For this week’s assignment:

• Identify an environmental or occupational exposure to a chemical or group of chemicals in which you are interested—the topic for your final project. For ideas about topics, you can consult the following sources:
  • The textbook
  • The environmental health topics section of the CDC website
  • The environmental health topics section of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) website
  • The toxic substances section of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) website
  • The case studies in environmental medicine from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) website
  • The hazards and exposures section and the chemicals section of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH’s) website. NIOSH is a part of the CDC.
• Determine how your chosen exposure affects human populations, i.e., the health problems or disease caused by this chemical or group of chemicals.
• Choose a topic that is not overly broad. For example:
  • Choose one chemical: Lead exposure will make a better topic than exposure to toxic heavy metals, which include lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, etc. (described in the textbook).
  • Choose a specificpopulation at risk: This population is exposed either to one chemical or to a closely related group of chemicals, such as pesticide exposure to children in agricultural families or occupational exposure to organic solvents among pregnant women.
• Write a 3 to 5-page paper in a Microsoft Word document addressing the following:
  • Describe the chosen environmental or occupational exposure.
  • Explain the importance of this exposure problem to human health in terms of both of the following issues:
    • The extent of exposure, e.g., the estimated number of people exposed
    • The seriousness of disease or diseases associated with the exposure to the substance or group of substances
  • Describe the population you will study (e.g., the whole population, individuals living in poverty, children, pregnant women, workers in specific occupations, etc.)
  • Explain why you are interested in the environmental or occupational public health problem you selected and the population you selected.

Answer preview

Lead is among the most useful but also very poisonous heavy metals ever discovered. Exposure to lead is quite harmful to a person’s well-being irrespective of their age (Abelsohn & Sanborn, 2010). Despite this, this paper will only focus on lead exposure among children. Over the years, children’s exposure to this metal has been a source of public concern, with the CDC and various state Departments of Health coming up with preventing programs geared towards addressing the issue. Unlike some other metals, Lead does not have serve any biological function, and the presence of the metal within a child’s body, irrespective of the level, is quite concerning, considering its potential to threaten a children’s development and well-being

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