1. The Environment and Human Health
Part 2: Pollution and Human Health
Yellow don’t write down!

2. Refresher: What is Pollution? What is Health?
Pollution: The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.
Environment: The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.
Health: the state of being free from illness or injury.
Why is it important to be healthy???

3. What does Pollution do? Pollution causes illness in two ways.
Directly by poisoning (lead in water or soot in the air, both can lead to cancer).
Indirectly by infectious diseases (Cholera)

4. WHO is WHO? WHO is an acronym for World Health Organization.
WHO is an organization that collects data on how the environment affects human health.
WHO determines how unhealthy a group of people or a country is by looking at a number of things (death rate, illnesses, birth rate).

5. NEED to KNOW – 5 Pollutants, their sources, & effects!
The 5 pollutants are:
Pesticides
Lead
Particulate Matter
Coal Dust/Soot
Bacteria in Food

6. What is Toxicology?
Toxicologist salary in the US = 75,000$
Toxic means poisonous and ology means the study of so what does toxicology mean?
The STUDY of the harmful effects of substances on organisms!
Toxicologists study how much is a lethal dose of a substance in an organism, they determine this for a variety of reasons.
You are eating, drinking, and breathing in something harmful everyday but you are probably only absorbing a small dose which isn’t TOXIC enough to harm you.

7. What is Epidemiology? What is an epidemic again?
Widespread outbreak through a region or country.
Epidemiology is the study of the spreads of diseases.
Epidemiologists collect data from health workers and figure out like a detective where diseases starter, where diseases may go, and even predict where diseases may begin before it happens!
Epidemiologists annual salary in the US = 70,000$

8. Why are toxicologists and epidemiologists important?
Toxicologists and Epidemiologists are health care workers for the human species. They prevent diseases and illness before they happen and they stop them before they can spread. Without them you wouldn’t know what is safe to eat, drink, or even breathe. Without them you wouldn’t know if it was safe to travel or not!

9. Natural Pollutants
Pollution is not entirely caused by people. Naturally occurring pollutants become hazardous to health when they reach levels above their normal concentration in their environment.
Example: Radon gas. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that is odorless. It can seep in from granite deposits and people unknowingly breathe it in. Radon causes 15,000-22,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

10. Other Natural Pollutants
Particulates & Heavy Metals are other natural pollutants.
What are particulates?
Most common natural pollutant.
Made of dust, soot, and other particles.
Can cause irritation and lead to bronchitis, emphysema, and worse.
What are heavy metals?
Natural occurring metals found in rock and soil.
Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.
Can lead to nerve damage, birth defects, poisoning, and death 

11. Big Human caused Pollutants
The most damaging pollutants caused by humans.
Burning fossil fuels
Pesticides
Industrial chemicals
Waste disposal

12. Fossil Fuels Pollutants created: Carbon Monoxide Carbon Dioxide
Particulates
Volatile Organic Compounds
Issues with it:
Environmental degradation
Studies have shown that long term exposure to these air pollutants increases your chance of having and dying from lung cancer, and heart disease.
New study shows air quality may have an effect on Alzheimer's!

13. Pesticides: Chemicals designed to kill unwanted organisms (insects, fungi, weeds).
Pollutants Created:
Most pesticides are made of organophosphates.
Example DDT.
Issue with pesticides:
Disruption of hormones, nerve damage, birth defects, poisoning, and cancer.

14. Industrial Chemicals and Waste Disposal
Using your book look up what pollutants are caused by industrial chemicals and what they can do to you or the environment. Do the same with waste disposal. What pollutants are caused and what they do to you or the environment.