Module 7

Information from Course Outline
Module 7, Closes Monday, October 15 [Discussion closes the following Wednesday, 24 October.]

Introduction
We'll continue with organ system toxicology, covering the cardiovascular system and blood and the nervous system. Also included are two short submodules on benzene metabolism and free radicals.

Reading from Stein and Brown
Chapters 9 and 10. For this module, the student should read submodules 7A and 7B before reading the respective chapters of Stein and Brown.

Homework.
There are 25 points for this module's homework. a.) 7 points for the auto-quiz you access through Blackboard, b.) 12 points for the discussion, and c.) 6 points for the message to the instructor.

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

b.) Discussion. You have read a webpage about Minamata and its disease. It does not tell the whole story, but most of it. For example the government banned fishing in the polluted bay and the polluting company paid the fishermen for not fishing there, at least some of the time. Also, most of this happened in the 1950's, when Japan was still poverty stricken from World War II. Also at that time, in the affluent U.S., we were not too much better. But all that is changed today. Right? Based on a web search, write about methylmercury, its past, present, and future. Here is an interesting article that goes into some detail about policy and compensation. You might answer such questions as: How is Minamata doing today? Are some people in the U.S. still exposed to methylmercury? Are there locations in the world where Minamata disease may be waiting to happen? How about in Alaska? I suggest you divide the work up, the first one to get into this might make a fast overview and email the others. Then each take a portion of the search and write a paragraph or two about the issue. Finally one of group members be responsible for putting these together into one document, 4 to 6 paragraphs long. Be sure to label it Final. (I recognize that some of the writing styles, etc., will be different and the results will not be as smooth as if one person wrote it.) This is due next Wednesday, 24 October.

c.) Write a message to the instructor with an outline of your paper, preliminary results of literature search, and questions about the topic. This is not due until next week but the grade will be posted in this module. Ask at least one question about the material in this module, or something that pertains to your paper. This will be the only email this week, so label it ENVE 652 HW7.

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