Module 3: Environmental Health and Global Health

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering environmental health sciences, regulatory agencies, legislation, environmental justice, and global health systems.

Environmental Health

The branch of public health that focuses on relationships between people and their environment, promotes human health and well-being, and fosters healthy and safe communities by advancing policies and programs to reduce hazardous exposures.

Global Health

An area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide through transnational collaboration, interdisciplinary efforts, and the synthesis of population-based prevention with clinical care.

Biomonitoring

The testing of human fluids and tissues for the presence of potentially toxic chemicals, such as identifying industrial contaminants and PFAS in the umbilical cord blood of newborns.

Toxicology

The basic science and study of the adverse health effects associated with chemical exposures.

Toxicity

The degree to which a substance can harm humans or animals.

Extrapolation

The process in which toxicologists study the toxic effects of chemicals on laboratory animals and use mathematical models to estimate the corresponding effects on humans.

Epigenetics

The study of changes in DNA resulting from chemical exposures that alter gene expression (turning specific genes on or off) without altering the underlying gene sequence, serving as a predictor of disease.

Epidemiology

The scientific, systematic, and data-driven study of the distribution (frequency, pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events in specified populations.

Epidemiologic Triangle

A foundational epidemiological model that examines the complex interactions among three elements: the agent, the host, and the environment.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

A surveillance and data visualization tool that codes and layers demographic, statistical, and geospatial information geographically onto maps to identify risk areas and disease clusters.

Brownfield Sites

Land or premises that have been previously used for industrial or commercial purposes but have subsequently become vacant, derelict, or contaminated.

Environmental Justice

The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income regarding the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ)

An agency created in 1992 that coordinates EPA efforts to address vulnerable communities by focusing on four key action areas: decreasing lead exposure, ensuring safe drinking water, meeting clean air standards, and reducing exposure to hazardous waste sites.

Hazard Communication Standard

An OSHA standard ensuring employees have the 'right to know' about workplace hazards by requiring employers to maintain an inventory of all hazardous chemicals used on site.

Consumer Confidence Report

An annual public water quality report required by the EPA that informs consumers about the safety, source, and contaminant testing levels of their local drinking water.

FDA Food Regulatory Scope

The federal responsibility covering approximately $80\%$ or more of the US food supply, including dairy, seafood, produce, packaged foods, bottled water, whole eggs, and nutrition labels.

USDA Food Regulatory Scope

The federal agency overseeing meat, poultry, and processed egg products, verified by an official inspection stamp.

Point Sources

Individual, easily identifiable, and confined discharge origins of pollution, such as factory smokestacks, wastewater discharge pipes, drainage ditches, and oil wells.

Nonpoint Sources

Diffuse, scattered, and poorly defined origins of pollution—such as agricultural runoff, suburban lawn fertilizers, oil from city streets, and construction site sediments—carried into waterways by rainfall or snowmelt.

Criteria Pollutants

The six widespread air contaminants regulated under the Clean Air Act: particle pollution (particulate matter), ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead.

PM 2.5

Fine inhalable particulate matter measuring $2.5\,\mu\text{m}$ or smaller in diameter (approximately 30 times smaller than human hair) that penetrates deeply into the lungs and bloodstream.

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974

Federal legislation authorizing the EPA to set national health-based enforceable standards for contaminants in public drinking water supplies serving 25 or more individuals.

Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF)

A 1996 amendment program to the SDWA providing low-interest loans and financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure and maintain safety standards.

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

Enacted in 1980 and known as the Superfund Act following the Love Canal disaster, this law established liability for releases of hazardous waste, created a trust fund for cleanups, and authorized short-term removals and long-term remedial responses.

The Big 5 Foodborne Pathogens

A group of highly infectious pathogens identified by the FDA that have a low infectious dose, cause severe illness, and are shed in high numbers in feces: Norovirus, Salmonella Typhi, E. coli, Shigella, and Hepatitis A virus.

Risk Assessment (EPA)

A four-phase process evaluating health threats: 1) determining if a chemical is hazardous, 2) verifying whether it entered environmental media, 3) estimating the quantity and exposure route, and 4) characterizing overall potential harm.

I PREPARE

A clinical mnemonic for assessing individual environmental exposure histories: Investigate potential exposures, Present work, Residence, Environmental concerns, Past work, Activities, Referrals and resources, Educate.

Precautionary Principle

A practice principle adopted by the ANA stating that precautionary measures should be taken to reduce toxic exposures without delay when scientific evidence about a hazard is uncertain but the stakes are high.

Outrage Factor

Emotional and cognitive variables (such as perception of an exposure as involuntary, unfair, or industrial) that significantly elevate the public's perception of risk.

Health for All in the 21st Century (HFA21)

A global health policy framework establishing that all world citizens should enjoy a level of health that permits them to lead a socially and economically productive life.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

United Nations goals pledged by member nations to improve living conditions, reduce poverty and child mortality, and promote gender equality by 2015.

Colonias

Unincorporated settlements on land outside major metropolitan areas along the US-Mexico border that face severe environmental health hazards, substandard housing, poor sanitation, and high rates of amebiasis, respiratory illness, and diarrheal disease.

Developed Country

A nation characterized by a stable economy and wide-ranging industrial and technological infrastructure (e.g., United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden, France, Australia).

Lesser-Developed Country

A nation that is not yet economically or technologically stable (e.g., Bangladesh, Haiti, Guatemala, Indonesia, sub-Saharan African nations).

Population Health

The health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group, the patterns of health determinants, and the policies and interventions connecting them.

Determinants of Health

The complex, interacting factors and conditions that influence population health, such as income, social status, education, employment, physical environment, social support, genetics, and health behaviors.

WHO Five Elements of Primary Health Care

The foundational components of global primary health care: reduced exclusion and social disparity, services organized around needs, health integrated into all sectors, collaborative policy dialogue, and increased stakeholder participation.

Multilateral Organizations

International health bodies that receive funding from multiple governmental and non-governmental sources (e.g., WHO, UNICEF, Pan American Health Organization [PAHO], World Bank).

Bilateral Organization

A single-government agency that delivers aid, funding, and developmental assistance directly to lesser-developed countries (e.g., USAID).

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) / PVOs

Privately funded or voluntary humanitarian entities operating independently of governmental control to provide health and disaster relief (e.g., Oxfam, Project Hope, International Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services).

Global Health Diplomacy

A multilevel and multifactor negotiation process bridging foreign policy, public health, trade, environment, and human safety to manage transnational health problems.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)

A population metric used to measure the global burden of disease, representing the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health due to premature death and disability.

Tuberculosis Threats (Global Health)

The leading infectious cause of death from a single agent and top killer of people with HIV worldwide, severely complicated by HIV co-infection and multidrug resistance (MDR-TB) to isoniazid and rifampin.

Diarrheal Disease Syndromes

A major contributor to global child mortality under age 5 that presents as three clinical syndromes—acute watery, persistent, and bloody diarrhea—managed through oral rehydration, nutrition, and environmental sanitation.

Bioterrorism

The deliberate release of natural or genetically modified viruses, bacteria, or germs to cause illness or death in humans, animals, or plants with the intent to intimidate, coerce, or threaten populations and governments.

Genocide

Acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, defined by the United Nations in 1948.

Four Tasks of Global Disease Surveillance

The core functional steps used to track international health threats and security risks: systematic disease intelligence and detection, outbreak verification, immediate alert, and rapid response.