects of environmental hazards on wildlife because _________.
animals can serve as an early warning to the damage of environmental toxins
Greenways ________.
are links that provides pathways for wildlife to travel between parks and preserves
What information is provided on the x-axis?
area per person, in square meters
Toxicant used as a flame retardant and insulator; carcinogen and scars the lungs when inhaled
asbestos
Most widely used herbicide in the United States; a probable endocrine disruptor
atrazine
Mercury is not readily excreted; it is stored in mammalian body tissues. This is best described as ________.
bioaccumulation
Which of the following types of hazards spread quickly worldwide because of human mobility?
biological hazards
Component of plastics and epoxy resins; possible neurotoxin and estrogen mimic
bisphenol-A
Which of the following consume the bulk of the electricity used in the United States?
buildings
Is this statement supported or not supported by the data on the graph? As global warming causes sea surface temperatures to increase in the future, the incidence of cholera in Bangladesh will also increase.
cannot be determined from the graph
People in a city are exposed, over a long period of time, to high levels of compound F that has entered their water supply from a nearby landfill. Residents of the city experience elevated rates of stomach and intestinal cancers over the next 30 years.
carcinogen
Persistent exposure to compound C in workers in steel foundries causes higher incidence of throat and lung cancer later in life.
carcinogen
A person is more likely to die of ________ than any other cause.
cardiovascular diseases
Exposure to low amounts of a chemical over long periods of time is _______.
chronic exposure
What is the major factor driving the move to the suburbs from cities?
desire to live in less crowded, more peaceful conditions
In her study performed in Yaqui Valley, Mexico, Elizabeth Guillette found that ________.
developmental delays occurred in children exposed to pesticides
The leading cause of death in the world today is _________.
disease
Environmental health advocates criticize the process of risk management, saying that it gives too much weight to _______.
economic interests
The first goal of the Stockholm Convention is to ________.
end the use and release of 12 POPs shown to be the most dangerous
BPA and phthalates are known _________.
endocrine disruptors
The worldwide drop in sperm counts among men has been attributed to ________.
endocrine disruptors
Which determines whether groups of people that have been exposed to a chemical have experienced a statistically greater degree of harm as opposed to a group that was not exposed?
epidemiological studies
The urban heat island effect is caused by ________.
heat-generating buildings and dark, heat-absorbing surfaces
A _____ LD50 indicates low toxicity while a _____ LD50 indicates high toxicity.
high; low
The European Union's experience with polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has shown that ________.
if the toxin is removed from the environment, concentrations in human tissues fall
What are the properties of toxicants that are likely to build up in animals through bioaccumulation?
They are nonbiodegradable and lipid-soluble.
Why are insecticides (such as DDT) used in developing countries despite being banned in many developed countries?
They are used because the benefits to human health are believed to outweigh the environmental costs.
How do endocrine disruptors affect human health at very low doses?
They mimic or block hormones that direct reproductive and developmental processes.
In which nation or region do cities have the highest degree of urban sprawl?
United States
Worldwide, the fastest growing cities today are mostly ________.
in developing nations, such as Delhi, India
What does the red graph line represent?
incidence of cholera
A child enters the pediatrician's office with symptoms that include anemia, hearing loss, kidney, and stomach problems. The family has just recently moved into a 50-year-old home and is doing renovations. What might be the problem with this child?
lead poisoning
In many waterways around the United States, poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have contaminated the sediments and wildlife. Given that most of the PCBs in the environment were released before 1980 and are still present in these ecosystems, which best describes this phenomenon?
long persistence
Studies of endocrine disruptors have shown that they are closely associated with all of the following EXCEPT ________.
lung cancer
Which types of experiments are needed to establish that a certain toxicant actually causes a particular disease?
manipulative
Neurotoxin that magnifies within food webs; typically found in polluted bodies of water; poisoned thousands of people when it was dumped into a Japanese bay
mercury
Is the following statement supported or not supported by the data shown in the graph? The amount of gasoline used by each person generally decreases as per capita land consumption increases.
not supported
Broad land-use strategy that encompasses several cities and adjoining nonurban areas
regional planning
Air travel, the Internet, cheap fossil fuels, and television all have allowed people to ________.
remain connected while living in less centralized locations
Louis Guillette is well known for his studies of ________ in Florida.
reproductive and developmental abnormalities in alligators
From where does New York City get its drinking water?
reservoirs far to the northwest of the city
This figure shows the chloride concentration in Baltimore-area streams. What is the main source of the chloride shown in the figure?
road salt
In developing nations such as India and Nigeria, ________.
rural people are moving to the cities in large numbers
What does the left y-axis show?
sea surface temperature anomaly, in degrees Celsius
Which of the following follows the philosophy of "building up, not out"?
smart growth
the spread of low-density urban or suburban development outward from an urban center
sprawl
Residential/commercial communities that ring larger cities
suburbs
The birth of _____ initiated the phenomenon of sprawl.
suburbs
A human embryo exposed to compound G in the womb experiences an increased probability of being born with more than 10 fingers or toes.
teratogen or endocrine disruptor
Exposure to compound A at critical points in development causes female fish to develop male-like characteristics, rendering them infertile.
teratogen or endocrine disruptor
Nicotine and alcohol have been shown to be harmful to a fetus in the womb in that they can lead to birth defects. Nicotine and alcohol are therefore potential __________.
teratogens
________ are substances that cause birth defects.
teratogens
Used as a sleeping pill for pregnant women; teratogen that now is banned
thalidomide
The greatest general problem with suburbs is ________.
that they spread environmental impact over a larger area
The curve shown in (c) is most similar to which of the following effective dose (ED) responses?
the effect of an estrogen mimic on the reproductive system of fish
One group proposes to convert the base to a new city suburb, with low-cost housing for several thousand of the current inner-city residents. A possible major problem with this might be ________.
the lack of jobs in the new suburb
A city undergoing gentrification is experiencing ________.
the loss of working-class people from traditional neighborhoods as housing prices become too expensive
The "precautionary principle approach" to chemical testing ______________.
prevents products from entering the marketplace until well tested
Which term quantitatively describes the likelihood that you would have an effect from exposure to an environmental toxin?
probability
Which of the following approaches help congested cities best deal with the problems related to transportation?
provide access to rail and bus transportation in the inner city or other high-density areas
Which of the following are indoor chemical hazards?
radon and asbestos
The bald eagle and peregrine falcon are ________.
top consumers susceptible to eggshell damage caused by DDT
An infant can receive _________.
toxins from its mother while in the womb
What does UGB stand for?
urban growth boundary
Since 2009, for the first time ever more people in the world were living in _____ areas than _____ areas.
urban; rural
The shift from rural to urban living
urbanization
Initiated in 2007, the REACH program ________.
was passed by the European Union to protect its citizens from unsafe chemicals
The book Our Stolen Future was important because it ________.
was the first book to focus on the impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals
The practice of classifying areas for different types of development and land use
zoning
_____ classifies areas for different types of land use.
zoning
This approach to introducing new products to market will result in unsafe products reaching the marketplace
"innocent until proven guilty" approach
Of the chemicals that fall under the Toxic Substances Control Act, ________ have been thoroughly tested for toxicity and ________ have been tested for endocrine, nervous, or immune system damage.
10; 2%
Which of the following statements are supported by the graph? Select all that apply.
- In 2050, urban populations in less developed regions are projected to reach 5 billion. - Rural populations are projected to drop in both more developed and less developed regions. - In 2050, rural populations in less developed regions are projected to drop below 3 billion. - In 1950, urban populations in more developed regions and less developed regions were almost equal.
It has been demonstrated that ectotherms (such as insects and reptiles) in warm climates tolerate higher temperatures than ectotherms in cooler climates. Angilletta hypothesized that urban heat islands could lead to similar differences in heat tolerance between urban and rural populations of leaf-cutter ants. He predicted that ants in urban areas would tolerate heat better than ants in nearby rural areas. Select the two best experimental designs for comparing the thermal tolerance of ants in urban areas to ants in nearby rural areas.
- Measure the heat tolerance of many ants of the same species as a function of the distance they live from a city center. - Measure the heat tolerance of many ants of the same species from a city center and from a rural area in the same region.
In which city do individuals have the highest rate of gasoline consumption?
Houston
Pat and Terry are considering moving from near the center of a large city into the suburbs. Which of the following discussion points is valid?
It will be easier to have a place for a vegetable garden if they move to the suburbs.
Toxicant present in old paint and pipes; damages the brain, liver, kidney, and stomach when ingested
Lead
What is true about the importance of location for cities that were founded over 100 years ago versus the cities that are rapidly growing today?
Older cities were founded along waterways or rail hubs so goods could be easily transported.
Which of the following describes a scenario involving pesticide drift?
Pesticides being used in a mountain valley are carried by air currents into the surrounding hills, killing amphibians living in the hills' streams.
________ is a naturally occurring substance that is potentially toxic to people.
Radon
Assuming that the scales for graphs (a) and (b) are identical, which of the following statements is TRUE?
The toxicant shown in (b) has a lower toxicity than the toxicant shown in (a).
Why are pristine areas, undisturbed by humans, contaminated with human-generated toxicants?
The toxicants are carried by the wind.
Which of the following statements is supported by the data in the graph?
There is a positive correlation between sea surface temperature and the incidence of cholera.
All of the following statements are true of allergens EXCEPT ________.
everyone is affected by an allergen at a high enough dose
Commuter towns, generally populated by affluent individuals, lying some distance from a central city
exurbs
The effect of a toxicant on fetuses and young children tends to be ________.
greater than on adults
The operating costs for transportation ________.
indicate that, when all operating costs are included, rail is the most sensible means of transport
Cigarette smoke and radon are two of the most common _____ hazards.
indoor
The Toxic Substances Control Act regulates ________.
industrial chemicals
City X has decided to become more sustainable. It is a bustling urban center in a developed country. What should city planners in City X focus on in order to make the city more sustainable?
invest in resource-efficient technologies
Based upon the specific health effects described in the scenario, mercury would be best classified as a(n) ________.
neurotoxin
Chronic exposure to high levels of compound E in rabbits slows their reaction speeds, increasing their risk of being eaten by a predator.
neurotoxin
Factory workers exposed to elevated levels of compound B experience uncontrollable twitching and problems coordinating their movements.
neurotoxin
Designing neighborhoods on a walkable scale
new urbanism
The flat line at the left in (b) probably represents ________.
no visible effect because the body's physiological processes can cope with low doses of a toxicant
While Kayla is driving along a busy highway just outside a major city, she suddenly comes to a standstill in traffic. For the first time ever, she notices that alongside the highway are stretches of forest and wetland. She hears the noise of frogs and insects and birds that she never would have noticed if not trapped in traffic. Kayla never noticed these natural wonders on her route because of _____.
noise pollution
It costs less to operate an automobile in a small city than in a large city because ________.
people generally drive fewer miles to and from work in a small city than in a large city
From the 1950-1990s, many cities experienced a loss in population as people left for the suburbs. All of these are factors that led to this migration EXCEPT __________.
people sought out the better public transportation options present in the suburbs
Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring focuses primarily on the environmental problems associated with ________.
pesticide toxicity
Living on a fault line that is prone to severe earthquakes is an example of a __________ hazard.
physical
If an evaluating committee places the burden of proof of the safety of a new chemical on the manufacturer of the chemical, then the committee is using the _________.
precautionary principle
Which of the following is a problem that occurs within cities because of the concentrated use of energy in buildings and vehicles and the large amount of dark surfaces that absorb solar energy?
the urban heat island effect
LEED-certified buildings could be described in all of the following ways, EXCEPT ________.
their construction usually costs less than for conventional buildings
Carcinogens may be difficult to identify because ________.
there is a long lag time between exposure to the agent and disease
