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SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY Trace amounts of dioxin were present in Agent Orange, a
Chapter 18, Problem 14(choose chapter or problem)
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY Trace amounts of dioxin were present in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed on vegetation during the Vietnam War. Animal tests suggest that dioxin can cause birth defects, cancer, liver and thymus damage, and immune system suppression, sometimes leading to death. But the animal tests are equivocal; a hamster is not affected by a dose that can kill a guinea pig. Dioxin acts like a steroid hormone, entering a cell and binding to a cytoplasmic receptor that then binds the cells DNA. How might this mechanism help explain the variety of dioxins effects on different body systems and in different animals? How might you determine whether a type of illness is related to dioxin exposure? How might you determine whether a particular individual became ill as a result of exposure to dioxin? Which would be more difficult to demonstrate? Why?
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QUESTION:
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY Trace amounts of dioxin were present in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed on vegetation during the Vietnam War. Animal tests suggest that dioxin can cause birth defects, cancer, liver and thymus damage, and immune system suppression, sometimes leading to death. But the animal tests are equivocal; a hamster is not affected by a dose that can kill a guinea pig. Dioxin acts like a steroid hormone, entering a cell and binding to a cytoplasmic receptor that then binds the cells DNA. How might this mechanism help explain the variety of dioxins effects on different body systems and in different animals? How might you determine whether a type of illness is related to dioxin exposure? How might you determine whether a particular individual became ill as a result of exposure to dioxin? Which would be more difficult to demonstrate? Why?
ANSWER:The mechanism by which dioxin binds to a cell's cytoplasmic receptor and then interacts with the cell's DNA likely explains the variable effects that dioxin has on different animals and body systems. Depending on the organism and the amount of dioxin exposure, this interaction might lead to a wide array of potential effects and illnesses.
In order to determine whether a specific type of illness is related to dioxin exposure, the epidemiological approach can be used. In this approach, researchers would identify populations of people with some known or hypothesized exposure to dioxin and analy