| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Love Canal, NY | chemicals buried in old canal and school & homes built over it causing birth defects & cancer |
| Municpal solid waste is mostly | Paper and most is landfilled |
| Sanitary landfill problems and solutions | leachate - liner with collection systems; methanegas - collect gas and burn; volume of garbage - compact & reduce |
| Incineration advantages | volume of waste reduced by 90% & waste heat can be used |
| Incineration disadvantages | toxic emissions - polyvinyl chloride dioxin; scrubbers & electrostatic precipitators needed; ash disposal - contains heavy metals |
| Best way to solve waste problem | reduce the amounts of waste at the source |
| LD50 | the amount of a chemical that kills 50% of the animals in a test population |
| Energy Recovery | heat derived from incinerators can be used to heat buildings and/or generate electricity |
| Recycling | reprocess discarded materials into new, useful products |
| aluminum cans | saves bauxite ore, reduces air polllution and cuts energy by 95% |
| Composting | allow organic material to break down under aerobic conditions |
| Demanufacturing | dissassemble and recycle obsolete electronics |
| Resource Conservation and Recovery Act | 9176, requires testing and management of toxic and hazardous substances; cradel to the grave |
| Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act | 1984, modified by superfund; goal is rapid containment, clean up or remediation of abandonded toxic waste sites |
| Superfund | a pool designed to provide immediate response and clean up inactive sites |
| Brownfields | contaminated areas that are not used to the fullest due to pollution concerns |
| Health | a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being |
| Disease | a deleterious change in the body's condition in response |
| Disability - Adjusted Life Years | combine premature deaths and loss of healthy life resulting from illness or disability |
| Emergent disease | one never known before or has been absent for at least 20 years (SARS, West Nile) |
| Protozoan | bacteria that causes malaria is now resistant to most anitbiotics |
| Toxic | poisonous, can be general or very specific often harmful even in |
| Hazardous | dangerous, flammable, explosive, irritant, acid, caustic |
| Allergens | substances that activate the immune system |
| Antigens | allergens that are recognized as foreign by white blood cells and stimulate the production of specific antibodies |
| Neurotoxins | metabolic posions that specifically attcks nerve cells |
| Mutagens | agents that damage or alter genetic material (radiation) |
| Teratogens | specifically cause abnormalities (alcohol - fetal alcohol syndrome) |
| Carcinogens | cancer causing agents |
| Solubility | one of most important characteristics in determing the movement of a toxin |
| Bioaccumulation | selective absorption and storage |
| biomagnification | toxic burden of a large number of organisms at a lower trophic level is accumulated and concentrated by a predator at a higher trophic level |
| Antagonistic Reaction | one material interfere with the effects or stimulates the breakdown of other chemicals |
| Additive Reaction | effects of each chemical are added to one another |
| Synergistic Reaction | one substance exacerbates the effect of the other |
| Acute Effects | caused by a single exposure and results in an immediate health problem |
| Chronic Effects | long lasting, can be the result of a single dose or doses |
| Risk | possibility of suffering harm or lass |
| Risk Assessment | scientific process of estimating the threat that particular hazards pose to human health |
Combine with other sets
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