Pollution and Human Health
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| acute/əˈkjuːt/ | Describing an effect or condition that develops rapidly or occurs over a relatively short period. |
| exposure/ekˈspəʊʒə/ | exposure |
| chronic/ˈkrɒnɪk/ | Describing an effect or condition that persists or recurs over a long period. |
Pollution makes us sick
- Polluted air, water, and soil harm human health.
- Some harm hits fast; some builds up over years.
- The damage depends on the dose and how long we are exposed.
- Understanding this helps set safe limits.
Acute effects: fast harm
- An acute 急性 effect strikes quickly after exposure.
- A big dose of carbon monoxide can poison in minutes.
- A chemical spill can burn skin or eyes at once.
- Acute effects are sudden and often obvious.
PM10 and PM2.5 compared with a human hair
An acute health effect is one that…
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An acute effect strikes soon after exposure — like poisoning from a big dose in minutes or hours.
Chronic effects: slow harm
- A chronic 慢性 effect builds up slowly over years.
- Breathing smog for decades can cause lung disease.
- Long exposure to some chemicals leads to cancer.
- Chronic effects are hidden at first, then serious.
Acute or chronic effect?
Sort each health effect by whether it strikes at once or builds up over time.
A chronic health effect…
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A chronic effect develops slowly from long, repeated exposure — like cancer after years of pollution.
How much harm pollution does depends on the dose and the length of ____.
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Both the dose and the length of exposure shape how much a pollutant harms health.
Who is most at risk
- Longer exposure 暴露 and higher doses cause more harm.
- Children, the elderly, and the sick are more vulnerable.
- The poor often live nearest to pollution sources.
- So pollution's health burden falls unequally.
Healthy adults are usually more vulnerable to pollution than children and the elderly.
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False. Children, the elderly and people who are already ill are usually more sensitive, so pollution harms them more.
Select all health problems linked to air pollution.
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Air pollution causes asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer. It never improves your health.
Two words to keep straight. Acute = fast — a large dose causing sudden harm (poisoning, burns). Chronic = slow — small doses over a long time adding up to serious disease (cancer, lung disease). Chronic harm is the sneaky one: each day's dose seems harmless, but decades of it can be deadly. That's why long-term exposure matters as much as the dose.
Two workers, two kinds of harm:
- One breathes a cloud of toxic gas from a spill and collapses within minutes — an acute effect from a single large dose.
- The other breathes low levels of factory dust every day for thirty years and develops lung disease late in life — a chronic effect from long exposure.
- Same pollution source; very different timelines of harm.
Pollution harms health in two ways. Acute effects strike quickly from a large dose (poisoning, burns). Chronic effects build up slowly from long exposure (cancer, lung disease). Harm depends on both the dose and the length of exposure, and children, the elderly, and the sick are most vulnerable.