BESC 201 10 4 2013 Lecture 15 Outline of Last Lecture I Population and Society Outline of Current Lecture II Environmental Health Current Lecture 10 4 2013 Environmental Health and Toxicology Central Case Study Poison in the Bottle Is Bisphenol A Safe Bisphenol A BPA a chemical and a synthetic organic compound that has been associated with everything from neurological effects to miscarriages but it s in hundreds of products Because most of the chemical passes through the body within hours of exposure its widespread presence in urine suggests the most Americans receive continuous exposure to BPA Babies and children accumulate the most BPA BPA mimics the female sex hormone estrogen Estrogen functions at very low concentrations in the body so a synthetic chemical in the body at similarly low concentrations can fool the body into responding as it would to estrogen Expert panels convened to assess the fast growing body of scientific studies of BPA have struggled with the fact that traditional research methods are not geared to test hormonemimicking substances that exert effects at low doses Grassroots lobbying efforts have led many companies to voluntarily remove BPA from their products Environmental Health Environmental Health assess environmental factors that influence our health and quality of life We face four types of environmental hazards Physical chemical biological and cultural Physical hazards processes that occur naturally and pose risks to human life of health some are ongoing natural phenomena others are discrete events floods Can minimize risk by preparing ourselves with emergency plans and avoiding common practices that make us vulnerable to certain physical hazards Chemical hazards synthetic chemicals that our society manufactures Biological hazards ecological interactions among organisms These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Infectious disease a sickness from a virus bacterial infection or other pathogen resulting from suffering from parasitism Major environmental health hazards in developing countries Cultural lifestyle hazards hazards that results from our place of residence socioeconomic status occupation or behavioral choices The biological hazard of disease is a focus of environmental health Vector an organism that transfers the pathogen to the host Some infectious diseases are evolving resistance to antibiotics Human induced global warming of the climate is enabling tropical diseases to gain footholds in temperate regions
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