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.
Anthrax is one of the most preferred biological warfare agents for many highly identified reasons. First, anthrax is extremely lethal. Anthrax can contain up to 100 million lethal doses in just one gram of anthrax spores, which is 100,000 times more lethal than any other biological warfare agent. It is also known that inhalation anthrax is almost always fatal if the symptoms are allowed to progress without any treatment. Anthrax is also the silent and invisible killer. On top of the fatality rate of anthrax, there are also very low barriers to produce the biological weapon. Anthrax spores are very easy to produce in large quantities, and the process of production is very inexpensive. Also, there is plenty of available information on how to weaponize anthrax and not a whole lot of technology is needed to be able to produce anthrax. Anthrax is also easy to weaponize because it is extremely stable as a dry powder in the form of spores. These spores can live for decades and still be very lethal to the human body. Anthrax can be put into an aerosol form disseminated into a spray can, and it can also be freeze-dried into a bomb. Presently anthrax is the most preferred biological agent is because we have no accurate detection capability.
“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.
Stalcup, A. (2013). Surviving toxic work environments. Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry, 405(4), 1145-1147. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Database (AN: 84944726)
Knowing this, one would not believe that it has caused not one, not two, but three pandemics and is on its way to causing a fourth! The Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 each killed millions of people worldwide, causing mass terror. People were mad with fear, and for good reason, as friends, family, and neighbors dropped dead like flies. And yet, as soon as the deaths ceased, the forgetfulness set in. until very few knew about these pandemics.
Over the years humans have tried every possibility to overcome the health problems, spread of epidemics and infections, disease control and have worked towards a healthy society free of disease and health problems. They have succeeded to a great extent. The book “Good germs, bad germs” describes that though the life expectancy is now far more as it was in previous eras. Epidemic problems and infectious diseases are now getting lesser and lesser and humans are being treated successfully. The hygienic conditions have also been improved so as to ensure least growth of microbes, germs, parasites and bacteria. Antibiotics have been invented to address diseases and infections caused by bacteria and viruses. With all these substantial efforts the biologists, physicians and scientists have triggered another epidemic which is even more severe. They have killed those microbes and bacterial species which were human friendly and as a result of either their disruption or mutation, pathogenic bacteria have even become more active and resistant to treatments. This has led to increased ineffectiveness of antibiotic drugs, low immunity and various infections and inflammatory diseases. The chlorinated water for drinking and food processing along with excessive hygienic conditions indicates our fight against these bacteria and germs. Further, these antibiotics are even given to the livestock which becomes our food and as result many of their resistant germs end up in our digestive tract and other organs. Thus, the war against microbes through excessive cleanliness and use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance among humans, which has become one of the prominent problems of medical science
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Before we start, what exactly is a biological substance? As defined in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary (Biological, 2014) Biological means of or relating to life and living things. Since the beginning of time there have been biological substances. Think of the flu virus in the early 1900’s, it killed thousands of people. The pathogens that make up this virus multiplied over and over until eventually there was an uncontrollable epidemic throughout the United States (Steinbruner, 1997). Many of us think that the influenza virus was an epidemic that will never happen again but then came other biological agents such as smallpox and the deadly anthrax virus. We’ve come to the realization now that biological substances are the weapons of choice. Yes we do have nuclear and chemical weapons that threaten our society, but these weapons aren’t alive. We must pay greater attention to certain toxins that Americans are injecting into their bodies on a daily basis.
What is a biological weapon? A biological weapon is the use of toxins to cause disease in humans (also an...
that can endanger the health of human beings, plants, and animals, or that can damage
The occurrence of infectious disease and epidemics has speckled the history of humanity since the first civilization established itself. Considering that a large population can help to foster infectious diseases, and humans share almost 300 communicable agents with animals, the outbreak of epidemics is inextricably intertwined with revol...
Thesis: Biological Warfare is morally and inhumanely wrong, It is the wrongful killing of men, women, and children. It should be stopped no matter what the circumstances are.
Food matters. Nevertheless, food safety in China is worse than what you thought; you can never imagine how toxic it is. Although there are variety choices of restaurant for us to eat nowadays, many people still choose to eat at home. Not only to save money, but also be sensible for their own health. Think about our situation now, we can constantly buy meats that we think is fresh and yummy, but who knows if it’s healthy and safe? Is it truly what you want? What materials will the restaurant serves you? Food safety affects people a lot. Nowadays, especially in China, many citizens are already despair in this affair. Food safety is one of the most principal issues to the entire world; as one of the most important feature in everybody’s life,
All the students should ensure that no experiment should be left while in progress at all times. Chemical Handling Chemicals are hazardous and highly dangerous materials that are capable of causing harm and injury if carelessly handled. All the chemicals in the lab should be labeled clearly, and users should refrain from interchanging the labels. Chemicals should be categorized according to their toxicity and reactivity with different elements (Hill & Finster, 2011). When using chemicals, students must wear provided gloves and avoid touching any chemical with bare hands.
These enemies, also known as biological control agents, include predators, parasitoids and pathogens. Parasitoids are parasites whose larvae develop inside another organism’s body, and an example of a parasitoid is a wasp. A pathogen or infectious agent is a biological agent that causes disease or illness to its victim and it disrupts the normal physiology of the insect pest, an example of a pathogen is bacteria. Predators consume a large number insect pest species over their lifetime.
Some examples of harmful toxins with difficult names include diethanolamine (DEA), formaldehyde, glucocorticoids, and triethanolamine (TEA). We are exposed to toxic chemicals in many ways. We may breathe them in as sprays and powders, swallow chemicals on our lips and, even rub them on our skin. According to a team of researchers who conducted a study on the relationship between exposure to phthalates and DNA damage on human sperm, “cosmetics frequently contain enhancers that allow ingredients to penetrate deeper into the skin. Studies have found health problems in people exposed to common fragrance and sunscreen ingredients, including increased risk of sperm damage, feminization of the male reproductive system and low birth weight in girls” (Duty et al. 1164). There should be regulations banning toxic chemicals from personal care and beauty products because toxins are bad for our health (1), the consumer faith in cosmetic companies are suffering (2), and other countries recognized the effects and banned it while America has not