Enviro PH: Study of the impact that enviro exposure plays on health outcomes of the community |
Precautionary Principle: If you're unsure about risks, be safe |
Causation: Cant be proven |
Hill's Criteria of Causation: Temporality, dose response, biological plausability, strength of effect, reverse of effect |
Healthy Worker Effect: Ppl in workforce are inherently healthier than non-working |
POPs: Persistent organic pollutants - Chemicals that persist in env. & body |
Lipophilic: Stored in fat tissue (organic |
Bioaccumulate: Builds up in body, usually lipophilic |
Biomagnification: Builds up through the food chain |
Heavy Metals: Naturally occurring, common in industry (ie lead, merc, arsenic, cadmium) |
Endocrine Disruptors: Substances that either block, mimic, or antagonize normal hormone func. |
Teratogenic: Causes mutations |
Ionizing: Carcinogenic, causes mutations |
Non-ionizing: Non-mutation causing |
Lead: Metal, affects nerv system (poisonous @ 10 micrograms/liter of blood) |
Idiopathic Disease: "Idiots" don't know what's causing it |
Sick Building Syndrome: a medical condition in which people in a building suffer from symptoms of illness temporally related to time in the building”. (WHO 2005) |
Building related symptoms: the acute adverse health effects of building occupants related to time spent in the specific building. |
Building related illness: diagnosable illness whose cause can be directly attributed to building exposures (doesn't improve when removed from building) |
Pathoneumonic: visible disease |
Chemical half-life: persistence of chems in the body (blood/urine) |
Organic & Inorganic: w/ & w/o carbon |
Organic solvent: organic substance (usually liquid) that dissolves another material (all industries, common in cleaning supplies & cosmetics |
Exposure isnt dose, but it is used to calc dose |
Environmental Exposure Heirarchy |
How to Measure Exposure |
Exposure -> Dose depends on... Chemical half-life (persistence in blood/urine), route of exposure (i.e. ingest vs inhale), genetics, demographics (i.e. babies & old ppl get higher doses, cant metabolize as fast), health status & nutrition, lifestyle/behaviors, geography (proximity to hazards) |
Traffic Mortality Stats |
>1.2 M deaths/yr (Israel 350/yr %25 pedestrians) |
What kills? speed, fatigue, cellphones, mass, alc, young male drivers, pedestrians (young and old) |
1993 Israel ↑ speed limit 90 to 100kph -> ↑ death rate |
Lead: 1975 ↓ lead in gas → ↓ in air → ↓ in ppl → ↓ crime & ↑ IQ |
Minamata Disease: Minamata Japan neuro disorder from severe merc poisoning: 1950 crazy cat disease → 1955 “An epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system” → 1956 40 cases, 16 dead. → 1958 Vast # children living near water (eat & drink) thought it was food poisoning → 1959 hair samples of children in & out of city. Found kids in city had 3x more heavy metal → 1960 figured out the heavy metal was mercury coming from Chisso Chem Company dumping heavy metal biproduct in bay that bioaccumulated in fish |
Synthetic Chemical Compounds - Qs
What chemicals being used?
What actual exposure? (concentrations, amounts, route of exposure)
Are exposure levels health concern?200k+ can never know toxicity of all
Definition: Any chem, bio, or phys change in water quality that has a harmful effect on living organisms or makes water unsuitable for desired usage |
Composed of: |
Routes Industrial waste, urban runoff, groundwater contamination |
How to Measure Water Quality? |
Drinking Water |
Groundwater |
Ocean Pollution Sources: large amounts of untreated raw sewage, leaking septic tanks, runoff, algae blooms from nutrients (i.e. red tides-create neurotoxins), dead zones, airborne toxins, oil spills |
Solutions Prevent groundwater contam, greatly ↓ nonpoint runoff, reuse treated wastewater for irrigation, substitutes for toxic pollutants, treat sewage naturally, 4 rs (refuse, reduce, recycle, reuse), ↓ resource waste, ↓ air pollution, ↓ poverty, ↓ birthrates, fertilize w manure or compost instead of inorganic fertilizer, ↓ use of pesticides, never apply fert or pesticides near body of water, organic foods, dont dump chems or meds in drains/toilets |
Different & unique exposures
Dynamic devel physiology
Longer life expectancy
Politically powerless
More surface area to be exposed
Exposed @ home, school, day-care, playground
Exposed to pesticide residues, wood preservatives, dust, etc.
Vast majority of deaths from unintentional injuries globallyPhysical Hazards
Noise, Temp., Ergonomics, Vibration, Radiation (All have waves) |
Most Common Symptom of Occupational Exposures? back injuries from improper lifting |
Noise |
Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) Cumulative: 1 in 4 workers over age of 55 |
Industries @ risk Petroleum, lumber, food processing (~25% workforce maybe exposed > 90dB) |
Control Measures 1. Engineering 2. Admin controls 3. Hearing protection |
Descriptive Toxicology testing on lab animals/in vitro, provides info for safety eval/reqs. Used to eval risks for humans & enviro from exposure to specific chems |
Mechanic Toxicology ID & undersand cellular, biochem, & molecular mechs by which chemicals exert toxic effects. Useful for showing adverse outcome in lab animals is relevant to humans |
Regulatory Toxicology Estab of stnrds for amt of chems permitted in air, food, industrial atmos., & water. Oft integrates sci info from descriptive & mech tox studies w approaches used risk assmt |
All used for risk assessment
Enviro |
Occupational |
Larger affected population |
Smaller affected population |
Smaller concentrations |
Higher concentrations |
Fewer exposures |
More exposures |
Regional monitoring |
Direct monitoring |
Occ. health issues become enviro health issues |
|
Enviro PH |
Enviro MD |
Recognizing disease in specific community |
Recognizing disease in ind. |
ID env. exposures in comm. |
ID env. exposure of the ind |
Make connection btwn exposure & disease |
Make connection btwn exposure & disease |
Reduce exposure to pollution |
Reduce exposure first, treat disease |
**Exposures to Env. Radiation**: coal burning (power stations), phosphate industry (middle east phosphates high in uranium), household heating & cooking (less today), gypsum phosphate (industry, less today), radon exposure (basements, underground parking, etc), nuclear energy use, nuclear disasters, watches, fluorescent signs, fire detectors, air travel, industrial use (checking pipes, bottle filling of soft drinks, density measures, ground moister detectors)
**Exposures to nonionizing radiation**: smart wireless tech, WII games, remote controls, WIFI, cellphones, radars, RF radio equip, radio/tv station workers, security chips
**Medical irradiation**: *diagnostic radiology* = x-rays, CT, catheterizations, angiography, guided surgery & *nuclear medicine* = RA material injected IV then tracked by Gamma ray cam, heart scan, bone scan
Effects |
State of research very new & active area, lack of good research (poor outcome & exposure assessment), multiple confounders, delayed effect (need to observe population for decades) |
Definition A complex mixture of gases, particulates, metals (i.e. arsenic, cadmium, merc, zinc, iron), & bioallergens suspended in ambient air |
Measures: Personal (expensive) & Ambient (cheaper, use area monitors to estimate personal via map-red=higher exposure & dots where ppl live) |
Natural sources: pollen, fungi, dust |
Criteria Air Pollutants: Ozone, nitro dioxide, particulate matter (PM10 & PM 2.5), sulfur dioxide, lead |
Particulate Matter |
Indoor Air Quality |
Problem of cooking & heating: approx 50% households worldwide & 90% households utilize solid fuels for cooking & heating |
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