Whether a chemical pollutant is harmful or not depends partly on _______.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Question restatement: The prompt asks about when a chemical pollutant is considered harmful, and provides five answer choices.

Option 1: 'how long it has been there' — This is not the primary determinant of harm. While persistence can influence exposure duration and ecosystem impact, harm depends more directly on dose, concentration, and toxicity at the point of exposure rather than simply the length of time present.

Option 2: 'if you have insurance' — Insurance status has no bearing on the intrinsic harmfulness of a pollutant. Harm is a property of the chemical and its concentration, irrespective of human financial arrangements. This choice confuses social/legal factors with toxicological risk.

Option 3: 'its concentration' — This is the key factor for harm. Toxic effects typically depend on the amount of pollutant (concentration) interacting with a biological system, as well as exposure duration and toxicity. In toxicology, higher concentrations generally increase risk, up to saturation or nonlinear thresholds.

Option 4: 'if it is synthetic' — Whether a pollutant is synthetic or natural does not determine its harmful potential. Both natural and synthetic substances can be toxic; the hazard depends on chemical properties, concentration, and exposure rather than origin.

Option 5: 'if it is natural' — Similar to the previous, natural origin does not guarantee safety. Many natural substances are hazardous at certain concentrations, so origin alone is not a reliable predictor of harm.

Summary reasoning: Among the options, concentration directly relates to the dose–response relationship that underpins toxic harm. Time present, insurance status, or origin (synthetic/natural) do not by themselves establish harmfulness, whereas concentration is a primary determinant of potential harm in most toxicology frameworks.

11:375:101:01 INTRO ENV SCIENCE Lecture #1 Quiz

Whether a chemical pollutant is harmful or not depends partly on _______.

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

Similar Questions

Parts per million (ppm) is a term used to describe the _______ of a chemical in the environment.

Concentration ...

In a consumer society, many adults channel creativity into buying things

Economic stress and unpredictable times have resulted in a booming industry for self-help products

People born without creativity never can develop it

A product has a selling price of $20, a contribution margin ratio of 40% and fixed cost of $120,000. To make a profit of $30,000. The number of units that must be sold is: Type the number without $ and a comma. Eg: 20000

Which of the following statement regarding cost is correct:

Under the assumptions used in cost-volume-profit analysis, as the activity increases:

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Homework AI Solver

Stylized AI Paper Writer

Plagiarism Checker Assistant

Citation AI Academic Writing Tool

In-Class Translation Assistant

AI Note Generator

AI Quiz Answers

Past Exam Questions from University Test Bank

Smart Practice Assistant

Adaptive Practice

Making Your Study Simpler

11:375:101:01 INTRO ENV SCIENCE Lecture #1 Quiz

Whether a chemical pollutant is harmful or not depends partly on _______.

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

Similar Questions

Parts per million (ppm) is a term used to describe the _______ of a chemical in the environment.

​Concentration ...

In a consumer society, many adults channel creativity into buying things

Economic stress and unpredictable times have resulted in a booming industry for self-help products

People born without creativity never can develop it

A product has a selling price of $20, a contribution margin ratio of 40% and fixed cost of $120,000. To make a profit of $30,000. The number of units that must be sold is: Type the number without $ and a comma. Eg: 20000

Which of the following statement regarding cost is correct:

Under the assumptions used in cost-volume-profit analysis, as the activity increases:

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Making Your Study Simpler

Concentration ...