lecture 4 - en health problems in hong kong / en health for all: global issues and international treaties

what is a more restricted definition of environment? every component of disease that is not genetic is ________, can encompass social and behavioral factors. this includes only those measurable agents passing through environmental pathways to _________ humans

environmental, stress

what are the six phases of human history and disease patterns?

1. hunger-_______

2. agriculture, settlements, and cities

3. commerce, conquest, and microbial confluence

4. indust_______

5. modern times: _________ consumerism

6. the advent of global environmental change

gatherers, industrialization, urban

what was hunter-gatherers as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? primary causes of death were __________ trauma, infection, or less often, __________. fossil bones suggest average lifespan was ______________. evidence of trauma and malnutrition

physical, starvation, 25 years

what was agriculture, settlements, and cities as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? chronic _____________ deficiencies occurred and various ‘crowd _________’ began to appear in urbanizing populations

nutritional, infections

what was commerce, conquest, and microbial confluence as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? as trade routes opened up, and as conquering armies spread their reach, so infectious diseases spread more ___________

widely

what was industrialization as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? industrialization led to improved ___________, but there is also intensified _________ pollution. occupational exposures to hazardous chemicals and to ionizing radiation became more ________

sanitation, chemical, frequent

what was modern times: urban consumerism as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? since wwII, human lifestyle changes have influenced the patterns of diseases. changes in food choices, dietary habits, and physical inactivity have caused increases in various ___________ diseases

chronic

what was the advent of global environmental change as one of the six phases of human history and disease pattern? global environmental changes begin to affect ________

human

what are some of the needs and impacts of population growth? food-arable land, jobs, transportation, access to ________ water, way to deal with ________ and contaminates

clean, waste

what is the environmental risk transition? a graph x axis increasing wealth y axis severity.

green line: tracks the traditional environmental risks that tend to decrease WITH __________ development

black line: are the environmental risks associated with ____________, urbanization, and agricultural modernization

economic, industrialization

one of the differences btw modern and traditional risks is that there is a relatively _________ period btw the imposition of most traditional risks and actual human damage

short

the global efforts in EH sometimes do not reflect the realities of environmental risks in the _____________ countries and thus without due consideration of true ________ priorities

developing, global

what are some of examples of the benefit of environmental health?
1. EH information flow saves time and cost on _________

1. fosters the growth of public and scientific awareness, facilitates increasingly widespread access to methods of analysis

2. __________ agreements

• relating to pesticide etc in exports can lead to increased ________ for populations in all countries

3. example that EH does not ________ economy

research, trade, protection, stifle 

what are some global environmental changes? climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of _____________, nitrogen loading, terrestrial and marine food-producing systems (left __________), freshwater supplies, persistent organic pollutants

biodiversity, depleted

how does climate change impact public health? direct: ________ rise
indirect: rainfall changes, sea-level rise, __________ disasters

temperature, more

what are the projected health impacts of climate change? 
- increase malnutrition and consequent _________, disease and injury due to ______________, floods, and storms, range of infectious disease ________ changes, and increased cardio-respiratory morbidity and mortality 

disorders, heatwaves, vectors 

how does climate change affect the interaction among regions? although highly industrialized countries contributed the most to greenhouse-gas emissions, it is the ________ of the people at the other end of the _________ that is most vulnerable. climate change will cause economic damage in rich countries due to threatened infrastructure, but it will cause more health damage in __________ countries because of general vulnerability

health, spectrum, poor

what is the double burden? the ____________ of the developing world are doubtly at risk, both from their own ___________ risks and from the late stages of ___________ housekeeping by developed countries, which have pushed risks off to the global level

villagers, household, environmental

what is the triple burden? the ________ _________ in developing countries are triply imperiled, since they typically experience the worst ____________- level environmental risks as well 

urban poor, community 

what is a treaty? a binding agreement btw two or more nations. it enables nations to search for equitable and efficient __________ to problems that transcend national boundaries. treaties on health, environment, and global environmental change

solutions

with The Climate Convention, the major distinction btw the Protocol and the Convention is that the Convention _________ industrialized countries while the Protocol ________ them 

encouraged, commits 

since developed countries are principally responsible for climate change, the Protocol places a heavier _________ on developed nations under the principle of common but ____________ responsibilities

burden, differentiated

what is risk assessment? it is the identification of the ___________ pairs for a given situation, and the determination of the ____________ btw the intensity or degree of exposure to a given hazard and the probabilistic degree of realization of the __________

relevant, relationship, harm

what are the three types of uncertainties in risk assessment? 
1. uncertainty in __________ 

2. uncertainty in ___________ 

3. uncertainty in ___________ (HH pair)

effect, cause, correlation 

risk assessment determines the _________ of harm realization resulting from a given hazard exposure 

probability 

risk management follows this with the _____________ of regulatory standards to protect human health, organizations or the environment from the _______ under consideration

establishment, risk

HH relationship, for the risk management to be effective, the facts used in the risk assessment, no matter how imprecise, must provide the basis for a _____________ ____________ relationship

human health

when is there a call for precautionary principle? when the facts that support HH relationship will be uncertain to a greater or lesser degree. _______ a certain level of uncertainty, precautionary principle (PP) may be invoked in deciding future actions 

above 

what is a precautionary principle (PP)? a general rule relating to the __________ of danger

avoidance

what is PP (common sense): ‘look _______ you leap’

before

what is PP (as a rule): _________ the remotest possibility of harm whenever a new hazard/harm pair is postulated 

avoid

PP1: regulators faced with scientific uncertainty about a risk are ___________ in acting to prevent it 

justified 

PP2: regulators faced with scientific uncertainty about a risk are __________ to act to prevent it

required

PP3: regulators faced with scientific uncertainty about a risk should require the ________-____________ to demonstrate that the risk level is either acceptable or justified by proposed risk management procedures before the activity is approved

risk-generator

what are some criticisms on PP? it is ill defined, ambiguous, and arbitrary, will lead to ____________ of insignificant or nonexisting risks, and that it is anti-_________, technology, and innovation leading to stagnation in society 

overregulation, science 

what are some key elements of PP?

• a threat of serious or ________ damage

• a lack of ______ scientific certainty (the _________ of partial but not conclusive scientific evidence)

• the availability of _________-__________ measures that we know will _________ the problem

irreversible, full, existence, cost-effective, prevent

how can noise impact affect people? _________ loss, mental stress, irritation, interference with daily activities 

hearing 

what is API calculation? the API for each air quality monitoring station is subsequently calculated by taking the __________ of the sub-indices at that station to indicate the overall pollution level of the particular locality

maximum

what is AQHI calculation? the AQHI of the current hour is calculated from the ________ of the percentage excess _________ of daily hospital admissions attributable to the 3-hour moving average concentrations of four criteria air ____________, measured at each air quality monitoring station. on scale from 1 to 10 and 10+

sum, risk, pollutants

what is the double-pronged problem? ________ air pollution and __________ air pollution 

regional and local 

what is regional air pollution? a combination of emissions contributes most to the ________ problem that envelopes much of the PRD region

haze

what is local air pollution? it arises mainly from power plants, vehicles on the road, and ships in the port. __________ pollution is exacerbated

vehicular 

what is hong kongs strategy to combat these issues? work with neighbors to continue to set joint ___________ targets that will reduce overall regional pollution and on its own make substantial improvement to the city’s air quality by controlling _________ from power plants, road vehicles, and ships

reduction, emissions