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Environmental Hazards and Human Health
Environment: combination of physical, chemical, and biological factors.
Hazard: anything that can cause injury, death, disease, damage to personal/public property, or deterioration or destruction of environmental components.
Risk: probability of suffering a loss as a result of exposure to a hazard.
Risk Perception
• Origin (natural vs manmade)
• Volition (voluntary vs imposed)
• Effect Manifestation (immediate vs delayed)
• Controllability (controlled vs chaotic)
• Benefit (defined vs unclear)
• Familiarity (experienced vs new)
• Exposure (frequent vs occasional vs rare)
• Necessity (true need vs luxury)
Environmental Hazards
• Cultural Hazards– Consequence of choice– Risky behavior
• Biological Hazards– Animal attacks– Infectious disease
• Physical Hazards– Natural disaster– Prevention by avoidance
• Chemical Hazards– Manmade chemicals– Carcinogens (cause mutations, cancer)
Regulation Of Smoking• Warning labels• Smoke-free zones in public places • FDA regulations • Lawsuits against the tobacco industry
Click the Death Clock to Calculate you estimated time of departure time
Infectious Diseases
• Pathogenic bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoans, worms
• More prevalent in but not exclusive to developing countries
• Crowding increases disease spread• Contamination of food and water
– Lack of resources for sanitation– Lack of education
• Climates for transmission of vector-borne diseases like malaria
Physical Hazards
• Natural disasters, e.g., tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires
• Avoidance of risk important in prevention, e.g., building homes in flood plains, and living on the coast.
• Not all disasters can be avoided
Chemical Hazards• Result of industrialization
• Exposure through ingestion, inhalation, absorption through skin.– direct use vs accidental– Air, food,& water
• Many chemicals are toxic at low levels
• 74 chemicals are known to be carcinogenic
The Role of Poverty
• No money for health insurance.
• Higher probability of exposure to environmental hazards.
Environmental Health
• Factors contributing to the environmental health of a nation include:– Education– Nutrition– Commitment from government– More equitable distribution of wealth
Risk Analysis
• The process of evaluating the risks associated with a particular hazard before taking some action for its management.
• 4 steps to EPA risk analysis.– Hazard assessment (What chemicals cause
cancer)?– Dose-response assessment (how much)?– Exposure assessment (how long)?– Risk characterization (how many will die)?
Risk Assessment/Management
• Usually involves:– Cost-benefit analysis– Risk-benefit analysis– Public preferences
• Some suggest we use distributive justice in making decisions about risk – Ethical process of making certain that everyone
receives proper consideration– Should reduce environmental racism/injustice