MCAT Psychological Social Foundations Flashcards: 10a Environmental Justice Health Risk

What this deck covers

This deck focuses on 10a Environmental Justice Health Risk, giving you a quick way to review the definitions, rules, and examples that matter most for MCAT Psychological Social Foundations.

How to use these flashcards

Work through these flashcards in short sessions. Try to answer each prompt before flipping the card, then revisit any cards you miss until the explanation feels automatic.

Flashcard 1: What is a hazard in environmental health?

Answer: An agent or condition that can cause harm. Identifies potential sources of injury or illness in environmental contexts, essential for risk assessment.

Flashcard 2: Which concept refers to greater harm at the same exposure due to vulnerability and resources?

Answer: Differential susceptibility. Accounts for how limited resources and pre-existing conditions amplify health impacts from identical hazard levels.

Flashcard 3: What is exposure in environmental epidemiology?

Answer: Contact between a person and a hazard (dose over time). Measures the interaction intensity and duration, crucial for determining potential health impacts in populations.

Flashcard 4: What is "NIMBY" and how can it relate to environmental justice patterns?

Answer: Not In My Back Yard; hazards displaced toward less powerful communities. Wealthy areas reject hazards, concentrating them in poor communities.

Flashcard 5: What is a key difference between exposure and dose in environmental health?

Answer: Exposure is contact; dose is amount absorbed by the body. Exposure is external contact; dose measures internal absorption.

Flashcard 6: Identify the study design most used to link neighborhood pollution levels to asthma rates.

Answer: Epidemiologic observational study (often cohort or cross-sectional). Observes natural exposure patterns without experimental manipulation.

Flashcard 7: What is a dose-response relationship?

Answer: Change in effect magnitude as dose increases. Demonstrates the correlation between increasing toxin levels and escalating health effects in exposed individuals.

Flashcard 8: What is a food desert as a neighborhood-level environmental health risk?

Answer: Area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food. Lack of healthy food options increases diet-related disease risk.

Flashcard 9: Which term refers to systematic placement of hazards in minority communities via policy and power?

Answer: Structural racism (in environmental siting and regulation). Encompasses institutional practices that disproportionately site hazards in communities of color, driven by unequal power dynamics.

Flashcard 10: Which concept explains how neighborhood features shape health via resources and hazards?

Answer: Social determinants of health. Encompass upstream factors like access to green spaces and pollution levels that influence community health trajectories.

Flashcard 11: What does non-threshold model imply for some carcinogens?

Answer: Any nonzero dose carries some risk. Assumes linear risk increase with dose, used for substances where even minimal exposure may initiate cancer.

Flashcard 12: What term describes exposure to multiple hazards (chemical and social) at once?

Answer: Cumulative risk (cumulative exposure). Integrates multiple environmental and social stressors to assess overall health risk in communities.

Flashcard 13: Which concept states that harms can be greater when social stressors and toxins co-occur?

Answer: Synergistic interaction of exposures. Describes amplified health detriments when psychosocial stressors exacerbate toxicological effects.

Flashcard 14: What is the precautionary principle in environmental health decision-making?

Answer: Act to prevent harm despite incomplete scientific certainty. Prioritizes prevention when full evidence of harm is still developing.

Flashcard 15: What is exposure in environmental epidemiology?

Answer: Contact with an agent over time (e.g., pollutant dose or concentration). Quantifies contact intensity and duration for risk assessment.

Flashcard 16: What is environmental justice in the context of health risk exposure?

Answer: Fair treatment and meaningful involvement in environmental health policies. Ensures all communities have equal voice in environmental decisions affecting their health.

Flashcard 17: What is meant by disproportionate exposure in environmental health?

Answer: Unequal contact with hazards across groups, often by race or SES. Low-income and minority groups face more environmental hazards than others.

Flashcard 18: What is residential segregation as it relates to environmental risk?

Answer: Spatial separation of groups that concentrates hazards and limits resources. Historical policies created unequal exposure to environmental hazards.

Flashcard 19: Which term describes placing polluting facilities near politically marginalized communities?

Answer: Inequitable siting (environmental injustice in facility placement). Powerful communities resist hazards, pushing them to vulnerable areas.

Flashcard 20: What term describes combined health effects of multiple exposures over the life course?

Answer: Cumulative burden (allostatic load conceptually). Reflects the long-term accumulation of stressors, similar to physiological wear from chronic adversity.

Flashcard 21: What is a health inequity?

Answer: An unfair, avoidable health difference produced by systemic disadvantage. Emphasizes injustice and systemic causes, not just differences.

Flashcard 22: Which exposure pathway is most directly increased by lead paint in older housing?

Answer: Ingestion of lead-contaminated dust or paint chips. Occurs primarily through hand-to-mouth behavior in deteriorating structures, common in low-income housing.

Flashcard 23: What is environmental racism as used in environmental justice discussions?

Answer: Disproportionate environmental burdens on racial or ethnic minority groups. Minority communities bear unfair share of pollution and environmental hazards.

Flashcard 24: What is a common environmental justice health outcome linked to chronic pollution exposure?

Answer: Higher rates of asthma and other cardiopulmonary disease. Air pollution triggers respiratory inflammation and cardiovascular stress.

Flashcard 25: Which concept best explains why low-SES groups may have higher pollution impacts at equal exposure?

Answer: Differential susceptibility due to comorbidities, stress, and limited healthcare. Social stressors amplify biological vulnerability to pollutants.

Flashcard 26: What term describes unequal environmental burdens placed on marginalized groups?

Answer: Environmental injustice. Highlights systemic inequities where vulnerable populations bear disproportionate environmental harms without fair benefits.

Flashcard 27: What is the most direct definition of a health disparity?

Answer: Systematic differences in health outcomes across population groups. Reflects preventable, unjust differences in health between groups.

Flashcard 28: Identify the correct interpretation: a community has higher exposure and higher disease rates.

Answer: Exposure may contribute to disease; confounding must still be evaluated. Association exists but causation requires ruling out other factors.

Flashcard 29: What is a dose-response relationship?

Answer: Higher dose is associated with greater biological effect or disease risk. Shows proportional increase in harm with increasing exposure levels.

Flashcard 30: Identify the correct term: combined chemical and social stressors producing greater harm.

Answer: Cumulative risk (cumulative impact). Multiple stressors interact synergistically to worsen health outcomes.

Flashcard 31: What is environmental justice in public health?

Answer: Fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across groups. Ensures equitable access to clean environments and protection from hazards, addressing disparities in public health outcomes.

Flashcard 32: What term describes unequal exposure to environmental hazards by race or class?

Answer: Environmental inequality. Describes systematic differences in hazard exposure based on social factors.

Flashcard 33: What is residential segregation and why is it relevant to environmental exposures?

Answer: Spatial separation by race/SES that concentrates hazards in some neighborhoods. Segregation clusters environmental hazards in minority neighborhoods.

Flashcard 34: What is the built environment in public health and environmental justice?

Answer: Human-made surroundings (housing, roads, industry) shaping exposures and health. Physical infrastructure influences exposure pathways and health outcomes.

Flashcard 35: Which concept refers to greater exposure to hazards due to social position and place?

Answer: Differential exposure. Explains how socioeconomic status and geographic location result in higher contact with environmental toxins.

Flashcard 36: What is environmental racism?

Answer: Disproportionate environmental burdens on racial or ethnic minority groups. Intentional or systemic placement of hazards in minority communities.

Flashcard 37: Which option is the clearest confounder when linking traffic pollution to asthma hospitalizations?

Answer: Smoking prevalence (or secondhand smoke exposure) in the population. Tobacco smoke independently causes asthma, potentially masking traffic effects.

Flashcard 38: Identify the environmental justice concern when highways are built through low-income areas.

Answer: Disproportionate air and noise pollution exposure. Results from infrastructure decisions that exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular risks in underserved neighborhoods.

Flashcard 39: What does threshold model mean in toxicology?

Answer: No adverse effect is expected below a certain dose. Posits a safe exposure level exists, guiding regulatory standards for non-carcinogenic substances.

Flashcard 40: Which term describes a neighborhood with an overabundance of unhealthy food outlets?

Answer: Food swamp. Promotes poor dietary choices by saturating areas with fast food, exacerbating health disparities in vulnerable communities.

Flashcard 41: What is a heat island effect and its key environmental justice implication?

Answer: Urban warming from surfaces; higher heat risk in low-tree, low-income areas. Concrete absorbs heat; poor areas lack cooling green spaces.

Flashcard 42: Which term describes increased vulnerability due to combined social and environmental stressors?

Answer: Cumulative risk (or cumulative burden). Multiple stressors compound health risks beyond individual effects.

Flashcard 43: What is a health disparity?

Answer: A preventable health difference tied to social, economic, or environmental disadvantage. Links health differences to modifiable social factors, not just biology.

Flashcard 44: Which option best represents an environmental justice intervention at the policy level?

Answer: Stricter emission controls and equitable enforcement in high-burden areas. Targets pollution sources and ensures fair regulatory protection.

Flashcard 45: What is a food desert?

Answer: An area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food. Geographic barrier to healthy eating, often in low-income areas.

Flashcard 46: Which option best describes the NIMBY phenomenon in environmental justice contexts?

Answer: Opposition to local hazards that shifts burdens onto other communities. "Not In My Back Yard" - pushes hazards to less powerful communities.

Flashcard 47: What is biomagnification?

Answer: Increasing concentration of a toxin at higher trophic levels. Toxins accumulate up food chains, concentrating in top predators.

Flashcard 48: What is dose (as used in toxicology)?

Answer: Amount of a hazard absorbed by the body. Represents the internalized quantity of a toxin, influencing the severity of biological responses.

Flashcard 49: What is an environmental health risk (in one phrase)?

Answer: Probability of adverse health effects from an environmental hazard. Quantifies the likelihood of harm based on exposure to pollutants or conditions in the environment.

Flashcard 50: What is environmental justice in public health?

Answer: Fair treatment and meaningful involvement in environmental decisions. Ensures all communities have a voice in environmental policies affecting them.

Flashcard 51: Which population is most vulnerable to neurotoxic effects of lead exposure?

Answer: Children (developing nervous system). Rapid brain development makes them highly sensitive to neurotoxins, leading to cognitive and behavioral impairments.

Flashcard 52: What is a major environmental justice mechanism linking poverty to higher exposure?

Answer: Residential proximity to pollution sources due to housing constraints. Links economic disadvantage to increased hazard proximity, perpetuating health inequities in low-income areas.

Flashcard 53: What is a health disparity?

Answer: A systematic difference in health outcomes between population groups. Arises from social, economic, and environmental factors leading to unequal health burdens among demographic groups.

Flashcard 54: What is risk perception?

Answer: A person's subjective judgment of the likelihood and severity of harm. Influenced by personal experience, culture, and trust in institutions.

Flashcard 55: Which framework links health disparities to social conditions like housing and pollution?

Answer: Social determinants of health. Recognizes that health outcomes depend on living conditions and environment.

Flashcard 56: What is the key difference between equality and equity in environmental health policy?

Answer: Equity allocates resources by need; equality allocates the same to all. Equity addresses existing disparities; equality ignores different starting points.

Flashcard 57: Which term describes a community lacking nearby affordable, nutritious food options?

Answer: Food desert. Contributes to nutritional deficiencies and obesity by limiting access to fresh produce in underserved areas.

Flashcard 58: What is structural inequality as it relates to environmental justice?

Answer: Institutional policies creating unequal access to resources and protections. Systems and policies perpetuate unequal environmental protections.

Flashcard 59: What is the key difference between exposure and dose?

Answer: Exposure is contact; dose is absorbed amount. Distinguishes external contact from internal uptake, critical for accurate toxicological evaluations.

Flashcard 60: What is the built environment in relation to health risk exposure?

Answer: Human-made surroundings that shape exposure and behavior (housing, roads, parks). Physical infrastructure influences exposure patterns and health behaviors.

Flashcard 61: Which pollutant is most associated with asthma exacerbations from traffic emissions?

Answer: Particulate matter (especially PM$2.5$) and ozone. These fine particles and ground-level gas penetrate lungs, triggering inflammation and worsening respiratory conditions.

Flashcard 62: What is redlining in the context of environmental justice and neighborhood health?

Answer: Historic denial of loans by area, promoting disinvestment and later hazard siting. Discriminatory lending created vulnerable areas for hazardous facilities.