Health Hazards: Environmental, Chemical, and Biological Risks
Health Hazards: An Overview
Physical Environmental Insults: Ionizing radiation is a form of energy that can modify the structure of matter and cause changes in our cells. It can be natural or artificially produced by temperature variations. High temperatures with excessive humidity prevent the evaporation of sweat and can be lethal.
Chemical Hazards
Chemicals: Air pollution occurs when human activities alter the composition of the air by adding compounds that affect health. Water pollution, from domestic and industrial use, degrades organic, inorganic, and biological components. Food contamination occurs when foreign substances are present, and their intake may have adverse effects on health.
Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi.
Bacteria
Bacteria: These are unicellular organisms without a nucleus. Not all bacteria are harmful; bacteria in the gut are beneficial.
Viruses
Viruses: They cannot reproduce by themselves, so they are not considered living organisms.
Protozoa
Protozoa: These are defined as unicellular organisms with a nucleus.
Fungi
Fungi: These are unicellular or multicellular organisms with a defined core.
Immune System Responses
Antibodies: These are proteins that bind to antigens to fight them.
Autoimmune diseases: These occur when the immune system recognizes a molecule of our own body as foreign (e.g., multiple sclerosis).
Allergies appear when the immune system responds to antigens that it should not encounter under normal conditions, such as pollen.
Shots: These aim to immunize people against pathogenic microorganisms by injecting the same organism, either killed or weakened, or even fragments of it.
Tumors and Malignancies
Tumor: This is defined as a disorganized mass of tissue.
Malignancies: These are tumors whose cells can move from the initial tumor site to generate new tumors in other body parts. Key features include:
- Invasiveness: The ability to penetrate tissues and extend contiguously.
- Metastasis: The ability to penetrate into the blood and lymph vessels, move through the blood and lymph, and settle in any part of the body to form a second tumor.
Cancer Treatments
Surgery: This involves the removal of the tumor mass.
Radiotherapy: This is the use of radiation to destroy cancer cells.
Chemotherapy: This involves the administration of drugs that kill cancer cells.
Hormone treatments: These are effective in some cancers that require the presence of hormones to develop.
Immunotherapy: This is the use of agents that strengthen the immune system, which is responsible for eliminating the tumor.
Mental Illness
Mental illnesses: These include schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, personality disorders, and dementia.
Drug Abuse
Drug: Any substance introduced into the body capable of producing changes in the brain that involve abnormal behavior, leading to abuse and dependence. This causes a unique momentum to take the substance to get your nervous system effects. Examples include:
- Depressants: Induce drowsiness (e.g., alcohol, heroin).
- Stimulants: Stimulate the nervous system (e.g., cocaine, caffeine).
- Disruptive substances: Alter basic psychic functions (e.g., cannabis).
Medical Diagnosis
Diagnosis: This is how the disease afflicting a patient is identified.
Diagnostic Techniques
Radiography: Based on the use of X-rays, which are a type of radiation. X-rays pose a risk of producing cancer and are not recommended for pregnant women and small children.
Scanner: Multiple radiographs. The drawback is a large amount of radiation, up to fifty times that of a conventional radiograph.
MRI: Uses a very potent magnetic field. This technique does not use radiation like X-rays, so it has less risk, but it cannot be used by people with pacemakers.
Ultrasound: Uses very high-frequency sounds and is harmless.
Nuclear Medicine: Based on the introduction of various radioactive substances to study how the body distributes them, emitting gamma rays.
Medications
Medications are products we use to heal, alleviate, prevent, or diagnose disease.