When categorizing environmental agents in regard to human health, physical, chemical, and biological agents each pose different and great threats. All can have potentially extremely dangerous short term and long term effects. In my opinion, biological agents pose the greatest threat to human health. It is crucial to point out that circumstantially, any of the three could pose the greatest threat, but in general, I believe biological agents do so. I find biological agents to be the most unavoidable with the most severe consequences, in general, of the three categories. Biological agents, coming in a variety of forms, have unique abilities amongst themselves and all categories of environmental health agents. Bacteria holds the ability to respond to the changing environment and become antibiotic resistant, endangering the host. Many biological agents are adaptable to environment, and can live in a variety of habitats (i.e. fungi, algae, and protozoa). Infectious prions even contain the potential to deteriorate brain tissue, and are transmissible from host to host. As is known, any of the biological agents can be extremely dangerous if not treated properly. Recognizing the epidemiologic transition from infectious disease to chronic illness, treatment has come a long way. Pathogens are not always avoidable, though, and infectious disease stands as the most important contributor of human mortality. (Gupta lecture, 21 Jan 2014) Chemical and physical agents have significant health impacts as well. Toxic chemical agents, including both organic and inorganic chemicals, have several routes and modes of exposure, and can often go unnoticed (Bollinger lecture, 23 Jan. 2014). While extremely dangerous in the right doses, many hazardous subs... ... middle of paper ... ...ing the greatest threat to human health out of the three categories because it is an example of an epidemic getting out of human control in some way. While they are evaluating poultry consumption and restructuring their epidemic control tactics including Hangzhou closing live poultry trade markets permanently, the epidemic still exists, and still continues to infect and kill humans. (xinhuanet.com) After evaluating the human health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological environmental agents, I have determined that, in my opinion, biological agents pose the greatest threat to human health. I believe the variety of hosts and routes, the capability to be transmissible from human-to-human, and the potential impacts on population health as opposed to strictly individual health support biological environmental agents as posing the greatest threat to human health.
“Johns Hopkins Working Group on Civilian Biodefense Says Botulinum Toxin is a Major Biological Weapons Threat.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Johns Hopkins University, 28 Feb. 2001. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
No one really knows the long-term effects of these substances, individually or in unpredictable combination, either on human health or on the health of the ecosystems upon which we, and all life, depend. The chemicals are not the same as the ones Carson indicted in Silent Spring, yet they are produced, sold, and used on an unsuspecting public by the same interconnected complex of profit-driven companies and government authorities. Carson’s words in her “Fable for Tomorrow” still apply, as if we lived in the future that she imagined: “No witchcraft, no enemy action” had produced our “stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson, 1962,
The author describes each chapter with a surreal narration. It begins with “A Fable for Tomorrow”, which starkly declares a bleak future of every U.S village if they erred to use pesticides. “The Obligation to Endure” describes the lack of public awareness and how it would become grievous. She justly reasons that if the public might suffer from long-term misfortunes due to insecticides usage, they have a right to know the facts. Felicitous “Elixirs of Death” describes the nature of insecticides in three apt words. Chemical structures of common biocides are explained in an uncomplicated fashion. A series of three successive chapters is dedicated to Earth and its components. These chapters include the closely inter-connected ecological cycles, existing in the water, mantle and soil horizons. Pesticide dispersal in soil followed by its access into the ground water table and the waterways is an inconceivable process. The book promulgates the escape of biocides from their place of application, and their integration into natural bodies. All her chapters thereafter revolve around the various short-term and long-term effects of biocides on the biosphere. Rachel Carson had stated countless dire cases wherein complete ecosystems faced annihilation. The influx of detrimental chemicals extended their reach over animals and plants, and were causing human mortalities as well. Humans are a part of
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has categorized the types of most commonly used chemical agents. The CDC also acts as an informational pool for the civilian population to understand the effects, symptoms and treatment of each chemical agent. The CDC categorized chemical agents under the following categories or types: biotoxins, blister agents/vesicants, blood agents, caustics (Acids), choking/lung/pulmonary agents, incapacitating agents, long-acting anticoagulants, metals, nerve agents, organic solvents, riot control agents/tear gas, toxic alcohols, and vomiting agents (CDC,...
We live in an environment full of microorganisms. These organisms may be pathogenic causing serious infections to humans and other living organisms, some just commensals while others are helpful in the food industry. The harmful effect of these organisms is a function of the condition that surrounds them at a particular time. For example, a favorable temperature, and the acidity or alkalinity of the medium in which they find themselves are some of the key factors that helps them multiply well enough to cause infection.
The morning of September 11, 2001, Americans experienced vulnerability and realized a new fear, the threat of a bioterrorist attack. In the days that followed the terrorist attacks letters tainted with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history (“Amerithrax or Anthrax Investigation”). Bioterrorism is defined as a criminal act against unsuspecting civilians and a threat to national security with the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or germs. An attack of bioterrorism is meant to cause illness or death by microorganisms that are found in nature, but they can be made more harmful because of an increased ability to cause and spread disease which resists medical treatment. These biological agents can spread from person to person or can be released into the food supply, water, or air. They can be hard to detect because they may not cause illness for hours or several days, thus giving terrorists an advantage allowing them to go escape undetected until symptoms arise and an attack is suspected. Biological weapons are appealing because they are often easy to obtain and inexpensive, and can be easily distributed. The main objective of bioterrorism is to cause panic and terror, not necessarily casualties. The social disruption they cause can be far worse than any actual damage.
The various activities of human beings affect adversely all environments where the plants, the animals and the humans live (Kaya et al., 2002). The numbers of chemicals which are the most important group of environmental pollution were limited to a few thousand until the beginning of this century and the majority part of that was constituted by plants, animals and mineral origin accounted for natural ingredients. The production of the chemicals which were 7 million tons in 1950 is estimated to reach 400 million tons today. On the one hand consists of hazards, on the other hand increasing quantities of usage of requirements for the modern living that has increased the importance of the determination of threshold limits of chemicals before and after the production (Utku, 2008).
Roffey, R., et al. "Biological weapons and bioterrorism preparedness: importance of public‐health awareness and international cooperation." Clinical microbiology and infection 8.8 (2002): 522-528.
Biological weapons are frightening, in part, because of limited public understanding of this type of warfare. The popular and uninformed opinion on biological warfare is that huge communities of people will be wiped out in one fell swoop by fatal infections. In this paper I will answer basic questions about biological warfare to provide a better understanding of what biological warfare means and how we can defend against it. Although biological warfare is frightening, it will not necessarily lead to the destruction of life on Earth. These infections are often fatal if untreated, but people can survive the illness if they seek appropriate medical treatment.
Biological warfare can be defined as “living organisms or infected material derived from them, which are used for hostile purposes and intended to cause disease or death in man, animals, and plants, and which depend for their efforts on the ability to multiply in the person, animal, or plant attacked” (Beeching, Dance, Miller, & Spencer, 2002). These agents have a huge impact on agriculture and on human health.
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Hilgenkamp, K. (2006). Environmental Toxins and Toxicology. In Environmental health: Ecological perspectives (pp. 89-90). Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
We all are at risk of invisible threats, they’re everywhere. The goal is to minimize the risk as much as we can by increasing our immunity, naturally. Just the simple things like hand washing which saved millions of infants from mortality, keeping a clean environment and healthy habits which all boost up our natural defences. You don’t need all these toxins and poisons which do more harm than good if any at all.
Household chemicals were created for a reason, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be harmful to your health. For instance, pesticides used on household lawns are now proven to cause neurological disorders. These include depression, mania, learning disorders, A.D.H.D, immune system defects and memory problems. Not proven yet, but the same chemicals play a big part in leading research for the c...
that can endanger the health of human beings, plants, and animals, or that can damage