HSCI 304 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Environmental Epidemiology, Engineering Controls, Confounding
Document Summary
Exposure occurs at the interface between a pollutant and a receptor (ex. Dose: amount of pollutant taken up by the body that reaches target organs or tissues. Simplified: exposure is the pollutant"s contact with the body and dose is the pollutant"s entry into the body and arrival at target tissues, organs, etc. Equal exposure does not necessarily mean equal dose (person taking in more air is more exposed) Dose is more difficult to measure than exposure: four purposes. To understand the human health effects of a pollutant (as part of epidemiology) To better understand population health risks from a pollutant that is known or suspected to cause health effects (as part of risk assessment) To make decisions about how best to eliminate or minimize health risks (as part of risk management) To evaluate patterns, potential future scenarios (as part of status or trends analysis: important to estimate exposure carefully.