Acute risks and balance in the ecosystem
Acute risks are the risks that are associated with chemical substances on the ecosystems or humans, but based on the short term. Acute risks may affect the lives of human beings and organisms in the ecosystem. Generally, acute risks are based on the short term effects, which may lead to decrease in the number of organisms in the ecosystem. Decreased number of organisms in the ecosystem leads to ecological imbalance, which affects the survival of organisms in the environment. Secondly, acute risks may lead to increased disease infection among human beings. This can lead to reduced quality of life. The quality of life is determined by the ability of man to cope with infectious diseases in the environment (Jeffries, McClean, & Brown, 2009). Although the acute risks are harmful to the lives of human beings and organisms in the ecosystem, it can assist in ecological balance. The ecosystem can balance if the numbers of organisms are able to feed on the available food without strain. Moreover, an organization should not over-depend on specific organisms for food. Therefore, through compromising the life of organisms in the ecosystem, acute risks are able to control the number of organisms in the ecosystem and balance it effectively (Gurjar, Molina, & Ojha, 2010).
Morbidity & mortality and balance in the ecosystems
Determination of the morbidity and mortality rate is important towards ensuring a balanced ecosystem. The ecosystem must balance to ensure that the lives of all organisms in the ecosystem are not threatened. There are several methods that are used to calculate the mortality and morbidity rate in an environment. The most common method is dose-effect. The dose-effect method is used to determine the mortality and morbidity rate by subtracting both. Furthermore, this relationship is used to forecast on the expected number of organisms in the environment in case of an outbreak of any disease and expected change in population in case of any factor that may lead to increase in population. Therefore, this method considers the factors that may lead to population increase and those that may lead to decrease in population (Jeffries, McClean, & Brown, 2009).
The dose-effect relationship is an important and advantageous method that can be used to forecast on the expected population increase or decrease. However, this method is faced with other setbacks such as biases and lack of determination of the exact number in a population that individual factors may affect in an ecosystem. Therefore, the method is not appropriate for use among densely populated ecosystem. Moreover, it is based on mere assumptions without proving facts (Gurjar, Molina, & Ojha, 2010).
References
Gurjar, B. R., Molina, L. T., & Ojha, C. S. (2010). Air Pollution: Health and Environmental Impacts. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Jeffries, D., McClean, F., & Brown, L. (2009). Environmental Pollution and Health Impacts. London: Cengage Learning.