1. Assume that you work as the Environmental Health Manager at the Western Connecticut Conservation Program and a Field Agent comes to you with the following concern. An unusual number of the field surveyors have reported in sick at the field station, suffering from severe headaches, fever, swollen lymph glands and especially muscle and joint pains. Most of the sick persons had an unusual reddish skin rash that seemed to be circular in appearance with a clear inner area, although there were individual differences in the location of the rash on the body. The Field Agent suspects West Nile Virus and seeks your confirmation and advise. Could the illness be caused by something else? If so, what do you think is the likely cause of the condition and what can be done to prevent the disease from occurring in other field surveyors and agents? If you would issue an alert to the staff, what preventative measures would it include?
2. State three global factors that have contributed to the development of emerging infectious diseases. Give one example of an emerging disease and another example of a re-emerging disease.
3. Assume that you are called into a staff meeting to describe the basic engineering and environmental monitoring requirements needed in the design of a new landfill.
4. Describe a type of ecosystem retrogression.
5. Explain the differences among synergism, antagonism, and potentiation.
6. Give an example of a major arthropod vector disease and discuss the causative agent, environmental reservoir, and how it is transmitted.
7. What is LCA (Life Cy..)? How is it applied in a company?
8. What is an environmental management plan? What is the international standard for environmental management plans?
9. What is the difference between absorption and adsorption in environmental control?
10. Why does small particle size matter in environmental pollution? Hint: look at deposition in the respiratory system?
11. Excess hydrogen sulfide gas is leaking from a sewer. What kind of specific filtered personal respiratory protection mask is used for those who must enter the sewer? Hint: is it gas, solid or liquid pollution?
12. The CEO for your company asks that you brief the Executive Board on nonionizing radiation hazards. You are expected to cover the major sources of nonionizing radiation including 1) the potential for exposures (industrial, sun, medical, etc.), 2) possible body organs that might be affected and 3) the resultant health effects that can result with excess exposure. What key facts would you present?
13. Your neighbor buys the cheapest weed- and- feed for his lawn at the local nursery. You noticed that the label mentions the chemical 2,4-D. In last month's paper you read that 2,4-D is regarded as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization. What do you tell your neighbor?