Everest Online University
EVS1001-26
Environmental Science
Professor Deborah Builder September 6th, 2012
The Four Categories of Human Environmental Hazards
There are many exposures to hazards in our environment today that brings along the risk of an injury, different types of diseases, and even in some cases death. These hazards are called human environmental hazards. There are four categories to human environmental hazards which we will discover and discuss further in detail and they consist of cultural hazards, biological hazards, physical hazards, and chemical hazards (Wright & Boorse, 2011).
We first begin with Cultural Hazards. Cultural hazards can result from the places we live, our sexual practices, hazardous occupation, or by our behavior decisions that we make. Cultural hazards can be brought on by the choices we make and the risks we take. We subject ourselves to hazards because of the kind of pleasure or benefit we feel we get out of it (Wright & Boorse, 2011). We take risks and we convince ourselves that those hazards won’t affect us. In reality roughly 40% of all deaths in the U.S. can be tracked back to cultural hazards and in some cases those deaths could have been avoided if those individuals would have refrained from their behavior choices (Wright & Boorse, 2011).
Some examples of cultural hazards are smoking and drinking to calm our nerves, relax or to just for the pleasure of it. Some people like to drive too fast being considered risk takers. There are many individuals who are having unsafe sex, which can lead from anything from STD’s like chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and herpes to even AIDS which in the end will take their life (Wright & Boorse, 2011). Even something so simple as laying out in the sun, engorging in too much food, not getting enough exercise, criminal activities such as stealing cars, robbery or even from living in the city. The