The midterm examination will consist of 6 short answer questions, of which you will need to answer any four, and two essay question, of which you will choose one to answer.

Sample Short Answer Questions:
These are questions that require a brief, concise answer -- limited to a pargragh or two for each question or part thereof (for multiple part questions).

1. Define environmental health and describe one way in which the practice of environmental health is relevant to your own life.

2. Name one choice that you have made in the past week that has had a negative impact on the environment. Explain what the negative impact was. Then name one choice that you have made in the past week that has had a positive impact on the environment and explain why?

3. Ecologists artificially divide the total environment into a series of regions or spheres for analytical purposes.
a. Name and define the four basic ecological 'spheres' of the Earth.
b. Describe what is meant by a 'limiting factor' using one or more of the above 'spheres' to illustrate your answer.

4. Define the terms distribution and determinants of disease in human populations and name at least one important human characteristic that influences each of these.

5. List two important limitations of epidemiology, and explain how one of these limitations affects the interpretation of results of an epidemiologic study.

6. What is an LD50, and what information can it tell you? What information can it NOT tell you about a chemical agent?

7. Briefly describe the dose-response relationship and explain why it is a fundamental principle of toxicology.

8. Identify the four basic methods or approaches used in hazard identification in toxicology studies. Give one advantage and disadvantage of each.

9. The dose-response curves for to chemical compounds below are based on animal studies in controlled laboratory settings.
a. Which of the two compounds is more acutely toxic? Why?
b. Indicate on the Y axis the level at which the FDA might set the regulatory standard for safe dose for compound B. Explain your reasoning.
c. Given what you know of toxicology tests, identify one factor of either the chemical or the test that might alter the assessment of safe dose.

10. We have discussed three routes of transmission of a disease agent that are of major importance in environmental health. To control diseases spread by these routs it is necessary to prevent the exposure of the host. List the four engineering control tactics used to prevent disease/injury and provide an example illustrating how each is used to prevent and agent being spread by one of the three routes. (You can use a different route for different engineering controls.)

11. List four of the six criteria pollutants designated under the Clean Air Act of 1970 and identify the major sources and the health effects of each pollutant.

12. What is a temperature inversion? How does it occur? How are the health effects of air pollution aggravated by such an occurrence?

13. Describe the hydrologic cycle and explain why is it important to the practice of Environmental Health?

14. Most water used for drinking purposes is disinfected before consumption. Briefly describe the common substances and/or processes used to disinfect drinking water and an advantage and disadvantage of each.

15. Explain the difference between primary and secondary municipal sewage treatment processes. List each element and their function in your answer.

16. For people living in rural areas municipal sewage treatment is usually not feasible. These families typically must dispose of their sewage on their property. A typical on-site sewage system is depicted below. Identify the five major component parts of the system and explain the purpose of each, and then explain how the system as a whole, serves to prevent pathogenic organisms present in sewage from coming into contact with human populations.

17. Name the agent, host, reservoir and vector for one disease and explain how each of these work together in the transmission of this disease.

18. What is Integrated Pest Management? Explain how pesticides can play a role in an integrated pest management approach to controlling mosquito vectors of disease. (You may draw on the lectures, your text book and reading 4 to support your answer.)

19. What is the difference between a food-borne infection and a food-borne intoxication? Name one example of each.

20. Describe the four most significant problems which lead to the spread of a foodborne illness, and indicate what needs to be done to prevent these problems

Sample Essay Questions:
These questions require a more fully developed answer. These questions ask you to make an argument and support it with evidence. Your answers will be judged both on content and organization. It would be wise to outline and write drafts of your answers beforehand.

1. The term "web of transmission" has been used to describe the interplay of the numerous factors which are necessary to the transmission of infectious diseases. Select one of the following diseases and describe its typical web of transmission, explaining how understanding the various factors involved with the "web" can help us to develop prevention/control strategies.
Diseases:
a. Plague
b. Lung cancer
c. Tuberculosis
d. West Nile virus
e. Asthma
f. Angiosarcoma of the liver

2. In the 1960s, Dr. Paul Erhlich and other eminent scientists predicted that at the then current rate of world population growth and the increased consumption of natural resources by all societies that the Earth is rapidly approaching the point of collapse. Almost 40 years have passed since the publication of Erhlich’Äôs book The Population Bomb. Critique the ’ÄúLimits to Growth’Äù Model explaining why you believe the model is or is not supportable. Support your answer with evidence from your readings in this course and materials from the course lectures.

3. Select a recent news article to "analyze" and discuss in terms of the major concepts that you have learned so far. That is look at the issue from a critical thinking perspective, determining the environmental and public health issue(s), the stakeholders, and the overarching concepts involved. Your answer should identify the agencies/regulations that might be part of the issue. Look at the Epidemiological evidence ’Äì what it can and can not tell the relative risks to the various stakeholder populations and how good a job of Risk Communication the lead agency has done.