"The association between certain chronic diseases and environmental causes is devastatingly clear, yet knowledge about the

scope of environmental health risks and their impact on the public's health is limited. US Institute of Medicine (2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiiVcm8vjDc

Pesticides and Human Development

Pesticide exposure can cause diseases, such as cancers, as well as mental or physical disabilities
Even affects simplest mental development
Two groups of preschoolers differing mainly in pesticide exposure were asked to draw a person.
Those who were less exposed drew stick figures Those who were more exposed drew meaningless circles and lines

Risk
the probability of harm, injury, disease, death, environmental damage occurring under certain circumstances. What are some risks you take every day?

Human Decision Making

Risk Management
We cant always rely on intuition, habit, and experience to make a decision
Other factors, including health and environmental factors, play a part Risk management- the process of identifying, assessing, and reducing risks

5 Steps of Risk Assessment

1. Hazard identification
Is exposure to this chemical substance harmful?

2. Dose-response assessment
What is the relationship between exposure to the substance and its effects?

3. Exposure assessment
How much, how long, and how often are people exposed to this substance?

4. Risk characterization
The conclusions are spelled out.

5. Risk Management

Toxicity
Toxicants- chemicals with adverse effects
Acute toxicity- occur within short period after high-level exposure to toxicant Chronic toxicity- occur after a long period of low-level exposure to toxicant
Symptoms tend to mimic other chronic diseases associated with risky lifestyle, poor nutrition, and aging

Toxicology
Studies effects of toxicants on living organisms
Studies mechanisms that cause toxicity

Develops ways to prevent or minimize adverse effects

Epidemiology
Studying how toxicants, disease, and physical hazards affect the health of human populations
Study large groups of people and investigate a range of possible causes and types of diseases and injuries

Disease-Causing Agents in the Environment

Infectious organisms
Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and parasitic worms Typhoid, cholera, bacterial dysentery, polio, infectious hepatitis transmittable through contaminated food and water E. Coli is best indicator of sewage-contaminated water
Determined by fecal coliform test

Environmental Changes & Emerging Diseases

25% of disease and injury worldwide related to human-caused environmental changes
Cutting down forests, building dams, increasing agriculture brings humans into more contact with disease-causing agents
Increase in population Distribution of disease-carrying organisms

Pandemic- reaches nearly entire globe

Example: Swine flu

Movement of ToxicantsThrough Organisms

Persistence- substance is stable and takes many years to break down
Bioaccumulation- buildup of persistent toxicants Biological magnification- increase in toxicant concentrations as a toxicant passes through trophic levels of food chain

Movement of ToxicantsThrough the Environment

Air
Water Soil 3.5 million people in the Midwest US face slightly elevated cancer risk due to herbicides in drinking water Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants- protect human health and environment from persistent organic pollutants

Determining Toxicity and Health Effects

Lethal doses- depend on organisms age, sex, health, metabolism
Human lethal doses are known through homicides and accidental poisonings

LD50- lethal to 50% of population of test animals

Smaller LD50, more toxic

ED50- amount to have an adverse effect

Dose-response curve- tests effects of high doses then work way down to threshold level
Maximum dose that has no measurable effect

Chemical Mixtures
Additivity- exactly as expected
Synergistic- more than expected

Antagonistic- smaller than expected

The Precautionary Principle

We should not introduce new technology, practice, or material until it is demonstrated:
The risks are small

The benefits outweigh the risks

Criticisms: downplays role of science in decisions

Environmental Risks, not Natural Disasters

People need to become more aware of the environmental risks and stop building on poorly chosen land Technologies must be updated to ensure safety
Example: nuclear plants using old technology are useless in cases of emergency

The Delaware River Issue

Industrial lands near Delaware River

Fishtown, Bridesburg, Port Richmond, Kensington

Living close to the Delaware River makes you 7x more likely to live in an area with an environmental hazard than other places in the region (Mizes 2012) Also the Schuylkill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2ge0aJwJ-o