Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Environmental Exposure Sources and Pathways
• Environmental Exposure Assessments
• Strategies and Interventions

NELC 420 - Environmental Health I

Module 2: Exposure Assessment and Control

Environmental Exposure Sources and Pathways

Transport and Fate

Much of the health impact of toxins depends on how they move around (transport) in the different “compartments” of the environment (air, soil, water), and what happens to them along the way (fate). Some toxins move through unaltered while some transform due to degradation or other processes. These transformations can result in a loss of toxicity, or the by-products may become more harmful to humans.

Watch this short presentation from a soil conference where the presenter gives a broad overview of how contaminants can end up in soil, what happens then, and why that may affect human health.

(Figure obtained from USGS Circular 1133, p. 114)

 

Exposure Media

Click here to view exposure assessment tools related to media.

http://www.epa.gov/risk/expobox/media/index.htm