Epidemiology and Toxicology

What is epidemiology? - It is a diagnostic discipline of public health. It is the study of factors that modify or influence the distribution of diseases (or of adverse health effects) in a human population. What are some vital functions of epidemioloy? - 1. to discover the agent, host and environmental factors which affect health 2. determine relative importance of various causes of disease 3. identify high risk population 4. evaluate effectiveness of current programs, services and regulations What is health risk assessment? - The process by which the potential adverse health effects of human exposure to etiologic agents (chemicals) are characterized What are the three health risk assessment components? - 1. Hazard identification- looking at risk to our health and assessing it, identify what is a hazard and what isn't 2. Dose-response assessment - 3. Exposure assessment - need to know who is exposed and what the exposure level is in our environment Which type of product is given the lowest risk by people? - If hazard is controllable and observable, people give it the lowest risk Quantify the differences observed when switching from animal to human model? - 10-fold difference in terms of kinetics and dynamics from animals to humans, then from humans to another human, due to genetic variability another 10 fold difference When did the concept of epidemiology start? - With the Black death --> fleas on rats What is ergot? - It is a toxic compound that is produced by fungus that grows on rye, damages peripheral vasculature and blood flow is cut off to sections to the body --> gangrene sets in, there is burning pain and eventually fingers and feet turn black What was the role of the London smog in epidemiology? - It was a turning point in environmental toxicology and led to passage of Clean Air Act and regulations of smokestacks and chimneys What kind of disease is our current focus on epidemiology? - Chronic disease is our current focus, because of the repeated exposure, it's a bit easier to spot the link between toxicant and immediate effect What are the three methods to evaluate toxicants in an observational way - Case control studies, cohort studies and cross-sectional studies What are the two types of study designs in general? - Experimental (the researcher intervenes to change reality, then observes what happens) and Observational (the researcher studies, but does not alter what occurs, just wants to find a link) Explain what a case-control study is? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of one? - It is a study with one disease due to many factors. It is retrospective, so you can ask backwards what