The study of how man-made pollution affects living things, especially people. (Note, I've tried to stay away from wacko orgs for this article.) It's not just for environmental wackos anymore! |
The study of how external agents (biological, chemical, physical) affect living things, especially people. |
The US EPA? was supposed to establish "acceptable" levels of exposure to contaminants. One of the ratings chemicals are given are carcinogenicity, or how likely they are to cause cancer. Levels range from, not carcinogenic, likely carcinogen, known carcinigen, and unknown. But scientists are finding out that most of these levels are far too high and people should be exposed less to them. The CalEPA? Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has a list of more reasonable levels. ([OEHHA]) |
The [United States Environmental Protetection Agency]? was supposed to establish "acceptable" levels of exposure to contaminants. One of the ratings chemicals are given are carcinogenicity, or how likely they are to cause cancer. Levels range from, not carcinogenic, likely carcinogen, known carcinigen, and unknown. But scientists are finding out that most of these levels are far too high and people should be exposed less to them. The CalEPA? Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has a list of more reasonable levels. ([OEHHA]) |
#[CleanUp GE.org] - Info about GE's shady dumping practices on the Hudson River. |
#[CleanUp GE.org] - Info about GE's shady dumping practices on the Hudson river. |
Definition
The study of how external agents (biological, chemical, physical) affect living things, especially people.
The details
There are different types of pollution. Air pollution, water pollution, even land and noise? pollution. This article will concentrate on air, water and land pollution. Some sources of serious pollution are: chemical plants, oil refineries, nuclear waste dumps, regular garbage dumps (many toxic substances are illegally dumped there), incinerators, PVC factories, corporate animal farms creating huge amounts of animal waste. Some of the more common contaminants are: lead (like in lead paint), chromium, zinc, arsenic, benzene.
The [United States Environmental Protetection Agency]? was supposed to establish "acceptable" levels of exposure to contaminants. One of the ratings chemicals are given are carcinogenicity, or how likely they are to cause cancer. Levels range from, not carcinogenic, likely carcinogen, known carcinigen, and unknown. But scientists are finding out that most of these levels are far too high and people should be exposed less to them. The CalEPA? Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has a list of more reasonable levels. ([OEHHA])
Pollutants are thought to play a part in a variety of maladies, including: cancer, lupus, immune diseases, allergies?, asthma?.
CHECK OUT the ToxTutor? from the National Library of Medicine as an excellent resource to review human toxicology: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxTutor.html
The US has many departments responsible for tracking various pollutants.
Links for more info
/Talk?