ENVR230 Fall 2006
In-class examination Thurs Sept 21, 2006
Answer the following four (4) questions.
Sections marked with * have no “right” or “wrong” answers - what I am looking for are your thoughts and how you organize them and rationalize them.
Question 1: Agencies involved in Environmental Health
A. List and describe the major agencies that are concerned with environmental health in the USA. What are their missions, what are their roles?
B. How much do their roles overlap ? Does this help or hinder environmental protection ?
*C. If you had absolute power to reorganize the way this country is governed, how would you organize environmental health protection ?
Question 2: Cholera
A. What is the causative agent of Cholera ?
B. How is this agent transmitted ?
C. Describe the immediate measure that was taken to limit the spread of cholera in London in 1854.
D. What are the major public health steps that control the spread of cholera at present ?
Question 3: Other Major Infectious Diseases
A. Briefly describe two major environmentally-transmitted infectious diseases: What are the causative agents, how are they transmitted ?
B. Are these two diseases still found today ?
C. What public/environmental health measures have been taken to prevent those diseases from being the major killers that they were a century or more ago ?
A. Compare and contrast the major causes of mortality in the USA reported for the present times with those observed a century or more ago.
B. To what causes do you attribute any changes in mortality patterns ?
*C. What public/environmental health measures could you suggest to change the current pattern (remember, it’s a zero-sum game- we all have to die from some cause).
*D. Under what circumstances might we see in the USA a return to 19th century patterns of mortality ?