Term | Definition |
Conservation medicine | discipline that attempts to understand how our environmental changes threaten our own health as well as that of the natural communities on which we depend our ecological services |
Toxins | poisons |
Allergens | substances that activate the immune system |
Antigens | chemical compounds to which antibodies bind; proteins that recognize and bind to foreign cells or chemicals |
Sick building syndrome | headaches, allergies, chronic fatigue and other symptoms caused by poorly vented indoor air contaminated by pathogens or toxins |
Endocrine disruptors | chemicals that disrupt normal hormone functions |
Neurotoxins | special class of metabolic poisons that specifically attack nerve cells (neurons) |
Mutagens | agents, such as chemicals and radiation, that damage or alter genetic material (DNA) in cells |
Teratogens | chemicals or other factors that specifically cause abnormalities during embryonic growth and development |
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome | a cluster of symptoms including craniofacial abnormalities, developmental delays, behavioral problems, and mental defects that last throughout a child's life |
Carcinogens | substances that cause cancer |
Cancer | invasive, out-of-control cell growth that results in malignant tumors |
Bioaccumulation | selective absorption and storage of a great variety of molecules by cells |
Biomagnification | when the toxic burden of a larger number of organisms at a lower trophic level is accumulated and concentrated by a predator in a higher trophic level |
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) | chemical compounds that persist in the environment and retain biological activity for long times |
Body burden | the sum total of all persistent toxins in our body that we accumulate from our air, water, diet, and surroundings |
Synergism | interaction in which one substance exacerbates the effects of another |
LD50 | chemical dose lethal to 50 percent of test population |
Acute effects | sudden, severe effects; a single exposure to the toxin that results in immediate health crisis of some sort |
Chronic effects | results from a single dose of a very toxic substance, or results from continuous/repeated sublethal exposure |
Risk | possibility of suffering harm or loss |
Risk assessment | scientific process of estimating the threat that particular hazards pose to human health |
Emergent diseases | those not previously known or that have been absent for at least 20 years |
Ecological diseases | sudden and widespread epidemics that domestic animals and wildlife experience |
Health | state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being |
Disease | an abnormal change in the body's condition that impairs important physical or psychological functions |
Mortality | death; death rate in a population, probability of dying |
Morbidity | illness/disease |
Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) | a measure of disease burden |
Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) | a measure of premature deaths and losses due to illnesses and disabilities in a population |
Environmental health | focuses on external factors that cause disease, including elements of the natural, social, cultural, and technological worlds in which we live |
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