Environmental Studies Essay Sample

Human Health and the Environment

Human Health and the Environment

Question 1

A reference dose refers to the estimate of a continuous inhalation that humans are exposed to including the factor of uncertainty. The reference dose also includes subgroups that may be sensitive to the nature of inhalation (Hsu, C.-H, & Stedeford, 2010, p. 23). The sensitive subgroups may not be subject to high risk of the detrimental effects of the inhalation over their lifetime. It is possible to derive the reference dose from other models such as the LOAEL, NOAEL or the benchmark concentration. However, the factor of uncertainty must be noted to show any limitations that emanate from the set of data used.
Cancer slope factors refer to upper bound elements that have an approximate confidence limit of 95 percent used in the assessment of the increase in the level of risk of cancer exposure. Cancer Slope Factors (CSF) are associated with the exposure to potentially carcinogenic substances or carcinogenic substances themselves (Hsu, C.-H, & Stedeford, 2010, p. 16).
Risk assessors use a reference dose to quantify non-carcinogenic toxicity because of the nature of reviewing outputs from the exposure assessments and toxicity. Most of the sites and substances and review involve the examination of more than one chemical, which may be non-carcinogenic or carcinogenic. References doses are appropriate for sub chronic and chronic short-term values of toxicity. As such, reference models have lesser limitation in terms of the
Risk assessors use cancer slope factors for carcinogenic chemicals because it enables the use of the underlying assumption. Carcinogens can stimulate changes in the cells and result in uncontrolled changes. The toxicity of carcinogens does not have a particular threshold, which makes it easy to assess the risk exposure using cancer slope factors because they facilitate extrapolation.

Question 2

Externalities are a common feature in many economic activities. Externalities refer third-party effects or spillover effects that arise from the consumption and production of services and goods. There is no price or compensation paid for the spillover effects. They are considered overhead costs associated with the consumption (Purchase and use) of goods and services. Externalities occur in the form of social and private costs (Lavaine, Neidell, & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013, p. 6). Social costs cover the costs of producing output for as a specific good or service and the effects associated with its consumption for the whole society. On the other hand, private costs include the costs incurred by the individual besides the purchase price of the commodity in question. For instance, a chemical factory located in the middle of a town emits discharges solid waste into the nearby rivers. The residents of the town’s suburbs depend on the water from the rivers for their domestic use.
In this context, the externalities emerge in the form of social and private costs. The community in this town will have to cover the costs of increased costs for the provision of medical care. At the same time, the individuals in the town will also have to cover more expenses in terms of their personal medical bills due to the use of polluted water. Studying externalities has been extensive over the past years because of the close relationship between economic production and the environment.
Externalities can result in the failure of the market in cases where the price mechanism is inappropriate. The price mechanism must account for the full costs and benefits derived from the production and consumption of output. The price paid must cover the costs associated. Given that the effects emanate from the consumption of goods and services, including the compensation for externalities will mitigate the additional allocation of revenue or income by both individual and institutions (Meier & Rauch, 2005, p. 34). Therefore, producers must compute the total costs associated with productions and consumptions and include in in the pricing model of the product.

Question 3

In controlling the effect of human beings on the planet, controlling the population growth in the developing nations is the most efficient mechanism. Most of the population growth is happening in the developing countries, which implies that there are a growing market and demand for industrial products. Therefore, there is widespread establishment of industries to meet the growing demand as organizations also seek to explore the new market (Meier & Rauch, 2005, p. 45). As such, controlling the population means there will be a decline in the demand for finished products in the future, which will minimize the rate at which production takes place in nearly all the developing countries.
Controlling the population also helps to reduce pressure on the available resources and the environment. For instance, the externalities emanating from the consumption of goods have a higher impact when the population is higher. For instance, the higher the population, the higher the amount of resources required to cater for the cost of the externalities because the effect accrues to many people. The pressure on natural resources such as land, water, and forests is higher when the population is high and growing at a high rate. If the population grows at a controlled rate, then natural resources will have an opportunity to rejuvenate and grow. In fact, regulating the population growth will lead to the automatic control of the rate at which consumption of resources occurs.

References

Hsu, C.-H, & Stedeford, T. (2010). Cancer risk assessment: Chemical carcinogenesis, hazard evaluation, and risk quantification. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Lavaine, E., Neidell, M., & National Bureau of Economic Research. (2013). Energy production and health externalities: Evidence from oil refinery strikes in France. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Meier, G. M., & Rauch, J. E. (2005). Leading issues in economic development. New York: Oxford University Press.