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APES Ch. 17 Vocab
Human Health and Environmental Risks - AP Environmental Science, Chapter 17
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Disease | A biological risk factor - any impaired function of the body with a characteristic set of symptoms |
| Infectious diseases | Diseases caused by infectious agents known as pathogens |
| Chronic diseases | Slowly impair the functioning of the body (ex: heart disease and most cancers) |
| Acute diseases | Rapidly impair the functioning of the body (ex: ebola) |
| Historically important infectious diseases | Plague, malaria (caused by a species from the genus Plasmodium, infects 350-500 million people and kills 1 million each year), tuberculosis (caused by Microbacterium tuberculosis, each year 9 million people develop the disease and 2 million die) |
| Emergent infectious diseases | Infectious diseases that were not previously described or have not been common for at least the prior 20 years - since the 1970s, we've had about one per year |
| Ebola hemorrhagic fever | A disease caused by the Ebola virus, which was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo near the Ebola River |
| Mad cow disease | A neurological disease in which a pathogen slowly damages a cow's nervous system, causing it to lose control over its body and die - beneficial proteins called prions can mutate into deadly proteins that act as pathogens and cause the disease |
| Bird flu | AKA the Spanish flu, an avian virus caused by the H1N1 virus - normally only infects birds, but a related virus called H5N1 has been contracted by people |
| West Nile virus | A virus that lives in hundreds of species of birds, most of which can survive - first human case was identified in 1937 in the West Nile region of Uganda |
| Neurotoxins | Chemicals that disrupt the nervous system of animals (ex: insecticides, lead, mercury) |
| Carcinogens | Chemicals that cause cancer - can interfere with the normal metabolic process of cells or damaging the genetic material (mutagens) (ex: arsenic, asbestos, formaldehyde, PCBs, radon, vinyl chloride) |
| Teratogens | Chemicals that interfere with the normal development of embryos or fetuses (ex: alcohol) |
| Allergens | Chemicals that cause allergic reactions - not pathogens, but cause an abnormally high response from the immune system |
| Endocrine disruptors | Chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of hormones in an animal's body (ex: atrazine, DDT, phthalates) |
| Dose-response studies | Expose animals or plants to different amounts of a chemical and then observe a variety of possible responses - usually acute studies (one to four days) |
| LD50 | The dose that kills 50% of individuals |
| ED50 | The effective dose that causes 50% of individuals to display a harmful but nonlethal effect |
| Chronic studies | Conducted over longer periods of time, often from when an organism is very young to when it is old enough to reproduce |
| Retrospective studies | Monitor people who have been exposed to a chemical some time in the past |
| Prospective studies | Monitor people who may become exposed to harmful chemicals in the future |
| Synergistic interactions | When two risks together cause more harm than one would expect based on their individual risks (ex: the impact of asbestos can be much higher for tobacco smokers) |
| Routes of exposure | The ways in which an individual may come into contact with a chemical (ex: water/air/food/soil to human) |
| Biomagnification | The increase in chemical concentration in animal tissues as the chemical moves up the food chain |
| Persistence | How long a chemical remains in the environment - often measured by half-life |
| The innocent-until-proven-guilty principle | The philosophy that a potential hazard should not be considered a hazard until scientific data can demonstrate that it definitely causes harm |
| The precautionary principle | The philosophy that when a hazard is plausible but not yet certain, we should reduce or remove it |
| The Stockholm Convention | Produced a list of 12 chemicals to be banned, phased out, or reduced - the "dirty dozen" included DDT, PCBs, and other endocrine disruptors |
| REACH | An agreement reached by the EU regarding how chemicals should be regulated - embraces the precautionary principle and puts more responsibility on manufacturers to confirm that chemicals used in the environment pose no risks |
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emilyjane1221
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