BHS Environmental Health 3

Question 1

Environmental justice is best defined as:

Accepted Answer

Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental laws and policies regardless of race, color, or income

Answer

Legal prosecution of companies that violate environmental regulations

Answer

International conservation agreements protecting natural resources for future generations

Answer

Tort litigation allowing communities to sue polluters for damages

Question 2

Agricultural runoff is most commonly associated with which type of water quality problem?

Accepted Answer

Nitrate and phosphate pollution causing eutrophication and hypoxic zones

Answer

Heavy metal contamination from pesticide residues

Answer

Industrial solvent contamination of groundwater

Answer

Coliform bacterial contamination from animal waste exceeding primary standards

Question 3

The primary purpose of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to:

Accepted Answer

Identify and evaluate potential environmental consequences of proposed projects before decisions are made

Answer

Calculate the financial cost of environmental damage for insurance purposes

Answer

Monitor pollution levels in existing industrial facilities on an ongoing basis

Answer

Enforce regulatory compliance at permitted facilities through inspections

Question 4

Methemoglobinemia ('blue baby syndrome') in infants is caused by high levels of which drinking water contaminant?

Accepted Answer

Nitrates

Answer

Lead

Answer

Arsenic

Answer

Fluoride

Question 5

In environmental toxicology, 'bioavailability' refers to:

Accepted Answer

The fraction of an ingested or inhaled chemical that is absorbed and reaches systemic circulation to exert biological effects

Answer

The total concentration of a chemical measured in an environmental sample

Answer

The persistence and half-life of a chemical in soil or water

Answer

The rate at which organisms metabolize and eliminate a toxicant

Question 6

Carbon monoxide (CO) from faulty combustion appliances is particularly dangerous primarily because it:

Accepted Answer

Is colorless and odorless and binds to hemoglobin with approximately 200 times greater affinity than oxygen

Answer

Has a distinctive rotten-egg smell that overwhelms victims before they can react

Answer

Causes immediate corrosive burns to the respiratory tract on inhalation

Answer

Rapidly converts to carbon dioxide, which is toxic at high atmospheric concentrations

Question 7

In toxicology, the dose-response relationship describes which principle?

Accepted Answer

As the dose of a substance increases, the magnitude of the biological response increases in a predictable pattern

Answer

Different chemical doses always produce the same type of biological response

Answer

Higher doses are always lethal while lower doses are always safe with no middle ground

Answer

The biological response to a toxicant depends solely on the route of exposure, not the amount