Module Components

• Overview

Topics

• Case Study
• Definitions
• Environmental Health Risks at Home, Work, and in the Community
• Climate Change
• Disaster/Emergency Preparedness and Management
• Role of the PHN

Nurs 467 - Public Health Nursing

Module 11: Environmental Health and Emergency Preparedness

DEFINITIONS

Biomonitoring: Process of using medical tests such as blood or urine collection to determine whether a person has been exposed to a contaminant and how much exposure he or she has received.

Body burden: The total amount of a substance in the body. Some substances build up in the body because they are stored in fat or bone or because they leave the body very slowly.

Disaster: "an occurrence," either natural, as in Hurricane, or human-made, as in warfare or the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, "that causes human suffering and creates human needs that victims cannot alleviate without assistance" (American Red Cross, 2002).

Dose-response: The concept that damage from an environmental exposure depends primarily on the dose (or amount) and the way in which the body responds.

Environmental health: A field of public health science that focuses on how the environment influences human health.

Environmental justice: The belief that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental health consequences (regardless of race, culture, or income).

Exposure: the total amount of a contaminant that comes in direct contact with the body.

Precautionary principle: If something has the potential to cause harm to humans or the environment, then precautionary measures should be taken even if there is a lack of scientific evidence for cause and effect.

Risk assessment: Process to determine the likelihood or probability that adverse effects such as illness or disease will occur in a group of people because of an exposure to an environmental contaminant.

Toxicology: the study of the adverse effects of chemical, physical, or biological agents on people, animals, and the environment.