Chapter 8

different

A given poison will produce ______ reactions in different species.

a worldwide (or very widespread) epidemic

A pandemic is ______.

toxicology

A person who studies __________ might investigate how a drug or radiation enters the body and then what effects the external factor has on an organism.

emergent

A(n) ______disease is one that has been absent for at least 20 years.

Allergens

Activate responses in the immune system

antagonistic

Additive reactions are those in which the toxicity of two or more chemicals add together for a greater effect. Alternatively, ______ reactions interfere with or stimulate the breakdown of other chemicals.

triggering a response in our immune systems

Allergens are substances that affect us by ______.

disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)

An attempt to quantify the burden caused by disease is known as the ______.

poison

Another term for toxin is ______.

-feedlots -hospitals and schools

Antibiotic resistance, in which infectious bacteria are not controlled by antibiotic drugs, is a growing concern for _____.

Neurotoxins

Attack nerve cells or the nervous system

endocrine hormone disrupters

BPA, DDT, and PCBs are all types of ______.

Carcinogens

Cause cancer (uncontrolled cell growth resulting in tumors)

bioaccumulation

Cells absorb and store a variety of molecules through the process of ______. It is essential to accumulate nutrients, but can result in the storage of harmful chemicals.

-BPA -PCBs -DDT

Chemicals that interrupt the normal endocrine hormone functions of the body are called endocrine hormone disrupters. Select all the well-known endocrine hormone disrupters from the list below.

All antigens are allergens, but not all allergens are antigens.

Choose the correct statement below concerning the relationship between allergens and antigens.

environmental changes threaten our own health as well as the health of the natural communities on which we depend

Conservation medicine attempts to understand how ______.

Mutagens

Damage or alter genetic material

Chronic effect

Developing lung cancer after exposure to radiation

Acute effect

Developing radiation sickness after exposure to radiation

impairment of body functions

Disease refers to ______. Multiple choice question.

pathogens

Disease-causing organisms are known as ______.

c

Dose must be above a threshold level before anyone in the population shows a response which suggests the presence of some defense mechanism against the harmful effects of the toxin

ecological

Epidemics that affect animals and wildlife are referred to as ______ diseases.

True

Every material can be poisonous under some conditions (T or F).

epigenome

Exposure to a toxic substance can affect the ________ , (the system that regulates gene function), rather than the gene itself; effects can be passed through multiple generations.

Chronic exposure

Exposure to background radiation, like from radon gas

Acute exposure

Exposure to radiation during an x-ray for a broken foot

in a complex but harmonious balance with nonhuman life-forms

For optimal human health, it is best if our skin and bodies remain ______.

Dose (amount of exposure)

Horizontal (X) axis

nonlinear health effects from the linear increase in dose

Hormesis are the ______.

The rates are the same.

How do East Asian and Pacific countries compare to the United States in terms of child mortality rate?

Just as likely

How likely are you to be exposed to air pollution indoors as opposed to outdoors?

It is prevalent in both developing and developed regions.

How pervasive are depression and suicide in women worldwide?

the expression of their genes may change

If a pregnant rat is exposed to a toxic substance, her offspring will suffer the effects because ______.

risk

In environmental studies, _______ is defined as the probability of harm multiplied by the probability of exposure.

retrospective; prospective

In toxicology, a ______ study uses people who have already been exposed to a toxin and a ______ study uses people who may in the future be exposed to a toxin.

Although we can detect a substance, the level may be too low to cause harm.

Increasingly sensitive instruments can detect chemicals at very low doses. What does this mean for the toxicity of these chemicals?

true

Indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air (True or false).

Response curve representing a constant rate of response with increasing doses

Line b

Response curve representing no response for low doses

Line c

makes the substance no less toxic than it previously was

Our ability to create instruments that detect increasingly lower doses of a substance ______.

persistent

POPs, or ______ organic pollutants, are those that do not easily degrade; this makes them useful but also allows them to accumulate and reach toxic concentrations in many environments.

disease-causing organisms

Pathogens are ______.

emotions

People often base decisions regarding risk-taking on their _______ and familiarity rather than facts.

-accumulate in the environment -do not degrade readily -are found in nearly every geographic location on earth

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are compounds that ______. (Select all that apply.)

emotions

Personal risk perception is most strongly affected by ______ in the majority of people.

-The risk of snake bites associated with hiking is known and most likely will not worry most people enough for them to give up hiking. -Cigarettes are 175,000 times more likely to kill you than snakes.

Probability is a key consideration in risk acceptance. A heavy cigarette smoker has a 1 in 4 chance of dying from lung cancer during his lifetime, while an avid hiker has a 1 in 700,000 chance of dying from a venomous snake bite during his lifetime. Based on this information, which of the following are reasonable conclusions? (Select all that apply.)

1. Cancer 2. Falls 3. Drowning 4. Poisonous snake, spiders 5. Botulism

Rank the following by the probability of dying from the event in your lifetime in the United States, with the highest chance at the top of the list.

changes in proteins and molecules that regulate gene function can pass effects of exposure to future generations

Recent evidence shows that the epigenome can be important in understanding long-term effects of toxic substances because ______.

probability of harm multiplied by the probability of exposure

Risk, in environmental science, can be defined as the ______.

The toxicity of a chemical is decreased by an antagonistic reaction, whereas it is increased by an additive reaction.

Select the statement that best describes the difference between antagonistic and additive reactions in determining toxicity.

b

Shows a linear relationship from zero exposure to the highest dose suggesting that exposure to such toxic agents, no matter how small, carries some risks

poor indoor ventilation of the chemicals released from objects in buildings and the buildings themselves

Sick building syndrome describes the headaches, allergies, and chronic fatigue some people experience because of the ______.

Water-soluble

Solubility is important in determining how a substance travels and is absorbed. Which type(s) of chemicals travel through the environment most easily?

antigens

Some allergens work indirectly to cause an immune response. Those allergens that work directly to cause an immune response are called ______.

a

Some of the population responds, even at zero dose of the toxin, suggesting that some other factor in the environment also causes this response

False

Species react to a given poison in the same way (True or false).

enhance each other's effects

Substances that have a synergistic relationship with each other ______.

I can tolerate the risk if I choose to.

Suppose that statistically you had a roughly 1 in 100 chance of dying in a motor vehicle accident. What is a reasonable conclusion you could draw from this?

synergy

The 400-fold increase in cancer rates for people who are asbestos workers and smoke is an example of _______.

pandemics

The Black Death, the 1918 influenza, and the H1N1 flu virus caused widespread infections on a worldwide basis; we call these ______.

health

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines _____ as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

identify a group of people and follow their exposure to possible toxins moving forward

The assessment of toxins is done in many different ways. Two specific types are retrospective and prospective studies. The major difference is retrospective studies identify people that have been exposed to a possible toxin in the past and prospective studies ______.

-sensitivity of the organism -timing of the exposure -route of entry -dose

The danger of a chemical (its toxicity) is determined by the ______. (Select all that apply.)

the burden (or total cost) of disease

The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are a measurement of ______.

toxicity

The dose, route of entry, timing of exposure, and sensitivity of the organism all play a role in determining ______.

-Most organisms tolerate some exposure to a toxin but ultimately the dose gets large enough to kill them. -Members of a population vary in sensitivity to a toxin. -LD50 is the dose of the toxin that is lethal to half the population.

The dose-response curve showing LD50, as provided here, describes which of the following ideas? (Select all that apply.)

conservation

The emerging discipline that attempts to understand how our environmental changes threaten our own health as well as that of the natural communities on which we depend for ecological services is called ______ medicine.

of the approximately 100 trillion cells that make up the human body, only about 10% are actually human

The human body can be considered an ecosystem because ______.

epigenome

The idea of the ______ is that chemical compounds can regulate their activity by stimulating or inhibiting gene expression.

-altering genetic expressions in ways that can be passed on to offspring -stimulating or inhibiting gene expression

The idea of the epigenome is that chemical compounds can regulate their activity by ________. (Select all that apply.)

-misunderstanding probabilities about harm from a hazard -irrational fears -political or economic interest related to the hazard -personal ignorance about the hazard

The leading reasons for nonrational risk perception include ______. (Select all that apply.)

hormesis

The nonlinear effects of dose and health hazards are called ______.

sick; syndrome

The poor ventilation in some buildings can lead to headaches, allergies, and fatigue associated with ________ building _______.

a cell absorbing and accumulating molecules

The process of bioaccumulation is ______.

every material can be poisonous under some conditions

The saying, "The dose makes the poison," is reminding us that ______.

lethal dose for half of the population

The term LD50 refers to the ______.

any abnormal change in body conditions that impairs normal functions

The term disease refers to ______.

-Dose-response assessment -Hazard identification -Exposure assessment

There are many factors in risk assessment and management that are needed for establishing health policy. Which of these factors can environmental chemistry and biology inform directly? (Choose all that apply.)

Water-soluble types

These substances move widely in the environment and also have ready access to body cells as their solvent is ubiquitous.

Oil-soluble

These substances need a carrier molecule to move through the environment, but once they are inside cells they likely accumulate and persist.

can affect the pregnant rat, her offspring, and further generations

Toxic exposure in a pregnant rat ______.

vary widely

Toxic substances ______ in their potency (strength).

-how diet might affect an organism -the movement of chemicals through an ecosystem -how a substance might enter an organism

Toxicology involves many different lines of study including ______. (Choose all that apply.)

no longer just for the wealthy, as they are now becoming common in the developing world

Trends in obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes show that such diseases are ______.

False

True or false: The lowest dose of a toxin is always better.

Response (% of population)

Vertical (Y) axis

increase

WHO projections are that psychiatric and neurological conditions will ______ in the future.

It has not been previously known or has been absent for at least 20 years.

What characteristics define an emergent disease?

Exposing a group of lab animals under controlled conditions

What currently is the most commonly used method of testing the toxicity of a chemical?

-Mental well-being -Social well-being -Physical well-being

What factors are included in the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health? (Select all that apply.)

Ebola

What infectious disease caused by a virus and carried by other mammals and transmittable to humans emerged in an outbreak in West Africa in 2014?______

Influenza

What infectious disease is a particular worry for public health officials because it comes from viruses that mutate rapidly and move from animals to humans?

95%

What is the current worldwide 5-year survival rate of children?

Random genetic mutations create antibiotic-resistant individuals that survive and multiply to develop into an antibiotic-resistant colony.

Which aspect of antibiotic resistance development in microbes is depicted in this image?

They affect wildlife populations, such as bats and frogs.

Which of the following applies to ecological diseases?

-Chronic versus acute exposure -Risk assessment and characterization -Dose-response curve

Which of the following aspects of toxicology are necessary to understand and must be considered in setting environmental health policy? (Choose all that apply.)

-It is expensive and time-consuming. -It is very commonly used.

Which of the following correctly describes toxicity testing of chemicals on animals? (Select all that apply.)

Industrial workers

Which of the following groups of people is most likely to have an increased exposure to toxic chemicals because of their job responsibilities?

-Chronic exposure involves continuous or repeated contact with a toxic substance over a long period of time (months or years). -Acute exposure involves a single contact with a toxic chemical. It may last a few seconds or a few hours.

Which of the following statements about chronic and acute exposure and effects are correct? (Select all that apply.)

-Infectious diseases such as diarrhea are on the decline globally. -Chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes are increasing and spreading to poorer populations.

Which of the following statements about global health trends are true? (Select all that apply.)

For some toxic substances, a millionth of a gram (an amount invisible to the naked eye) can be lethal.

Which of the following statements about the potency (strength) of toxic substances is true?

-Extremely small amounts of some toxins can cause damage. -Toxins react with cellular components to disrupt metabolic functions or cellular processes.

Which of the following statements are true about toxins? (Select all that apply.)

Low doses of toxins can have variable effects and can cause either more or less serious health problems than high doses.

Which of the following statements best describes the effects of low doses of toxins?

-Immunological status affects susceptibility to toxins. A healthy individual may be insensitive to doses of toxins dangerous to someone who is ill. -Age affects susceptibility to toxins, as chemicals that might be relatively harmless to adults may be dangerous to young children.

Which of the following statements correctly describes how factors related to the individual influence how she or he responds to toxins in the environment? (Select all that apply.)

-It occurred in poor, war-torn countries. -Communities affected were suspicious of foreign help.

Why did the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa spread so rapidly? (Choose all that apply.)

-The influenza virus can move from wild and domestic animals to humans and recombine genes rapidly making the disease very difficult to control. -The influenza viruses evolve rapidly which makes it hard to develop fail safe vaccines to prevent the disease.

Why is influenza a particular worry for public health officials? (Select all that apply).

We perceive risk differently, depending on control, interests, or context.

You and your parents may disagree about the risk associated with your exposure to tobacco or alcohol. What is the most likely reason for the disagreement?