enhs
Terms
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- Applies ethical reasoning to environmental health concerns and examines the moral responsibility for the environment; air, water, food and soil contamination with chemical and biological agents.
- Environmental health ethics
- ..can be defined as “The study of reasons why specific actions are good or bad, right or wrong, praiseworthy or blameworthy.
- Ethics
- ...is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
- Environmental Justice
- ...means that no group of people, including a racial, ethnic, or a socioeconomic group, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of fed
- Fair treatment
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..means that:
(1) potentially affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment and/or health; example: proposed plastic industry in Louisiana. - Meaningful involvement
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... also means
(2) the public's contribution can influence the regulatory agency's decision/Public Hearing /Example : the VA Medical center in New Orleans
(3) the concerns of all participants involved will be considered in the decision making pro - Meaningful involvement
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It is reported that _____ communities are exposed to more pollutants than the general population.
- minority and low income
- Therefore, the EPA office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) developed a an action plan in ____, to find solutions to environmental and health problems that might effect all Americans, especially ____
- 2003, minority and/or low income populations who may be impacted
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It is believed that environmental equity has been abused by many industries by locating their facilities close to _____.
- minority populations
- “prohibiting discriminatory practices in any programs receiving federal financial assistance. For the first time, Federal agencies must consider the racial and socioeconomic characteristics of a community prior to launching a new project or issuing new
- 1994 executive order
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What factors were considered in choosing the 2 sites in the Envmt'l justice and thics impact on envmt'l policy decision making and PH case study?
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Similar Demographic Composition*
Similar Industrial Composition
Similar Environmental Contamination
May Differ in Terms of
Tourism
Economic Base
Urban/Rural
- Items compared in case study?
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compared risk indicators, to assess relative risk to area residents,
and examine relevant health outcomes,
Compared Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facilities,
National Priorities List (NPL) sites with demographic characteristics of populations near industrial facilities,
- Case study research methods
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Examination of Relevant Environmental Laws, Policies, Regulations, and Legislation
Analysis of Policy Development
Study of TRI Releases, NPL Sites, Demographics
Development of Geographic Maps
Examination of Health Outcomes based on TRI
Integration Analysis of Differing Outcomes - Impt envmt'l justice facts
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It is important to remember that environmental justice is a process, often referred to as a movement. It continually strives to reach a goal. Environmental justice is not an end in and of itself. It’s the process of attaining a goal or an outcome!
We must also remember that environmental justice is temporal, what is thought to be a just end presently, may not be seen as just in the future. - Case study conclusions
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Site A (Florida)
Significant dioxin contamination, a known source, and a pathway of exposure to the community.
Exposure to carcinogenic contaminants negligible.
Site B (Louisiana)
Significant dioxin contamination, no known source, and no known direct pathway of exposure to the community. Health intervention in this area by ATSDR; elevated blood dioxin levels.
Exposure to carcinogenic contaminants was significant.
- More case study conclusions
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Cancer Incidence Rates for white and non-white males in both study areas were higher than for the United States; for all females in both areas, cancer rates were lower
Self-Reported illnesses seem to be similar
- Main conclusion about envmt'l justice.
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Environmental Justice outcomes in the study areas were not based on a confluence of Public Health and Public Policy, but on the Basis of the Political Climate at the Time of Decision Making
- Tox: Definition of Criteria
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Criteria. Numerical standards that are established for the concentrations of chemical substances in soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediments that relate to the suitability of a site for specific land uses and land use categories. Criteria are also often referred to as guidelines.
Criteria = ONLY guidelines
pH should be between 6-9
Arsenic contaminants should not exceed 1 parts per billion
Bacteria should not exceed 1 colony per 100 mL
Criteria are DIFFERENT from standards
- Dose response eq
- Hazard + Exposure = Risk
- Dose-response depends on:
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individual sensitivity
dose
agent - What does dose depend on?
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Weight!
For exposure to a chemical agent, dose is usually expressed in relation to body weight.
This is because for a fixed amount of toxic agent, the dose, and likewise the effect, depends directly on weight.
We know, for example, that one shot of alcohol would have a very big effect on a child weighting 10 lbs and a much smaller effect on an adult weighing 200 lbs.
- Pharmacology vs envmt'l toxicology
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Pharmacology:
the scientific study of the origin, nature, chemistry, effects, and use of drugs
Toxicology:
the science that investigates the adverse effects of chemicals on health
- Why are children at higher risk for poisoning?
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Children are at high risk for poisoning from drugs and hazardous chemicals because of their curiosity and hand-to-mouth behavior. With regard to environmental hazards, children are at greater risk because they spend more time on or near the ground, which increases their exposure to residues (including residues from airborne toxicants that settle on the ground). With regard to foodborne toxicants, children have greater food intake per kilogram of body weight than adults, and they eat a smaller range of foods (which leads to increased risk from contaminants on certain foods). With regard to airborne toxicants, children breathe proportionately more air than adults.
- Pharmacology dose-response curve (with 2 dotted lines).
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“No response†below left dotted line and response above this line
“Reversal†possible up until right dotted line, but after that point then death will occur
- Why varying responses (pharmacologically)?
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In pharmacology as well as environmental health, the dose-response curve may differ for different populations. Children, for example, are not just little adults. Because of differences in development and function of organs, they may metabolize drugs or toxins differently from adults. Therefore, effects may increase for children at lower (or occasionally higher) doses.
For example, children absorb lead from the GI tract much more efficiently than adults. With nitrate in drinking water, the higher pH in the digestive system of an infant allows proliferation of bacteria which transform nitrate into toxic nitrite.
In pharmacology as well as environmental health, individuals vary with regard to response to drugs or toxins. This is due to factors such as: age, gender, genetic variations, weight, drug that the person may be taking, pregnancy status.
- What is NOEL?
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Only toxic effects are of concern.
Low doses NOEL (no observable effect level)
Exceeding the NOEL toxicity occurs
- What is "interaction"?
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Pharmacology:
Drug interactions define the effect one drug has on another.
Toxicology:
Toxicological interactions define the effect one chemical has on another.
- 3 types of interaction?
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3 types of effects:
Additive: the sum = the whole
1 + 1 = 2
Synergistic (aka potentiated): one enhances the other’s effect
1 + 1 = 5
Antagonistic: one reduces the effect of the other
1 + 1 = 0.5 - Acute toxicities
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The US federal regulations require that an acute test of the chemical in question be determined in at least two animal species, with one species being a non-rodent.
Test results are reported as LD50 which stands for Lethal Dose which kills 50% of Test animals.
- Subacute toxicity (3 months)
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Chemical is fed to animals for three months at different doses.
A Dose response curve is developed.
The highest dose which produces no adverse effects is used to estimate for a safe dose for human consumption.
- Chronic toxicity (animal life-span)
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It follows the acute and subacute testing.
Rodents are normally used because their life is about four years life span.
Testing lasts for three generations.
The dose where animals produce normally and their off springs show no mutagenic or teratogenic effects is used to estimate the safe dose for humans.