ENV 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers, Environmental Toxicology, Endocrine Disruptor
Document Summary
Environmental health: environmental health study of environmental factors that influence human health and quality of life and the health of ecological systems essential to environmental quality and long-term human well-being. Risks must be balanced against rewards: tradeoff between risk and reward, chemicals helped create better production of food, improved medication, etc, toxicity level makes it very dangerous for us. Toxic substances and their effects on organisms: toxins toxic chemicals manufactured in the tissues of living organisms. Not all toxic substances are synthetic: toxic substances also exist naturally in the environment and the foods we eat, some plants produce toxins to discourage animals from eating them, ingesting toxins the animals obtained from plants/animals they ate. The type of exposure can affect the response: acute exposure high exposure for short periods of time, stems from discrete events, chronic exposure low exposure over long periods of time, affects organs gradually.
