The Harmful Exposure to Trichloroethylene. Name: Course: Date of submission: My article is based on the harmful effects of Trichloroethylene. My discussion is extrapolated from the article Mechanisms of Toxicant-Induced Acute Kidney Injury. The article closely examines how the functions of the kidney are usually impaired by this toxin. This due to the injurious effects it has on the kidney. Trichloroethylene together with its metabolites, are toxic to the kidneys since they trigger development of tumours in the kidneys which leads to the development of kidney Cancer (Kacew & Lee 2013). Studies have been conducted on animals as well as on human beings on the effect
This last process is significant not only because it brought dioxin the current notoriety but it also is a chemical process used to make products that were used and are still been used in many applications. These applications include pesticide, herbicide, defoliating agent such as Agent Orange, cleaning agent and electrical insulation. Consequently, human exposure to dioxin is not a recent phenomenon and the dangers of dioxin are not unknown. Only in recent years, especially after the Vietnam War, has the media concentrated on the dangers and impact of dioxin.
Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant introduced in agriculture in 1946 as an herbicide to aid farmers and was used accordingly throughout 1950, after which its production was switched solely for military uses under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Since then, even though ingredients were commercially available and accessible to the public, mass production became heavily regulated and only a handful of the US Chemical manufacturing companies were able to produce it. Agent Orange derives its name from the distinctive orange bands that were used by the military to mark Agent Orange storage containers in which it was transported, rather than from the color of the substance itself. British Military was the first to use Agent Orange in warfare in Malaya. Later, it was used by the US in the Republic of Vietnam from 1961 to 1971 during the Vietnam conflict. It was used as a defoliant and herbicide in Vietnam to deny the enemy use of jungle foliage, for cover and concealment, and to disrupt food production used to sustain the enemy force (Committee on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. (2011). Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. The National Academies Press.).
One out of every six children under the age of six are suffering from health disorders due to the poisonous metal, lead. Lead is a natural occurring bluish-gray metal found in the earth's crust. It has no taste or smell. Lead can easily be found in all parts of our environment today. Most of it comes from mining, manufacturing, and the burning of fossil fuels. In the United States lead poison has increased because of the lack of knowledge in our society. Lead is released into the environment by industries, the burning of fossil fuels or wastes.
...and MEA. These chemicals are said to be linked with breast cancer, skin rashes, estrogenic, hormone disruptor, linked to liver and kidney cancer, and irritates the eye.
Childbirth is nothing short of a miracle. The placenta—the organ connecting a developing fetus to the uterine wall and allowing for waste elimination, nutrient uptake and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply—filters most harmful substances that threaten an embryo, though some may still pass on to the fetus. These harmful substances, called “teratogens,” range from environmental chemicals to the passing of maternal diseases, and can negatively impact the normal developmental cycle of a fetus. The title “teratogen,” however, effectually refers to any substance or chemical exposure with the potential to cause birth defects in prenatal development. Exposure to teratogens can result in a broad spectrum of physiological and psychological issues in later life, including malformations of the body. (Malformations resulting from exposure to one of the most common teratogens—alcohol—can be observed notoriously in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, where patterns of mental and physical defects develop in association with high levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.) Though the toxicity of these teratogens is particularly damaging during the fourth through tenth weeks of gestation, teratogens can harm throughout the span of development in the womb.
...s are dangerous and toxic. Despite the precaution taken in supplementing these chemicals into water, there still exists the probability that these hazardous chemicals will be reproduced by reactions with bodily fluids in areas where they may cause harm to the individual. The production of these chemicals is outlined in the previous section on Chemistry.
Almost no data is available about the effects of organic arsenic compounds on human beings. Researches in animals show that most simple organic arsenic compounds (such as methyl and dimethyl compounds) are less lethal than the inorganic forms. In animals, intake of methyl compounds can result in diarrhea, and lifetime disclosure can damage the kidneys. Lifetime contact to dimethyl compounds can harm the urinary bladder and the kidneys.
Your chance of getting cancer from exposure to a chemical, however, like your chance of being killed in a vehicle accident, is not as easy to understand. This is because conditions that affect your chance are always changing. In the case of a vehicle accident, the road may be slippery, you or another driver may be drunk, your car or another vehicle may get a blow out at high speed, someone may fall asleep at the wheel, someone may throw a rock from an overpass, or an airplane may fall from the sky. All of these conditions and many more affect the chance of being involved in an accident. Sometimes you can control the conditions effectively, but most of the time you can't.
Agriculture is the most fundamental resource of society. Without it, humans could not live, especially in the ways we do now where people reside in cities. This means that those cities could not exist without large scale agriculture to sustain them. Since agriculture is such a necessity, people have developed methods to gain more from their land. One of the many solutions besides machinery they have developed to produce higher crop yields is through the use of pesticides. However, those pesticides which have resulted in high crop yields have come at price, and that is human health itself. This seems rather contradictory. Pesticides were designed to help people and society by increased the success of producing high crop yields, and they still do that, but at the same time, those same pesticides have caused unforeseen health risks, primarily to those have had to handle them. The average person would not consider pesticides as being a cause for depression, or in worst case scenario, suicide, but studies have found significant links. Even though California is just one place in the world, it has large agricultural areas which were, and still are, represented in many scientific studies that have found those unforeseen risks from pesticide use. Since pesticides are poisons, producers and safety activities urge several safety precautions to attempt to reduce the effect on human users. However, these precautions sometimes do not prevent long term damages in the people that live and work in such close proximity, which are the agricultural workers. Since the risk are known, policies have been put into place, but despite that, the use of pesticides remains high. Like many of the anthropological readings from this course, there are also added ...
During recent years, numerous newspaper and magazine articles have suggested that humans may be at risk because small amounts of well known environmental contaminants, such as dioxin, PCBs and DDT, can affect hormone levels. Hormones are produced by the endocrine system as regulators of biological function in target organs. Because hormones play a critical role in early development, toxicological effects on the endocrine system often have an impact on the reproductive system. The term endocrine disruptor is used to describe chemicals that can mimic hormones and may either enhance or counteract their effects. It has been suggested that these hormone changes can, in turn, lead to a variety of health problems including cancer, decreased fertility, and abnormalities in newborns.
The dioxin exposure from agent orange wreaked havoc on the health of our veterans that fought in Vietnam. The Aspen institute reports (as cited by The U.S. Institute of Medicine’s report, 2009) there is “sufficient evidence of association between exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin and five illnesses: soft-tissue sarcoma, non Hodgkin 's lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (including hairy-cell leukemia), Hodgkin’s disease, and chloracne.” (pg.1) I was flabbergasted that something this volatile would be allowed in something babies would wear almost every moment of their lives until they were potty trained. Unbelievably, dioxin is not the only thing used to make disposables diapers with a well documented history of negative impacts on human
The advancement in chemical technology with these improved pesticides has created improvements in the public health as well. From this, perhaps, we have become careless in our use and control of them. While there are many positive points, there are also extreme risks involved in using th...
Every woman when pregnant has a 3-5% chance of having a baby born with a birth defect, and these chances increase when the developing fetus/ embryos are exposed to teratogens, whether it’s intentional or unintentional (Bethesda (MD), 2006). Teratogens can cause severe birth defects, malformations, or terminate the pregnancy altogether (Jancárková, & Gregor, 2000). The placenta is known as an effective barrier from any detrimental pathogen that can potentially hurt the fetus. The timing of exposure of any teratogen is critical to the impact of prenatal development (Bethesda (MD), 2006). The most vulnerable time of the fetus for severe damage is during early pregnancy when all the major organ and central nervous system (CNS) are developing. Miscarriages have an important role in keeping a pregnancy from evolving when there is something serious going on with the developing fetus/embryo. Miscarriages are more common than we think and are the most familiar type of pregnancy loss (Bethesda (MD), 2006).
High exposure to flame retardants has been correlated with multiple adverse effects on the human body, including disruption of hormones produced by the thyroid gland, hindering of the immune, reproductive, and nervous system, cancer, and dangerous effects on fetal and child development. (SD, 2017)
The purpose of the toxicity assessment in a risk assessment is to identify the adverse health effects caused by present chemicals and how these adverse effects depend on the exposure to the chemical. The toxicity of chemicals varies with route of exposure, length of exposure, and dose, so the toxicity assessment is intended to describe these toxic effects. The carcinogenic and non-‐carcinogenic effects will be addressed separately due to major differences in their dose-‐response relationships (RAGS, 2014).