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 specific population 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.
Requirements: 3-5 pages
Answer preview
As noted in the introductory part of this paper, exposure to lead has an adverse effect on a person’s health irrespective of age. Despite this, children bear the most significant risk of lead exposure and, as such, are the most vulnerable population demographic compared to adults (Abelsohn & Sanborn, 2010). Lead exposure can have numerous effects on a child’s behavior and development, even when in low levels. Health care professionals categorize the metal as a developmental neurotoxin. Extremely high exposure to lead in most cases leads to a child’s blood lead level rising and hit approximately 100 micrograms per decilitre (Abelsohn & Sanborn, 2010).
When this happens, children might start convulsing, fall into a coma, and in some instances even lose their life. On the other hand, limited exposure can result in symptoms such as colic anemia, swelling within the brain, and kidney damage (Canfield et al., 2015). Although they are severe, these are predominantly the short-term effects of exposure to lead. Exposure to this metal can also occasion some developmental and cognitive problems for children. In most cases, these long-term effects are brought about by regular exposure to low levels of lead. Even when exposed to small amounts of lead, it can damage a child’s brain and nervous system, lead to
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