Module 6

Information from Course Outline
Module 6, Closes Monday, October 8

Introduction
Modules 6, 7, 8, and 9 will cover toxicity to specific organ systems. This week we will do reproductive and respiratory systems. The book is pretty good on these, so for both systems there is an introduction (6A and 6C) meant to be taken before the book, followed by some examples (6B and 6D) that could be done after the book. There is a little introduction to the endocrine system in 6A. We will do a submodule on the topic of "endocrine disrupters" later in the semester and cover some of those points again.

Reading from Stine and Brown
Chapters 7 and 8. The textbook will be more useful from now on. For this module, the student should read submodules 6A and 6C before reading the respective chapters of Stein and Brown.

Homework.
There are 25 points for this module's homework. a.) 10 points for the auto-quiz you access through Blackboard, b.) 12 points for the lists homework , c.) 5 points for the discussion, and d.) 3 points for the message to the instructor.

a.) Access the quiz through Blackboard. A copy of the quiz is found here.

b.) Lists homework. The purpose of this assignment is to get you familiar with three lists: IRIS, ATSDR, and IARC. Start with one of the three chemicals you found in Module 2 [except do not use trimethylbenzene]. One of your chemicals should be on the IRIS list. Determine from IRIS if it is a carcinogen, non-carcinogen, or both. Write a short paragraph about the health effects of the chemical, based on IRIS. ASTDR may not have a monograph on the chemical. Then below make a table:

(We'll do some more with this next week.)

c.) Discussion. Do a web search on "DES" and "cancer" together with "lawyer." I found over 100,000 hits. Look at the first page, then look at some pages further back (pages of search results). Try to distinguish what kinds of sites they are: public health, medical education, advertising for clinics, advertising for lawyers, etc. Were you surprised? Those of you who are web jocks might look at the first few pages. These almost always have tricks that force them to the front of web searches. Would you feel comfortable going to the physician that advertised in such a way? How about a lawyer? Feel free to explore that topic and comment on other's submissions. I was amazed first time I did the search.

d.) As you peruse IRIS, you will likely find some terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with, although by now you should be able to use the IRIS Glossary and make sense out of it. (I often use the glossaries.) But some things will not make sense to you. Send them to me in a question (you might want to cut from IRIS, that's fine, be sure to attached the URL of the page you are on too.) As always any comment is welcome, extra credit for pointing out typos or other glitches in the material.

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