Environmental Hazards
Environmental Science
Environmental Hazards
December 6, 2012
Environmental hazards can have many effects to one’s health. It has the potential to threaten the surroundings of a natural environment and harmfully affect people’s health. It can cause health issues to plants, minerals, or animals. Some hazards have the potential to be poisonous to the environment. Some examples are oil spills, which can cause fish or any animal living in the water to die. There are earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. Environmental hazards are categorized into cultural hazards, biological hazards, physical hazards, and chemical hazards.
Cultural hazards result from where we live, hazardous occupations, or our behavioral choices. People can engage in unsafe behavior by smoking, we may know it’s bad for us, but we choose to do it anyway even though we risk our own health. We can also risk our health by not eating healthy and not exercising, as well as using illegal drugs. People also risk their lives every day just by simply driving. People can subject themselves to these hazardous behaviors but they get pleasure out of the situations, and as a result they are willing to take the risk that the hazard will not harm them.
A biological hazard is a biological substance that can have a serious affect and be a major threat to the health of living organisms, mainly to humans. It consists of bacterial or viral infections. An example of this was the black plague; it is known to be the most devastating illness in human history, killing millions of people. Another example is polio, a viral disease, before a vaccination was created; thousands of people became paralyzed and died from this disease, the majority being children. Tuberculosis is another example, it is a bacterial infection, that other than AIDS it is known for the most deaths in adults.
Physical hazards are also known as natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcano eruptions. One of the most recent
Environmental Hazards
December 6, 2012
Environmental hazards can have many effects to one’s health. It has the potential to threaten the surroundings of a natural environment and harmfully affect people’s health. It can cause health issues to plants, minerals, or animals. Some hazards have the potential to be poisonous to the environment. Some examples are oil spills, which can cause fish or any animal living in the water to die. There are earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. Environmental hazards are categorized into cultural hazards, biological hazards, physical hazards, and chemical hazards.
Cultural hazards result from where we live, hazardous occupations, or our behavioral choices. People can engage in unsafe behavior by smoking, we may know it’s bad for us, but we choose to do it anyway even though we risk our own health. We can also risk our health by not eating healthy and not exercising, as well as using illegal drugs. People also risk their lives every day just by simply driving. People can subject themselves to these hazardous behaviors but they get pleasure out of the situations, and as a result they are willing to take the risk that the hazard will not harm them.
A biological hazard is a biological substance that can have a serious affect and be a major threat to the health of living organisms, mainly to humans. It consists of bacterial or viral infections. An example of this was the black plague; it is known to be the most devastating illness in human history, killing millions of people. Another example is polio, a viral disease, before a vaccination was created; thousands of people became paralyzed and died from this disease, the majority being children. Tuberculosis is another example, it is a bacterial infection, that other than AIDS it is known for the most deaths in adults.
Physical hazards are also known as natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcano eruptions. One of the most recent
References: Wright, T. Richard and Boorse, F. Dorothy. (2011). Environmental Science: toward a sustainable future. 11th ed. Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-321-59870-7