What environmental hazards impact the health of people?
Interactive Study Guide
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Guiding Question 6.2
What environmental hazards impact the health of people?
Why You Should Care
Humans interact with the environment every day and most of those interactions are not dangerous or risky for our health. But some aspects of our environment do pose a threat to our health and these are environmental hazards.
Environmental hazards break into three types. Physical hazards arise from non-living hazards that involve weather, natural disasters, and other physical interactions. Chemical hazards involve exposure to or ingestion of chemicals that are either manmade or naturally caused, such as air or water pollution. Finally, biological hazards include living things such as parasites, viruses, and bacteria that use humans as a host or a food source.
In all three cases, environmental hazards decrease human health through sickness and sometimes death. Death translates into a higher mortality rate and a decreased life span, but sickness can also weaken immunity and shorten life spans. In parts of the world with minimal access to healthcare, environmental hazards significantly shorten life span.
Test Your Vocabulary
Choose the correct term for each of the following definitions:
Term
Definition
A scientist who studies the cause and pattern of disease in human populations.
An illness that is not transmissible between people; not infectious.
A social science field that deals with the health of human populations.
The branch of the social science field that focuses on factors in the natural world and the human-built environment that impact the health of populations.
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Question Sequence
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Which of the following is NOT an environmental health hazard of water?
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Reduced ozone levels in the stratosphere let more UV rays through from the Sun and increase rates of skin cancer. This is an example of a _____ hazard.
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Guinea worm disease is caused by which of the following?
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Worldwide, biological hazards are more likely to be caused by ____ than by infectious disease.
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According to Infographic 6.3, which is the greater disease threat?
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All _______ diseases pass back and forth between humans and animals.
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The majority of zoonotic diseases are transmitted by:
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Why are people in developing countries more likely to suffer from a disease with a high environmental burden?
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What factors increase the spread of zoonotic diseases between humans and wildlife?
Humans are spreading into rural areas to clear forests and grasslands for farmland as populations continue to grow. Also, in areas where food is limited, hunting and poaching of wild animals increases chances of zoonotic infections.
