Air Pollutants, Risk Assessment & Carbon Monoxide – Lecture Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key terms and concepts from the lecture on air-pollutant risk assessment, major pollutants, catalytic converters and carbon-monoxide toxicity.

Risk Assessment

The systematic use of scientific data to evaluate the probability and severity of health or environmental harm is known as _.

Toxicity

The intrinsic ability of a substance to cause biological damage is called _.

Exposure (toxicology)

In toxicology, the amount and duration of contact with a chemical, which is a key factor in its overall risk, is defined as _.

Paracelsus' Principle

The idea that any substance can be poisonous, with harm depending on the dose received, often summarized as "The dose makes the poison," is known as _.

Carbon Monoxide

A colorless, odorless gas produced from incomplete combustion that is highly poisonous even at low levels is _.CO.

Nitrogen Oxides

A collective term for respiratory irritants like NO and NO2, produced in high-temperature combustion processes, is .NO_x

Sulfur Oxides

A group of acidic gases, such as SO2 and SO3, released when sulfur-containing fuels burn, is collectively referred to as .SOx

Incomplete Combustion

Burning with insufficient oxygen, which produces carbon monoxide (CO) and other pollutants instead of CO2 and water, is called .

Catalytic Converter

An automobile exhaust device that uses catalysts to transform harmful gases such as CO, NOx and hydrocarbons into less dangerous substances is a(n) .

Catalyst

A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up in the process is a(n) _.

Hemoglobin

The oxygen-carrying protein found in red blood cells that binds to carbon monoxide (CO) more strongly than it does to oxygen, thereby blocking oxygen transport, is _.

Silent Killer

Carbon monoxide (CO) is often called the _ because it is undetectable by human senses yet can be deadly.

Parts per Million

A common concentration unit that signifies one part of a substance per one million parts of a mixture is _.ppm

Green Line (air-quality graph)

On an air-quality graph, the _ serves as a visual marker indicating the safety standard threshold for a particular pollutant.

Dose–Response Prediction

Forecasting future health effects by correlating the chemical concentration and exposure time to expected outcomes is known as _.