Environmental Hazards

(noun)

Risk factors related to social and economic conditions that may produce negative health outcomes, including pollution and distribution of grocery stores, for example.

Related Terms

Examples of Environmental Hazards in the following topics:

  • Physical Health

    • "Food deserts" are areas with low access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries, typically found in poor urban neighborhoods or isolated rural areas, and can be considered an environmental cause of negative health outcomes for the lower class.
    • "Food deserts" are areas with low access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries, typically found in poor urban neighborhoods or isolated rural areas, and can be considered an environmental cause of negative health outcomes for the lower class.
    • Social determinants are environmental, meaning that they are risk factors found in one's living and working conditions (including the distribution of income, wealth, influence, and power), rather than individual factors (such as behavioral risk factors or genetics).
    • Many social scientists hypothesize that the higher rate of illness among those with low SES can be attributed to environmental hazards.
    • Health inequality refers to the unequal distribution of environmental health hazards and access to health services between demographic groups, including social classes.

  • Behavior and Environmental Influences on Health

    • In a 1992 JAMA article, the Joint Committee of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the American Society of Addiction Medicine published this definition for alcoholism: "Alcoholism is a primary chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations.
    • The current medical recommendation regarding being a moderate drinker is that it is "not only meaningless but also irresponsible" to become a moderate drinker if you don't already drink given that the many obvious health hazards of alcohol outweigh "the benefits of alcohol [which] are small and ill-understood" particularly when so many other cardiovascular treatments are available.
    • While proponents of evolutionary hypotheses point to individualistic elements like exercise, genetics, diet selection, and sedentary lifestyles that suggest we may improve health without drastically altering our current economic, political, and health systems, proponents of social explanations (such as poverty and environmental pollution) note that even when researchers and advocates have found ways to minimize these individualistic elements (e.g., via food programs, dietary education protocols, exercise programs, limited or temporary economic support, and genetic interventions) the patterns of obesity have not changed much.

  • Examples of Social Movements

  • Tilting the Tests: Discrimination by IQ

    • Furthermore, the relationship between genetics and environmental factors is likely complicated.
    • In general, explanations fall into one of two camps: genetic explanations and environmental explanations.
    • Researchers have suggested a wide array of environmental factors that might influence intelligence.
    • Furthermore, the relationship between genetics and environmental factors is likely complicated.
    • Discuss the various explanations for the IQ gap, ranging from genetic to environmental factors

  • Family and Gender Issues

    • Moreover, many women are disinclined to take jobs that that require travel or are hazardous.

  • Social Epidemiology and Health

    • In this way, the epidemiological study can help point out the health hazard variables that are affecting the cancer cluster.

  • Nature vs. Nurture: A False Debate

    • But today, the concept of nurture has expanded to refer to any environmental factor - which may arise from prenatal, parental, extended family, or peer experiences, or even from media, marketing, and socioeconomic status.
    • Environmental factors could begin to influence development even before it begins: a substantial amount of individual variation might be traced back to environmental influences that affect prenatal development.

  • Value Clusters

    • For example, the 1970s saw the blossoming of the environmental movement, which put less emphasis on survival values.
    • They began to make consumption decisions based on self-expression; they bought organic produce or free range beef to express their belief that sustainability and environmental protection mattered.
    • Self-expression values give high priority to environmental protection; tolerance of foreigners, gays, and lesbians; gender equality; and participation in decision-making as it relates to economic and political life.

  • Corporations and Corporate Power

    • Anti-corporate advocates express the commonly held view that corporations answer only to shareholders, and give little consideration to human rights, environmental concerns, or other cultural issues.
    • To compete, political entities may offer MNCs incentives such as tax breaks, governmental assistance, subsidies, or lax environmental and labor regulations.

  • Race and Ethnicity

    • Many explanations for such differences have been argued, including socioeconomic factors, lifestyle behaviors, social environment, and access to preventive health-care services among other environmental differences.
    • Some argue that for many diseases, racial differences would disappear if all environmental factors could be controlled for.