Chapter 3 Online quizzes

Which of the following is the correct definition of a pollutant?

Any chemical found in the environment

A substance in the environment which is found at elevated concentrations above the natural background level for the area and for the organism.

A compound, typically a synthetic chemical, that is foreign to the body or an ecological system.

A compound in the environment whose nature, location, or quantity produces undesirable environmental effects

Fill in the blanks: ______A____________ is a net result of uptake and excretion. ________B___________ refers to the increase in concentration of a xenobiotic compound within organisms with increased trophic position in a food web

A = pollution, B = contamination

A = contamination, B = pollution

A = biomagnification, B = bioaccumulation

A = bioaccumulation, B = biomagnification

What do toxicologists call the exposure to small doses of a particular chemical over long periods of time?

Chronic exposure

Acute exposure

Sublethal effect

Non-persistent exposure

Which of the following statements is not correct?

Environmental Risk Assessment (or Ecological Risk Assessment) is a structured approach to quantitatively or qualitatively estimating the risk related to a specific (mix of) pollutant(s).

Environmental Risk Management is a process to determine the course of action based on the outcomes of the Environmental Risk Assessment.

Economic, social, or legal constraints are not considered by risk managers to determine the course of action, and whether or not the use of a chemical be banned or restricted

Stakeholders often actively try to influence the risk assessment, including environmental NGOs and the chemical industry.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a Persistent Organic Pollutant?

They are highly toxic, causing a variety of effects on organisms.

They are very persistent in the environment.

They are lipophilic, meaning that they like to accumulate in the fatty tissues of organisms

Once in the environment, they remain in the area where they were released.

Which of the following statements is not a true statement about the dilution paradigm?

This paradigm can be summed up as: the solution to pollution can be found in dilution.

This paradigm assumes that a pollutant does not disappear when we emit or discharge it into the environment.

The book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is one of the events which has been instrumental in shifting away from this paradigm

The shift away from the dilution paradigm has had great implications on how we observe the world around us, and how we think about minimization of pollution of our environment.

Which of the following statements is correct?

End-of-pipe solutions are often used with non-point source pollution, and are often less costly and time consuming compared to front-of-pipe solutions.

Front-of-pipe solutions are often used with non-point source pollution, and are often less costly and time consuming compared to end-of-pipe solutions.

Front-of-pipe solutions are often used with point source pollution, and are often less costly and time consuming compared to end-of-pipe solutions.

End-of-pipe solutions are often used with point source pollution, and are often less costly and time consuming compared to front-of-pipe solutions.

Why can phosphate be considered a non-renewable resource?

Phosphorus can be recycled through the rock cycle, reappearing at the surface at the earth were it can be mined. However, happens at very long timescales (millennia to millions of years), and for this reason phosphorus is considered a non-renewable resource.

It is hard to recover phosphorus from animal waste, making it a non-renewable resource.

This is because the phosphorus cycle, in contrast to the nitrogen cycle, only includes chemical components.

All of the options given are correct

Which of the following is not a reason why scientists worry about the endocrine disrupting potential of some pesticides?

Because the endocrine system is evolutionarily conserved it can affect a wide range of species

Because hormones are signalling substances, low quantities of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment already have the potential to cause negative effects on organisms

The endocrine system is one of the most important systems in organisms: it regulates key processes such as growth, development, behaviour, metabolism and reproduction. Endocrine disrupting chemicals can disrupt these processes

None of the options given is correct

Which of the following statements about genetically modified organisms is not correct?

Genetic modification involves the direct manipulation of an organism's genetic material by using biotechnology.

Genetically modified herbicide resistant crops can be sprayed with a herbicide, killing weeds but without affecting the crop.

An example of a GM crop is golden rice, which has been genetically modified to produce vitamin A to help tackle vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in children

All of the options given are correct

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