Sci 275 Week 2 Risk Assessment

Week 2 Assignment

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SCI/275

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University of Phoenix

Today’s Date

Part A

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1970 was passed in an effort to have the federal government consider the impact on the environment when making decisions regarding proposed federal actions such as funding highways or constructing dams. According to section 3.3 of our text book, the NEPA “revolutionized environmental protection in the United States.” This would be due to the detailed environmental impact statements required to coincide with each federal recommendation or proposal for legislation. The findings of these environmental impact statements are released to the public where they may possibly be found unsatisfactory and require the project to be modified to reach satisfactory limits or rescinded entirely. As a result of the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, several previously endangered species including the American alligator, California gray whale, and our national bird the bald eagle have recovered enough to be removed from the endangered species list.

Pesticides present a risk to human health more than to any other organism that may come into contact with them simply because of our position on the food chain. According to the chart 4.3d in our text, the pesticide levels increase as the mass of the body consuming the compromised organism increases. In addition, the chart shown in Figure 4.9 shows that all routes lead to humans as the last on the list to receive these pesticides after they have passed through the air, soil, and livestock. As for short-term effects of exposure to high levels of toxicants, our text cites an accident at a chemical plant in 1953 that allowed epidemiologists to establish a direct link to the chemical exposure and cancer by 1989. However, these same chemicals may have had no long-term effect if exposure had been at low levels over the same period of time....