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Risk, Toxicology and Human Health
Notes from:
Miller, G. T. 2001. Living in the Environment, Twelfth Edition, Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Pacific Grove,
CA.
Learning Objectives:
1.
What types of hazards do humans face?
2.
Define risk and describe how it is quantified and managed.
3.
Define toxicology and its importance in quantifying risk with dose-response relationships.
4.
What types of disease risk (biological hazards) do people face in developing and developed countries?
5.
Define risk analysis and tell its importance.
Important Figures:
16-1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15
The Greatest Threat to Human Health: Tobacco
Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable major cause of death among adult humans.
(However, poverty and
being born male shorten your life more. Figure 16-15)
WHO estimates that tobacco currently kills 11,000 humans/day and by 2030, it will kill 27,400/day (10
million/year).
On average, each cigarette a smoker smokes reduces his or her life by 10 minutes (about 14% for a
moderate smoker, 20 cigarettes/day).
People know that smoking is dangerous. Why don't they quit? Because smoking is pleasurable in the
short-term and because nicotine is just as addictive as alcohol and heroin.
To keep people "hooked", major tobacco companies have manipulated nicotine contents to make it more
difficult for people to stop smoking if they want to.
Smoking is decreasing in every MDC but increasing in LDCs. Consequently, MDC tobacco companies
are expanding into LDCs to maintain their profits. MDC governments that are restricting smoking in
MDCs are helping tobacco companies sell their products in LDCs. Tobacco companies are also focusing
their marketing efforts on teenagers (their future customers).
In the US, smoking has declined from 42% of the population in 1966 to 25% today (primarily poor, less
educated, and those with greatest genetic susceptibility to addiction). Estimated costs to US society due to
smoking are $70-100 billion per year or about $3-4 per pack of cigarettes. Taxes are generally less than
$1.00 (?).
Smoking also endangers the health of nonsmokers who are exposed to second hand smoke. Many people
consider smoking around children to be a form of child abuse because it causes disease in 5.4 million
American children per year.
Smoking benefits only a small group of people, the " dealers" (tobacco farmers, tobacco product
manufacturers and tobacco wholesalers and retailers) who profit from it.
One principal benefit of smoking is that it relieves pressure on the social security system, since smokers on
average collect 6 years less social security benefits.
Nicotine is also is an antidepressant that may help people with depression.
If smoking is bad, and everyone knows it, why do people do it?
Why do they consider it an acceptable risk?
What does this tell us about risk management?
If we are willing to accept 30,000 to 60,000 deaths per year in the US due to second-hand smoke, why do we get so
excited about four airline crashes that kill 6000 people or a handful of deaths due to anthrax? We are going to
spend tens of billions fighting terrorism that is of minimal statistical risk?
RiskToxicologyHumanHealth-Big.doc 10/24/2001
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