Environmental Health Quiz 1

Healthy homes

A healthy home is sited, designed, built, renovated, and maintained to support health. A healthy homes approach is a coordinated, comprehensive, and holistic approach to preventing diseases and injuries that result from housing-related hazards and deficiencies.

Toxic substances

Access the most important information about toxic substances and how they affect our health by clicking on: The alphabet for documents on specific substances Toxicological information by health effect or chemical class Toxicological information by audience

National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Registry

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive disease that attacks the nerve cells that control voluntary movement. The National ALS Registry is a congressionally mandated registry for persons in the U.S. with ALS. It is the only population-based registry in the U.S. that collects information to help scientists learn more about who gets ALS and its causes. No one knows for sure what causes ALS and currently there is no cure. If you have the disease, consider joining the Registry and completing the brief risk-factor surveys because your answers could help scientists defeat ALS.

Newborn Screening Laboratory Bulletin

At least 4 million newborns in the United States alone are tested annually for congenital diseases through newborn screening, and severe disorders are detected in about 5,000 babies. Newborn screening saves thousands of babies each year from disability and premature death. For 30 years, CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory has been the only comprehensive source in the world dedicated to quality assurance and proficiency testing for newborn screening programs. In an effort to heighten awareness about the critical importance of newborn screening and to highlight CDC's laboratory role in newborn screening worldwide, CDC has published the Newborn Screening Laboratory Bulletin.

Mold

CDC's Mold Web site provides information on mold and health, an inventory of state indoor air quality programs, advice on assessment, cleanup efforts, and prevention of mold growth, and links to resources. Mold can cause fungal allergy and respiratory infections or worsen certain illnesses such as asthma. Molds are microorganisms that are found virtually everywhere, indoors and outdoors. The potential health effects of exposure to indoor mold are of increasing concern. Nevertheless, no conclusive evidence exists that inhalation of indoor mold is associated with a multitude of other health problems, such as pulmonary hemorrhage, memory loss, and lack of energy.

Pesticides

Each day, people everywhere are exposed to chemicals—in their food, in the water they drink, and in the air they breathe. Some exposures are the result of accidents, disasters, or intentional attempts to cause harm. The environmental toxicology and epidemiology staff of the Health Studies Branch of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) specializes in studying, investigating and assessing the extent of and risk for human exposure to environmental chemicals and toxins, and determining the risk of adverse health effects from these exposures.

Environmental Health (WHO)

Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behavior not related to environment, as well as behavior related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics.

Healthy places

Healthy Places is the home page for CDC's Healthy Community Design Initiative (also known as the Built Environment and Health Initiative). The Initiative is part of the National Center for Environmental Health's Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services.

Biomonitoring

Involves measuring environmental chemicals in human tissues and fluids, such as blood and urine. People are exposed to chemicals through the air, water, food, soil, dust, and consumer products. Finds many chemicals in a very small amount—often less than a teaspoon—of blood or urine. Assess the nutrition status of the U.S. population.

Air Quality

Outdoor air quality has improved since the 1990s, but many challenges remain in protecting Americans from air quality problems. Ground-level ozone, the main part of smog, and particle pollution are just two of the many threats to air quality and public health in the United States.

Radiation and Your Health

Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space at the speed of light. This energy has an electric field and a magnetic field associated with it, and has wave-like properties. You could also call radiation "electromagnetic waves". This radiation is characterized in two forms—ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is a form of energy that acts by removing electrons from atoms and molecules of materials that include air, water, and living tissue. Ionizing radiation can travel unseen and pass through these materials. Non-ionizing radiation is a form of radiation with less energy than ionizing radiation. Unlike ionizing radiation, non-ionizing radiation does not remove electrons from atoms or molecules of materials that include air, water, and living tissue.

Chemical weapons elimination

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides independent oversight to the U.S. chemical weapons elimination program and serves as an important element in ensuring the safe destruction of chemical warfare material for protection of public health. The CDC program is part of the National Center for Environmental Health's Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services.

National Environmental Public Health Tracking

The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) is a system of integrated health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and city sources. On the Tracking Network, you can view maps, tables, and charts with data about: •chemicals and other substances found in the environment •some chronic diseases and conditions •the area where you live

Environmental Health Topics

The National Toxic Substance Incidents Program (NTSIP) collects and combines information from many resources to protect people from harm caused by spills and leaks of toxic substances. NTSIP gathers information about harmful spills into a central place. People can use NTSIP information to help prevent or reduce the harm caused by toxic substance incidents. NTSIP can also help experts when a release does occur. NTSIP is modeled partially after the Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) Program (1990-2009), with additions suggested by stakeholders to have a more complete program. NTSIP has three components National Database, State Partners, and Incident Investigation.

Smoking and Tobacco use:

The Tips Campaign encourages people to quit smoking by showing the toll that smoking-related illnesses take on smokers and their loved ones through hard-hitting ads. Vital Signs is a monthly CDC publication that communicates vital health information on select topics. The topic for January 2016 is E-cigarette Ads and Youth. OSHData presents comprehensive tobacco prevention and control data, including featured datasets, charts, and maps, in an online, easy to use, interactive site. The 2014 Surgeon General's Report marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1964 report and includes new data on the health consequences of tobacco use.

Water

With its many uses for drinking, recreation, sanitation, hygiene, and industry, water is our most precious global resource. Clean and safe drinking water is critical to sustain human life and without it waterborne illness can be a serious problem. Water, which is necessary for recreational water activities like swimming, also helps promote healthy living. Often, water's vital role is most apparent during an emergency or disaster. We launched the Healthy Water website in 2009 to provide answers to your water-related questions.

Rodent Control

Worldwide, rats and mice spread over 35 diseases. These diseases can be spread to humans directly, through handling of rodents, through contact with rodent feces, urine, or saliva, or through rodent bites. Diseases carried by rodents can also be spread to humans indirectly, through ticks, mites or fleas that have fed on an infected rodent. This web page offers helpful suggestions on rodent control during and after a rodent infestation. The primary strategy for preventing human exposure to rodent diseases is effective rodent control in and around the home. This is achieved by eliminating any food sources, sealing even the smallest entries into homes, and successfully trapping rodents in and around the home.

Carbon monoxide (CO)

an odorless, colorless gas, which can cause sudden illness and death, is produced any time a fossil fuel is burned. CDC works with national, state, local, and other partners to raise awareness about CO poisoning and to monitor CO-related illness and death in the U.S.

Asthma

is a disease that affects your lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding the triggers that can cause an attack. You must also remove the triggers in your environment that can make your asthma worse. CDC's National Asthma Control Program helps Americans with asthma achieve better health and improved quality of life. The program funds states, school programs, and non-government organizations to help them improve surveillance of asthma, train health professionals, educate individuals with asthma and their families, and explain asthma to the public.

Asbestos

is a group of minerals that generally look like separable, long, thin fibers. These fibers are small and can be seen with a microscope. When these fibers are disturbed, causing the fibers to float in the air, they can be easily breathed into the lungs. Scientists have recognized asbestos as a health threat to humans because these fibers can be breathed into the lungs and can cause cancer and other lung diseases. We are all exposed to low levels of asbestos in the air. People are more likely to experience asbestos-related disorders when they are exposed to high concentrations of asbestos, are exposed for longer periods of time, and are exposed more often. The time lag between significant inhalation of asbestos and any adverse health manifestations can be as long as 30 or more years.

The Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch (APRHB):

leads CDC's fight against environmental-related respiratory illnesses, including asthma, and studies indoor and outdoor air pollution.