Deck 9: Environmental Public Health

Question 1

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has authority to regulate both criteria air pollutants and hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Which of the following weight classifications is defined as a body mass index BMI) of 30.0 or higher and is associated with high medical costs in the United States?

A) Underweight
B) Healthy weight
C) Overweight
D) Obese

Answer 2

Obese

Question 3

What is the term for a chemical that causes an adverse impact during development i.e., before birth)? Examples include lead and alcohol.

A) Toxin
B) Teratogen
C) Polymorphism
D) Particulate matter

Answer 3

Teratogen

Question 4

Cancer is caused purely by a person's genetic factors and is not impacted by environmental exposures.

Question 5

Which of the following types of epidemiology focuses on the effect of physical, biologic, and chemical factors in the broadly defined external environment on human health?

A) Pharmacoepidemiology
B) Environmental epidemiology
C) Social epidemiology
D) Infectious disease epidemiology

Question 6

Asthma is a concern of environmental public health professionals because attacks of the disease often are related to environmental exposures like tobacco smoke or outdoor pollution.

Question 7

Unlike other disciplines within public health, there are no surveillance data available for environmental exposures like pesticides in the United States so all environmental public health activities are in response to disasters rather than preventive actions.

Question 8

A zoonotic disease is one that is caused by a microorganism of animal origin that is transmitted to humans.

Question 9

Which of the following is an example of an environmental justice issue in public health?

A) People who drive their own cars to work are more likely to be obese compared to people who walk or take public transportation to work.
B) People who smoke are more likely to develop lung cancer.
C) Houses in low-income neighborhoods are more likely to have lead paint on the walls and low-income children are therefore more likely to be exposed to lead than higher income children.
D) Alcohol is capable of crossing the placental barrier so children born to women who consumed alcohol during pregnancy are more likely to experience negative physical and cognitive effects.

Question 10

Which of the following diseases is a vector-borne disease transmitted by mosquitoes?

A) Malaria
B) Norwalk virus
C) Poliovirus
D) Rabies

Question 11

Which of the following types of radiation is the more harmful, ionizing radiation, which is capable of removing electrons from atoms?

A) Visible light
B) Microwaves
C) Radio waves
D) Gamma rays

Question 12

The concept of "one health" relates to the fact that unlike most other public health professionals, environmental health practitioners are only concerned about the health of the environment and not the health of people.

Question 13

Which of the following scenarios exemplifies a dose-response relationship?

A) When a person is exposed to a toxicant at any dose, there is a negative response.
B) Once exposure to a toxicant reaches a specific level, there is a negative response.
C) The response to a toxicant exposure can be affected by the level of a specific gene's expression.
D) As the concentration of a toxicant exposure increases, the negative response increases.

Question 14

Which of the following sets of statements is true about the risk of developing cancer after a chemical exposure?

A) Chemicals are either carcinogenic or they are not, so if a person is exposed to a carcinogenic chemical, he will get cancer.
B) Chemical exposure much reach a certain threshold before causing cancer, so as long as people are not exposed to too much of a chemical, they will not get cancer.
C) Cancer risk is influenced by the dose of exposure, the duration, the route of exposure, and the frequency of exposure, so all of these factors contribute to a person's risk of developing cancer after an exposure.
D) Cancer is only caused by genetic factors, so chemical exposures are not important in the risk of developing cancer.

Question 15

Pesticide exposure can occur through multiple routes, including contact dermal), ingestion, and inhalation.

Question 16

Radon is a public health concern because its decay products are common in the environment and can cause lung cancer in humans.

Question 17

The built environment - the man-made objects and structures that surround people - can influence the risk of developing an infectious disease, but is not related to the development of chronic diseases.

Question 18

The term "environment" as used in environmental public health is broadly defined and refers to personal, occupational, global and natural environments.

Question 19

Which of the following compounds is one of the six criteria air pollutants?

A) Radon
B) Particulate matter
C) Formaldehyde
D) Inorganic mercury

Question 20

Which of the following describes the highest level of a contaminant allowed in drinking water, a measure enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency under the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations?

A) Maximum Concentration Level MCL)
B) No Observed Adverse Effect Level NOAEL)
C) Risk Reference Dose RfD)
D) Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level LOAEL)