SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY Trace amounts ofdioxin were present in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed onvegetation during the Vietnam War. Animal tests suggest thatdioxin 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 affectedby a dose that can kill a guinea pig. Dioxin acts like a steroidhormone, entering a cell and binding to a cytoplasmic receptorthat then binds the cell’s DNA.(a) Discuss how this mechanism might help explain the variety of dioxin’s effects on different body systems and indifferent animals.(b) Discuss how you might determine whether a type of illnessis related to dioxin exposure. Next, discuss how you mightdetermine whether a particular individual became ill as aresult of exposure to dioxin. Which would be more difficultto demonstrate? Why?
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 cell’s DNA.
(a) Discuss how this mechanism might help explain the variety of dioxin’s effects on different body systems and in
different animals.
(b) Discuss how you might determine whether a type of illness
is related to dioxin exposure. Next, discuss how you might
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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