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Toxic & Health Effects

  1. Principles of Toxicology
    1. Biological effects of toxins
    2. Mechanisms of toxicity
    3. Factors affecting toxicity
    4. Bioaccumulation & biomagnification
  2. Mutations, Cancer, Birth Defects
    1. these can result from genetic damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals
  3. Controlling Toxic Substances
    1. Federal laws
    2. Market incentives: use market forces (money) rather than regulations to reduce toxic substances
    3. Multimedia approach: toxic substances have often been shunted into whatever environmental medium was least regulated (eg, wastewater)
    4. Determining the Risks
    5. The variety of standards or ways of balancing risk and benefit might be summarized as follows:
    6. Probability=>

      Risk Assessment

      <=Severity

       

      Is the risk acceptable?

       

      Cost/benefit:
      acceptable if benefits outweigh costs

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      Expressed preferences:
      acceptable if people expressly accept the risks

      Natural standards: acceptable if risk is not greater than natural background

      Revealed preferences: acceptable if risk is not greater than those generally tolerated

    7. Cost Effectiveness (Chap 23 in Nebel)
  4. Asbestos
    1. natural silicate fibers with many useful properties
    2. airborne fibers become trapped in the lungs, essentially forever; in the lungs they cause three disorders:
    3. how asbestos causes cancer is unknown:
    4. asbestos workers exposed in the US since WWII are ~8 to 11 million; cancer rate in this group is about three times that in the general populace
    5. controls:
  5. Mineral cycles-Toxic metals
    1. Toxic Metals
    2. Mercury cycle
    3. Lead cycle
    4. cadmium
    5. chromium
    6. Trace elements
  6. Radiation
    1. What is radiation?
    2. Measurement of radiation
    3. Effects of radiation
    4. Sources of Radiation

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ANTHONY G BENOIT
ROOM 201B
(860) 885-2386

abenoit@trcc.commnet.edu