Categories of Human Environmental Hazards

Also depicted in this paper is the type of cancers caused by each chemical and other related health problems associated with each chemical. Finally, the role of government agencies such as FDA, EPA and OSHA in preventing excessive amount or zero amounts of toxic chemicals from entering the environment will be discussed. The last paragraphs will enumerate the inferred conclusion from my research on Agent Orange, DDT and Benzene.

Contaminated soil, air and water are agents for toxins and infections acquisition in exposed populations. Inappropriate disposal of hazardous (some chemicals) substances also affects the environment thus human beings. Chemicals are everywhere in the environment such as home, work, hospitals, even in food. Chemicals that are considered safe can become harmful if misused; for example, pesticides, detergents, ammonia and drugs. Unfortunately, some nuclear substances and chemicals used in healthcare also contribute in human health degradation.

Also depicted in this paper is the type of cancers caused by each chemical and other related health problems associated with each chemical. Finally, the role of government agencies such as FDA, EPA and OSHA in preventing excessive amount or zero amounts of toxic chemicals from entering the environment will be discussed. The last paragraphs will enumerate the inferred conclusion from my research on Agent Orange, DDT and Benzene.

The purpose of this course is to provide the fundamental knowledge of the effects of environmental chemicals on living systems, and the toxic responses of the human and plant systems. Students will discuss risk, ethics, and social responsibility with regard to environmental toxicology.

The history of life on this earth has been a chain of interaction between living things and their surroundings. Change can be good but in this case change is bad. We as humans have been destroying our planet by air, earth, rivers, and sea with the most dangerous materials. Polluting our most precious and limited resources we have been our greatest enemy. We have created these irrecoverable effects that now everyone living on the planet is being affected but also the tissues of the living of everything is now being changed. Chemicals are sinister and a partner to radiation and here is some background information as stated in “The Obligation to Endure” by Rachel Carson pg. 466 where it lists a chain reaction of the chemical to our environment

The Great Lakes, though fairly clean, are contaminated with some deadly chemicals that have slipped by human filtration into the lakes. These emerging chemicals have been determined to pose some health risk to humans and surrounding ecosystems and are used by society, but are unregulated or inadequately regulated retardants (Miller-Branovacki, Lindsay, "Water Resources and Urban Waste Water (Week #8)"). More specifically an emerging contaminant is one which is not historically widely distributed, nor a concern, however are now persistent and bioaccumulative making them a concern for the environment. The three major categories for emerging contaminants are; endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), Pharmaceutical and personal care

Some of the pollutants released include: toluene, benzene, xylene and ethyl benzene, ground level ozone (also known as smog), nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde. Exposure to these pollutants are known to cause short-term illness, organ damage, nervous system disorders, cancer, birth defects and even death in some cases. Some of the cancer causing are this; Dioxin is formed when chlorine breaks down, and can be found in both water and air. Dioxins are known human carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. One dioxin has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known human carcinogen. Organic solvents are a class of chemicals that includes chlorinated and other solvents, including toluene, methylene chloride, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde. Sources of exposure include outdoor and indoor air pollution, waste incineration, cleaning products and some cosmetics. They are also used in the manufacture of computer parts. Many pesticides that are included in the fluid, including herbicides and other pest-killing poisons, have been labeled as human or animal carcinogens. A report demonstrated that lifetime use of residential pesticides may be associated with an increase

Five environmental agents that can cause disease in humans are mercury, lead, radiation, air pollution, and pesticides. People are exposed to mercury in different ways. For example, a common way is by eating fish containing mercury or being exposed to broken products that contain mercury (thermometer). People are exposed to lead by exposure to lead-based paint and pipes of older buildings, as well as, ingesting contaminated water. We are exposed to radiation through the sun's UV radiation or x-rays people get when getting checkups in the hospital. As for air pollution, people can be exposed to CO2 emissions from cars, factories, and cities in general. Another way is being exposed while indoors by CO that comes from appliances that have no odor,

These chemicals, which are actual poisons, make their way to our ground-water supply, which in turn is consumed by us.

Our environment suffers more than 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals being released into it per year. These toxic chemicals accumulate in our bodies and can lead to acute and chronic illness.

Natural Hazards and the Interaction of Physical and Human Processes The earth has been producing hazards for millennia these include earthquakes and volcanoes caused by the movement of tectonic plates, and also wind and water elated disasters such as tornadoes and tsunamis, these can be varied by a countries location such as suffering drought due to be land locked or an island, also the relief on the land can contribute greatly to the hazards it faces.. All of these cause great destruction and can involves lots of energy, these events do not become disasters unless there are human factors involved, when people live on a fault line they are risking suffering from an earthquake, this combination of

Many scientific researchers have said that our environment has been filled with toxic chemicals, which us humans have had a part of. There are many different issues that should concern us surrounding these toxic chemicals. The major concern is that many of these toxic chemicals have been claimed to be causing damage to the health of humans and even other life forms. Another concern is that most of the theses toxic chemicals have just recently been produced; and by our environment changing everyday there is no telling what effects these toxic chemicals may have in the long run on the public 's health. Just about all of these toxic chemicals exist in the way they do because of humans. As humans we practice a lot of different activities that cause toxic chemicals to pollute our environment such as, agriculture, industrial, and many domestic activities as well. Many of the toxic chemicals that we produce and use don 't get used in a effective way, which causes them to be wasted, left abandoned, and disposed of. When toxic chemicals are not disposed of properly they effect the environment and the public 's health in a negative way.

People come into contact with numerous chemicals every day that are in our food, water, air, and household products. Many of these can be a threat to our health and in some cases have been caused to invoke death. For scientists, trying to find the volume of exposure that is acceptable or unacceptable is a painstaking process. It involves performing a risk assessment which takes into consideration the following factors. How much of a chemical is present in an environmental medium, how much contact does a person or ecological receptor have with the contaminated medium, and the inherent toxicity of the chemical (EPA, 2012). This paper will address specific questions about risk assessments and when I think a risk is deemed acceptable.

Typically when one thinks about chemicals, cleaning products come to mind, but when poison is added to the equation the mind jumps to more dangerous items such as cyanide or acids. What is rarely thought of is plastic, food, or even water. Many people are unaware of harmful chemicals that are in everyday items. It is important to be aware of what enters the body because the side-effects can be harmful and in some cases deadly. Certain chemicals are not only harmful to the current generation, but also to future ones. Avoidance is only possible with knowledge of the dangers chemicals found in common goods present.

There are wide range of chemical benefits in the society, such as industrial productivity, increased agricultural and improvements in the control of disease. Nevertheless, chemicals have the potential to cause damage, ill-health to the environment and many potential effects of spill. There are complex risks to humans from exposure to the chemicals. The risks are a combination of two factors, in which under specified conditions, there’s probability that a substance or situation can produce harm. There’s probability that an adverse event can occur such as exposure from a chemical incident and the consequences of adverse event such as the effects from exposure to the chemical. (APHO, 2002)