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| 13385624183 | Acid Deposition | A comprehensive term for the various ways acidic compounds precipitate from the atmosphere and deposit onto surfaces. It can include: 1) wet deposition by means of acid rain, fog, and snow; and 2) dry deposition of acidic particles (aerosols). | 0 | |
| 13385626236 | Acute Effects (Exposure) | Effects usually immediate, obvious, short-term responses to exposure to a hazard; they can be localized to one part of the body or they can be systemic. | 1 | |
| 13385631621 | Alveoli | Microscopic air sacs in the lungs at the end of bronchioles where gases are exchanged. | 2 | |
| 13385638395 | Anthropogenic | Produced by human activity. | 3 | |
| 13385642494 | Area (Non-point) Source | A source of pollution that cannot always be traced to an exact point of entry. | 4 | |
| 13385645232 | Baghouse Filter | Large fabric bag, usually made of glass fibers, used to eliminate intermediate and large (greater than 20 PM in diameter) particles. This device operates like the bag of an electric vacuum cleaner, passing the air and smaller particles while entrapping the larger ones. | 5 | |
| 13385649495 | Bioaccumulation | A process by which chemical substances are ingested and retained by organisms, either from the environment directly or through consumption of food containing the substances. | 6 | |
| 13385652871 | Biomagnification | Also called biological concentration. The tendency for some substances to concentrate with each trophic level. Organisms preferentially store certain chemicals and excrete others. When this occurs consistently among organisms, the stored chemicals increase as a percentage of the body weights as the material is transferred along a food chain or trophic level. For example, the concentration of DDT is greater in herbivores than in plants and greater in plants in the nonliving environment. | 7 | |
| 13385660419 | Bioremediation | A method of treating groundwater pollution problems that utilizes microorganisms in the ground to consume or break down pollutants. | 8 | |
| 13385664578 | BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) | A measure of the amount of oxygen necessary to decompose organic material in a unit volume of water. As the amount of organic waste in water increases, more oxygen is used, resulting in a higher BOD. | 9 | |
| 13385668646 | Bronchiole | Small airway (subdivision of the bronchus) that leads to areas of the lung and absorbs oxygen from the air. | 10 | |
| 13385672212 | Carcinogens | Any material that is known to produce cancer in humans or other animals. | 11 | |
| 13385675404 | CERCLA (The Superfund Act) | An act that gave EPA the authority to clean up abandoned, leaky hazardous waste sites. | 12 | |
| 13385679010 | Cholera | An acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food. | 13 | |
| 13385684889 | Chronic Effects (Exposure) | Long-lasting results of exposure to a toxin; can be a permanent change caused by a single, acute exposure or a continuous, low-level exposure. | 14 | |
| 13385687928 | Cilia | Short hair-like appendages found on the surfaces of some types of cells and organisms; used for either propelling trapped material out of the body or for locomotion. | 15 | |
| 13385689642 | Cost-Benefit Analysis | The examination of a public project and the evaluation of its total costs and benefits to all concerned. | 16 | |
| 13385696304 | Cryptosporidium | A protozoan (single-celled organism) that can infect humans, usually as a result of exposure to contaminated drinking water. | 17 | |
| 13385699631 | Cultural Eutrophication | Overnourishment of aquatic ecosystems with plant nutrients (mostly nitrates and phosphates) because of human activities such as agriculture, urbanization, and discharges from industrial plants and sewage treatment plants. | 18 | |
| 13385707284 | DDT | (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) a pesticide commonly used in the mid-1900s to control insect outbreaks. Breakdown elements from DDT and other pesticides called chlorinated hydrocarbons accumulated in the upper levels of the food chain. The results of this accumulation proved particularly hazardous for birds of prey and other bird species that eat primarily fish, because high quantities of these chemicals caused an abnormality in calcium production. | 19 | |
| 13385712253 | Deep-well Injection | A method of disposal of hazardous liquid waste that involves pumping the waste deep into the ground below and completely isolated from all freshwater aquifers. Deep-well disposal is a controversial method of waste disposal that is being carefully evaluated | 20 | |
| 13385715113 | Dioxins | An organic compound composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and chlorine. About 75 types are known today. Dioxin is not normally manufactured intentionally but is a by-product resulting from chemical reactions in the production of other materials, such as herbicides. Known to be extremely toxic to mammals, its effects on the human body are being intensively studied and evaluated. | 21 | |
| 13385720278 | Direct Costs | In economics, costs borne by the producer and passed directly on to the user of purchaser. | 22 | |
| 13385723494 | DO (Dissolved Oxygen) | The amount of oxygen freely available in water and necessary for aquatic life and the oxidation of organic materials. | 23 | |
| 13385726615 | Dose | Refers to the amount of chemical that enters the body. | 24 | |
| 13385733576 | Dose-Response Curve | A graph to show the relation between the dose of a drug and the degree of response it produces, as measured by the percentage of the exposed population showing a defined effect. If the effect determined is death, such a curve may be used to estimate an LD50 value. | 25 | |
| 13385735997 | ED-50 | The effective dose or dose that causes an effect in 50% of the population on exposure to a particular toxicant. It is related to the onset of specific symptoms, such as loss of hearing, nausea, or slurred speech. | 26 | |
| 13385745005 | Endocrine System | A system of ductless glands that regulates bodily functions via hormones secreted into the bloodstream. The endocrine system includes the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid, adrenal glands, and gonads (ovaries and testes). | 27 | |
| 13385762180 | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | A federal agency created in 1970 to permit coordinated and effective governmental action, for protection of the environment by the systematic abatement and control of pollution, through integration of research monitoring, standard setting, and enforcement activities. | 28 | |
| 13385766194 | Environmental Risk | Used in discussions of endangered species to mean variation in the physical or biological environment, including variations in predator, prey, symbiotic, or competitor species that can threaten a species with extinction. | 29 | |
| 13385788858 | Epidemiology | The study of the patterns, causes, and control of disease in groups of people. | 30 | |
| 13385792161 | Eutrophication | Increase in the concentration of chemical elements required for living things (i.e. phosphorus). Increased nutrient loading may lead to a population explosion of photosynthetic algae and blue-green bacteria that become so thick that light cannot penetrate the water. Plants deprived of light beneath the surface die; as they decompose, dissolved oxygen in the lake is lowered and eventually a fish kill may result. Eutrophication of lakes caused by human-induced processes, such as nutrient-rich sewage water entering a body of water, is called cultural eutrophication. | 31 | |
| 13385800805 | Externality | In economics, an effect not normally accounted for in the cost-revenue analysis of producers. | 32 | |
| 13385802872 | Fecal Coliform (Bacteria) | A standard measure of microbial pollution and an indicator of disease potential for a water source. | 33 | |
| 13385809027 | Free Market Economy | A system where resources are owned by households: markets distribute resources through the price mechanism; and income depends upon the value of resources owned by an individual. | 34 | |
| 13385813350 | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | Total value of a country's output, income or expenditure produced within the country's physical borders. | 35 | |
| 13385816729 | Gross Production | Production before respiration losses are subtracted. | 36 | |
| 13385823205 | Gross-national product (GNP) | GNP is the dollar value of all goods and services produced in a nation's economy, including goods and services produced abroad. | 37 | |
| 13385834674 | Heat Island Effect | Urban areas are several degrees warmer than their surrounding areas. During relatively calm periods there is an upward flow of air over heavily developed areas accompanied by a downward flow over nearby greenbelts. This produces an air-temperature profile that delineates the heat island. | 38 | |
| 13385839229 | Heavy Metals | Refers to a number of metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, and silver (among others) that have a relatively high atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom). They are often toxic at relatively low concentrations, causing a variety of environmental problems. | 39 | |
| 13385843570 | Immune System | A complex bodily system that is responsible for distinguishing us from everything foreign to the body, and for protecting it against infections and foreign substances. The immune system works to seek and kill invaders and includes white blood cells and antibodies. | 40 | |
| 13385845414 | Indirect Costs | In environmental economics, costs associated with the degradation of the environment. | 41 | |
| 13385850292 | Indoor Air Pollution | Air pollutants that occur within buildings or other enclosed spaces. Some examples of indoor air pollutants are tobacco smoke, asbestos, formaldehyde, pesticides, and solvents from pesticides and cleaners, and radon. | 42 | |
| 13385856611 | Integrated Waste Management (IWM) | Set of management alternatives including reuse, source reduction, recycling, composting, landfill, and incineration. | 43 | |
| 13385872039 | LD-50 | A crude approximation of a chemical toxicity defined as the dose at which 50% of the population dies on exposure. | 44 | |
| 13385886033 | Leachate | Noxious, mineralized liquid capable of transporting bacterial pollutants. Leachate is produced when water infiltrates through waste material and becomes contaminated and polluted. | 45 | |
| 13385888624 | Light pollution | Decrease visibility of the stars due to city lights which leads to disruption of natural tendencies of animals. Examples include moths being attracted to residential lawn accent lights and therefore not mating, or newly hatched baby turtles instead of crawling to the ocean due to their attraction of the light from the moon moving inland toward city lights. | 46 | |
| 13385903371 | Love Canal | A neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, which became the subject of national and international attention, controversy, and eventual environmental notoriety following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste buried beneath the neighborhood. | 47 | |
| 13385938738 | Marginal Costs | In environmental economics, the cost to reduce one additional unit of a type of degradation; for example, pollution. | 48 | |
| 13385945087 | Municipal Waste | Waste products created by a town, city or municipality; as in sewage and garbage, or solid waste. | 49 | |
| 13385949255 | Mutagens | Substances that causes mutation. | 50 | |
| 13385954452 | Mutation | Stated most simply, a chemical change in a DNA molecule. It means that the DNA carries a different message than it did before, and this change can affect the expressed characteristics when cells or individual organisms reproduce. | 51 | |
| 13385959960 | Net Production | The production that remains after utilization. In a population, net production is sometimes measured as the net change in the numbers of individuals. It is also measured as the net change in biomass or in stored energy. In terms of energy, it is equal to the gross production minus the energy used in respiration. | 52 | |
| 13385963452 | Neurotoxin | A poisonous chemical that affects the central nervous system. It can destroy, paralyze, or adversely affect nerves or nerve tissue, producing psychological or behavioral abnormalities. | 53 | |
| 13385970513 | Noise Pollution | A type of pollution characterized by unwanted or potentially damaging sound. | 54 | |
| 13385975794 | Ocean Disposal (Dumping) | The use of various techniques for disposing of hazardous wastes and other wastes in open seas is ocean dumping. Ocean disposal has included bulk disposal of liquid or slurry-type wastes, hazardous sludge from dredged materials and the sinking of containerized hazardous substances. | 55 | |
| 13385979540 | Open Dump | Area where solid waste is disposed of by simply dumping it. Often causes severe environmental problems, such as water pollution, and creates a health hazard. Open dumps are now illegal in the United States and in many countries around the world. | 56 | |
| 13385985834 | Oxygen Sag Curve | The oxygen sag curve occurs when point source pollution emits harmful substances into a body of water, usually a river or stream. Initially, in Clean Zone, a well aerated, unpolluted stream is relatively free of oxidizable material; the oxygen level is high; and the bacterial population is relatively low. With the addition of oxidizable pollutants, the oxygen level drops because re-aeration cannot keep up with the oxygen consumption (i.e. Decomposition Zone). In this zone, the bacterial population rises. The Septic Zone is characterized by a high bacterial population and very low oxygen levels. The zone terminates when the oxidizable pollutant is exhausted, and then the recovery zone begins. In the Recovery Zone, the bacterial population decreases and the dissolved oxygen level increases until the water regains its original condition (Clean Zone). | 57 | |
| 13386000306 | Pathogens | Microorganisms that can cause disease in other organisms (i.e., humans, animals, and plants). They may be bacteria, viruses, or parasites and are found in sewage, runoff from livestock farms or areas populated with domestic and/or wild animals. | 58 | |
| 13386005355 | PCBs | A group of commercially produced organic chemicals used since the 1940s in industrial applications throughout the nuclear weapons complex. PCBs are found in many of the gaskets and large electrical transformers and capacitors in the gaseous diffusion plants. They can be toxic to humans and animals. | 59 | |
| 13386011036 | Per Capita | Per person | 60 | |
| 13386015539 | Peroxyacyl Nitrates (PANs) | Powerful respiratory and eye irritants present in photochemical smog. They are formed from a peroxyacid radical and nitrogen dioxide, for example peroxyacetyl nitrate, CH3COOONO2. | 61 | |
| 13386022106 | Photochemical Smog | Sometimes called L.A.-type smog or brown air and is directly related to automobile use and solar radiation. Reactions that occur in the development of the smog are complex and involve both nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons in the presence of sunlight. | 62 | |
| 13386026496 | Phytoremediation | The process of using plants for pollution clean-up of contaminated soils or water. | 63 | |
| 13386030669 | Point Source | A source of pollution that involves the discharge of wastes from an identifiable point, such as a smokestack or sewage treatment plant. | 64 | |
| 13386036730 | Primary Pollutant | Air pollutants emitted directly into the atmosphere. They include particulates, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. | 65 | |
| 13386042564 | Radon Gas | Naturally occurring radioactive gas. Radon is colorless, odorless, and tasteless and must be identified through proper testing. | 66 | |
| 13386046133 | Risk | The potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. | 67 | |
| 13386050049 | Risk Assessment | The process of determining potential adverse environmental health effects to people following exposure to pollutants and other toxic materials. Generally includes the four steps of identification of the hazard, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. | 68 | |
| 13386076258 | Sanitary Landfill | A method of disposal of solid waste without creating a nuisance or hazard to public health or safety. Sanitary landfills are highly engineered structures with multiple barriers and collection systems to minimize environmental problems. | 69 | |
| 13386089563 | Secondary Pollutant | Air pollutants produced through reactions between primary pollutants and normal atmospheric compounds. An example is ozone the forms over urban areas through reactions of primary pollutants in the presence of sunlight. | 70 | |
| 13386095037 | Secondary Wastewater Treatment | Use of biological processes to degrade wastewater in a treatment facility. | 71 | |
| 13386113987 | Sediment Pollution | By volume and mass, sediment is our greatest water pollutant. It may choke streams, fill reservoirs, and bury vegetation. | 72 | |
| 13386119615 | Septic Tank | An underground storage tank for wastes from homes not connected to a sewer line. Waste goes directly from the home to the tank. | 73 | |
| 13386123387 | Silent Spring | Silent Spring was written by Rachel Carson and published in the spring of 1962. The book claimed detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading misinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. She proposed instead an alternative biotic approach to pest control. | 74 | |
| 13386134343 | Societal Risk | This is an indicator of the probability of multiple simultaneous fatalities occurring as a result of a disaster in a particular location or as a result of a particular high-risk activity, taking into account the number of people typically present in the vicinity of that location or activity. | 75 | |
| 13386138912 | Temperature Inversion | One of the weather conditions that is often associated with serious smog episodes in some portions of the country. In a temperature inversion, air doesn't rise because it is trapped near the ground by a layer of warmer air above it. Pollutants, especially smog and smog-forming chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, are trapped close to the ground. | 76 | |
| 13386143293 | Teratogens | Substances that will cause birth defects or malformations. | 77 | |
| 13386148628 | Tertiary Wastewater Treatment | Advanced form of wastewater treatment involving chemical treatment or advanced filtration. An example is chlorination of water. | 78 | |
| 13386153763 | The Clean Air Act | A federal law passed in 1970 and amended in 1977 and 1990 which forms the basis for the national air pollution control effort. Basic elements of the act include national ambient air quality standards for major air pollutants, air toxin standards, acid rain control measures, and enforcement provisions. | 79 | |
| 13386163602 | Thermal Pollution | A type of pollution that occurs when heat is released into water or air and produces undesirable effects on the environment. | 80 | |
| 13386167985 | Threshold Concentration | The concentration level in which below the threshold, effects of a drug are not observable and above the threshold, effects become apparent. | 81 | |
| 13386174701 | Toxicology | The science concerned with study of poisons (or toxins) and their effects on living organisms. The subject also includes the clinical, industrial, economic, and legal problems associated with toxic materials. | 82 | |
| 13386178341 | Valdez, Alaska | On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil across 1,300 miles of coastline - a catastrophic event that lead to one of the most thorough examinations of the effects of oil on the environment. While the vast majority of the spill area now appears to have recovered, pockets of crude oil remain in some locations, and there is evidence that some damage is continuing. | 83 | |
| 13386181017 | Vector | An insect or other organism capable of transmitting germs or other agents of disease. | 84 | |
| 13386188927 | Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) | A principal component in atmospheric reactions that form ozone and other photochemical oxidants. VOCs are emitted from diverse sources, including automobiles, chemical manufacturing facilities, drycleaners, paint shops and other commercial and residential sources that use solvent and paint. The term, volatile organic compound is defined in federal rules as a chemical that participates in forming ozone. | 85 |
