Environmental Pollution study guides

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Most toxic synthetic compound

- Dioxin (Victor Yushcenko)

6 types of toxicants- define carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, allergen, neurotoxin, endocrine disruptors

1. Carcinogens: cause cancer 2. Mutagens: cause mutations in DNA 3. Teratogens: cause birth defects 4. Allergens: cause an unnecessary immune response 5. Neurotoxins: damage nervous system 6. Endocrine disruptors: interfere with hormones

background and rise of synthetic chemicals

1. Many thousands have been produced and released. • 2. Some persist for long time periods or travel great distances. • 3. Of the 100,000 synthetic chemicals on the market today, very few have been thoroughly tested for harmful effects. • 4. 2002 USGS study: 80% of U.S. streams contain up to 82 wastewater contaminants, including antibiotics, perfumes, detergents, drugs, steroids, disinfectants, and so forth 1. There has been widespread synthetic chemical production since WWII. • 2. People were largely unaware of the health risks of many toxicants.

background and use of DDT/PCBs and concerns about use, legacy pollution and PCBs

1. Studies of PCBs in humans have found increased rates of melanomas, liver cancer, gall bladder cancer, biliary tract cancer, gastrointestinal tract cancer, and brain cancer, and may be linked to breast cancer. • DDT is persistent and fat soluble DDT concentrations increase from plankton to fish to fish-eating birds. (food higharchy

endocrinology terms

1. endocrine 2. disruptors, 3. hormone 4. mimics 1.Some chemicals, once inside the bloodstream, can "mimic" hormones. 2.If molecules of the chemical bind to the sites intended for hormone binding, they cause an inappropriate response. 3.Thus these chemicals disrupt the endocrine (hormone) system.

Importance of wetlands/estuaries. What is an estuary?

1. most productive biomes on earth and are home to diverse invertebrates and birds 2. a transition area between river and sea,Estuaries are nutrient rich and highly productive, An abundant supply of food attracts marine invertebrates

Photic zone, aphotic zone, benthic zone,, benthos, detritus, abyssal zone

1.Photic zone- surface layer of the ocean that receives sunlight 2.aphotic zone- the portion of a lake or ocean where there is little or no sunlight 3. benthic zone- It comprises the bottom—such as the ocean floor or the bottom of a lake—the sediment surface, and some sub-surface layers 4.Benthos- community of organisms that live on, in, or near the seabed, river, lake, or stream bottom 5.Detritus- is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms 6.abyssal zone- At depths of 3,000 to 6,000 metres this zone remains in perpetual darkness. It alone makes up over 83% of the ocean and covers 60% of the Earth.

types of environmental health hazards humans may be exposed to and examples of each

1.Physical hazards (floods, blizzards, landslides, radon, UV exposure) 2.Chemical hazards (disinfectants, pesticides) 3.Biological hazards (viruses, bacterial infections) • 4.Cultural or lifestyle hazards (drinking, smoking, bad diet, crime in neighborhood)

Endemic Epidemic Pandemic

1.The constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within a given geographic area. 2.The occurrence in an area of a disease or illness in excess of what may be expected on the basis of past experience for a given population 3.A worldwide epidemic affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the global population.

infectious disease terminology

1.either directly or through a vector (e.g., a mosquito that transfers a malaria parasite to hosts) 2.• Is communicable or transmissible disease, a pathogen attacks a host

size 10 um or greater, and examples of 2.5 um or less

10- fog/coal dust 2.5 or less- oil smoke, tobaco smoke

Ecological effects of domoic acid

1991 Monterey Bay CA - >100 pelicans and cormorants were found dead or suffering from unusual neurological symptoms • Pseudo-nitzschia australis • Vector: Northern Anchovie

What is the half-life of Uranium?

4.5 billion years

Current atmospheric CO2 in parts per million (ppm)

411.29 ppm

US annual dose is _____mrem. Most of it is from ________.

44 mrem)/yr natural.

Biomes: definition and examples

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in. wetlands estuarys

Vaccines and controversy

A vaccine is the deliberate stimulation of adaptive immunity. Work by mimicking what happens during natural infection without causing illness. Use altered versions of viruses or bacteria to trigger an immune response. Are the most effective means of controlling infectious diseases. Not only protect those who get them, but they also help keep diseases at bay in the community; this is called herd immunity

Factors influencing infectious disease transmission

Agent:Infectivity, Pathogenicity, Virulence, Immunogenicity, Antigenic stability, Survival Host:Age, Sex, Genotype, Behaviour, Nutritional status, Health status Environmental: Weather, Housing, Geography, Occupational setting, Air quality, Food

Climate change and coronavirus: habitat loss, air pollution, global trade

Air pollution makes people more vulnerable to respiratory infections Habitat loss, driven both by climate change and ecosystem changes, brings animals and humans into closer proximity Trade globalization all these help with the spread of disease

Non-ionizing radiation: α, β, γ, n (alpha, beta, gamma, neutron)

Alpha (α) radiation consists of a fast moving Helium-4 (4He) nuclei and is stopped by a sheet of paper (mimics He nucleus) Beta (β) radiation, consisting of electrons, is halted by an aluminium plate Gamma (γ) radiation, consisting of energetic photons, is eventually absorbed as it penetrates a dense material (x-ray / radioactive decay or nuclear reaction)

Destroying Angels, toxic mushrooms

Amanita virosa Amanita bisporigera Amanita phalloides

Most deadly compounds (note the top 3 are from bacteria, and are nonsyn-thetic)

Botulinum toxin A (from a bacteria) (LD50 mg/kg)= 3 x 10-8 Tetanus toxin A (from a bacteria) 5 x 10-6 Diphtheria toxin (from a bacteria) 3 x 10-4 Dioxin * 3 x 10-2 Muscarine (from some mushrooms) 2 x 10-1 Bufotoxin (from some toads) 4 x 10-1 Sarin * 4 x 10-1

Greenhouse gases, the importance of each discussed. Is water vapor a greenhouse gas?

CO2/ methane/ nitrous oxide water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas,

Cellular effects of NORM

Cell death • Cell repair damage • Cell change- neutral, good or bad change

Photosynthesis

Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.

Medical radiation (xray, treatments)

Diagnostic - X-rays • Av. U.S. dose: 0.39 mSv (39 mrem)/yr - Nuclear Medicine • Av. U.S. dose: 0.14 mSv (14 mrem)/yr • Therapeutic - Cancer treatment - Thyroid treatment

Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning

Dinoflagellates Toxins: Okadaic acids and dinophysistoxins Generally mild gastrointestinal illness FDA level in shellfish - 0.2 ppm okadaic acid plus 35-methylokadaic acid

Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning

Dinoflagellates • Alexandrium spp. • Gymnodinium spp. • Pyrodinium spp. • Northern Atlantic and Pacific coasts • Temperate and tropical • Toxin: Saxitoxins

dose-response curve

Dose-response curves allow us to predict the effects of higher doses

SC is 'trifecta' for which 3 natural disasters?

Earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes

COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis)

Emphysema is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath. Chronic bronchitis is inflammation (swelling) and irritation of the bronchial tubes

Ciguatera Fish Poisoning- cause and toxins. Usually from consuming what fish? What kinds of location?

Gambierdiscus toxicus (a dinoflagellate) • Associated with weeds and coral reefs Red snapper, Grouper, Amber Jack, Sturgeon iguatera is common only in subtropical and tropical waters, particularly the Pacific and Caribbean, and usually is associated with fish caught in tropical reef waters.

NORM consumer products

Green Bathroom Tile Dentures Phosphate Fertilizer Cat Litter Smoke Detectors

______altitude, ______ cosmic radiation.

Higher

Radon in SC

Highest in the upstates

Methane impact relative to CO2

However, natural gas (methane) is about 70 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas

What causes freshwater HABS?

Human interventions Runoff of waste farm run off!!!

transmission: Index/Primary/Secondary cases

Index - the first case identified Primary - the case that brings the infection into a population Secondary - infected by a primary case Tertiary - infected by a secondary case

Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning

Karenia brevis Florida, Gulf of Mexico • Toxins: Brevetoxins Early symptoms: Gastrointestinal Late symptoms Neurological • Tingling • Numbness • Loss of motor control • Usually not associated with human mortality FDA level in fish - 0.8 ppm brevitoxin-2 equivalent

Where does most of the Uranium mined in the world come from?

Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia

indoor health hazards such as radon and lead

Lead in paint and pipes

LD50- what does it mean on the dose-response curve

Leathal dose 50%

Brevetoxins

Massive fish kills • Harmful to birds (pelican, seagulls, cormorants) and manatees

Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning - how toxin domoic acid mimics glutamic acid

Mimics a neurotransmitter (glutamic acid) • Overstimulates and eventually kills neurons in hippocampus • Stimulates voltage-dependent calcium channels

synergy of compounds

Mixes of toxicants may cause effects greater than the sum of their individual effects

Nanoparticles- concerns- small enough to directly enter cells, thus pros and cons

Nanoparticules are small enough to directly enter cell thereby possibly leading to toxicity

Photochemical smog- LA type smog - define, what causes it

Photochemical smog: reaction involves sunlight, nitric oxides and VOCs • Directly related to automobile use •

Cellular Respiration

Process that releases energy by breaking down glucose and other food molecules in the presence of oxygen

Radiation around you: Know examples given, which are ionizing and nonionizing radiation, energy spectrum from high to low frequency

Radiation is the dispersion of energy (or atomic particles) into any type of medium. Radiation does NOT mean radioactivity (e.g. Heat from the sun is radiation) Radioactivity - an unstable nucleus loses proton or neutron to become more stable. Energy released (alpha, beta, gamma particles, and electrons *radioactivity occurs with an unstable isotope Electromagnetic radiation - The waves of the electromagnetic field carrying radiant energy through space Heat and Sound, as well as a few others

Radioactive food

Salmon Brazil Nuts Bananas

Premature deaths linked to air pollution

Studies such as the Harvard Six City Study and by the American Cancer Society show that exposure to particulate matter reduced life expectancy and this effect was predominantly associated with PM2.5 Recent data suggest that shortterm measures of exposure, not long-term measures, are associated with mortality

Sulfurous smog - London type smog- define, what causes it

Sulfurous smog: produced by the burning of coal or oil at large power plants.

Paracelsus- everything is a poison

Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: "All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison."

Aquatic zones: definition and stratification

The basic types of aquatic life zones are the surface, middle, and bottom layers. The life in aquatic life zones is influenced by temperature, access to sunlight for photosynthesis, dissolved oxygen content, and availability of nutrients

Ocean conveyor belt

The global ocean conveyor belt is a constantly moving system of deep-ocean circulation driven by temperature and salinity

Radon: leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers

The number of alpha and beta decays are numerous. • Radio-isotopes can have long lives (up to 22 years), and can settle in the lungs, thus releasing small doses of highly energetic, ionizing radiation over many years.

wind patterns

This type of wind system forms when cool air, at the poles, and then transfers to the equator

U238 to Radon 222 series:

Uranium-238 4.5 billion years ->Radium-226 1600 years-> Radon-222 3.825 days-> Polonium-218 3.1 min. (RaA)-> Lead-214 27 min. (RaB) ->Bismuth-214 19.9 min (RaC)-> Polonium-214 163.7 us (RaC') -> Lead-210 22.3 y (RaD)

AIDS/HIV

Viruses related to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have infected Old World monkeys as far back as 16 million years ago HIV crossed from chimps to humans in the 1920s in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was probably as a result of chimps carrying the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), a virus closely related to HIV, being hunted and eaten by people living in the area More direct contact with SIV or primates carring it

Coal ash- air and water pollution

Without proper management, these contaminants can pollute waterways, ground water, drinking water, and the air

brown tide

a large area of seawater discolored usually murky brown by the presence of large numbers of single-celled algae

thermohaline circulation

a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes

Red tide

a population explosion of certain marine dinoflagellates that causes the water to turn a red or red-brown color and to contain poisonous alkaloids produced by the dinoflagellates

Mauna Loa

a volcano-island of Hawaii that houses an observatory that has provided important data for atmospheric monitoring

How to reduce the spread of infectious diseases

accines Antimicrobial drugs (in an individual with a bacterial disease) Good personal hygiene (washing hands frequently and correctly, don't touch your face!) sanitation (clean water access, sewage disposal) Protection against mosquitoes Quarantine Social distancing Wearing masks. No don't wear a mask. No really we mean wear a cloth mask because we don't have enough medical masks (CDC) Testing, testing, testing during an outbreak, and screening to find where community spread is occurring Contact tracing. Must have good testing in place to then quarantine the individual and trace and isolate their contacts

difference between acute/chronic

acute: present symptoms immediately chronic: manifest at a later time which can be years

Epidemiologic triad

agent of infection host environment

Ebola:origins/transmission

animals/direct contact with blood or other body fluids

Groundwater uranium and cancer in SC

beta

understand and define bioaccumulation and biomagnification (with special attention to DDT)

biomagnification:DDT concentrations increase from plankton to fish to fish-eating birds biomagnification:If a larger organism consumes many of these small organisms, the dose (or concentration) of DDT that it experiences becomes larger than it was in the smaller organisms.

risk assessment

calculating risk, or the degree of likelihood that a person will become ill upon exposure to a toxin or pathogen.

atrazine use as a pesticide and its connection to water pollution and food. What agriculture product is it typically used on?

corn, sorghum, and sugarcane

Carbon 14, Hydrogen 3 (tritium) are _____ (cosmic/terrestrial) radiation

cosmic

Externalities of coal

cost that isn't included in the cost we pay for the energy- social, economic, environmental- air pollution, water pollution and effects on human and ecosystem health

Law of thermodynamics

energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but may be changed from one form into another

London smog disaster of 1952

he London Smog Disaster of 1952 and other smog events have shown an association between elevated levels of particulate matter and mortality from cardiovascular and pulmonary ailments • Sulfurous smog- coal burning, industry • Lasted 5 days • 12,000+ deaths, 150,000+ hospitalized

What is a low quality energy lost during respiration in the energy exchange cycle?

heat

Global natural disasters: Which accounts for largest loss of life? Which for number of events? Which for economic losses? Which 2 are most dangerous? Note significant increase in 10 vs.30 year averages.

loss of life- draught events- floods econ- windstorm most dangerous- Hurricanes, Earthquakes

______altitude, ______cosmic radiation.

lower

global infectious diseases, distribution. What is the leading infectious disease cause of death in the world

lower respiratory infection

From assigned simulation: What is R0 in epidemiology? To reduce disease spread should it be < or > 1?

mathematical term that indicates how contagious an infectious disease is <1

turnover

mixing oxygenated water from the surface with nutrient-rich water from the bottom

Zika virus. What fetal birth defect is it associated with it?

mosquito-borne flavivirus In most cases, there are no symptoms. In a few cases, Zika can trigger paralysis (Guillain-Barré Syndrome). In pregnant women, it may cause subsequent birth defects. Microcephaly

3 items present to make LA smog

moutains sea salt particles heavy pop

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABS)- what are they

occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds

How to reduce radon exposure, what are some things you can do?

outside ventilation/ sealant/ sheet metal vents/ slump

Particulate Matter (PM) definition, role in public health, based on size not the substance, size range that does the greatest damage to lungs = ____ micrometers

particles or droplets small enough to remain aloft in the air for long periods of time, 10 and lower micrometers

Earth's atmosphere and magnetic fields _______ cosmic radiation

reduces

Herd immunity

refers to reduced spread of a contagious disease within a population as a result of enough people being immune to the disease, especially though vaccination

thermocline

separates the warm upper layer from the cold deeper water

K40, U238, Th232 are ______(cosmic/terrestrial) and _____(longer/shorter) lived

terrestrial/ longer

PM influence on cardiovascular mortality

that PM2.5 exposure is a risk factor for cause-specific cardiovascular disease mortality via mechanisms that likely include pulmonary and systemic inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, and altered cardiac autonomic function.

Alveoli

tiny sacs of lung tissue specialized for the movement of gases between air and blood

importance of Lake Agassiz

very large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined though its mean depth was not as great as that of many major lakes today.

Second law of thermodynamics

with every energy transformation there is a loss of usable energy

Global air circulation

world-wide system of winds by which the necessary transport of heat from tropical to polar latitudes is accomplished.


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