Questions on the Environmental impact of some medications.

1. Discuss how the following have contributed to some bacteria, which cause disease in humans, becoming highly resistant to antibiotics.

(a) Non-completion of a prescribed course of antibiotics.

(b) The addition of antibiotics to animal food to promote healthy livestock.

2. Explain the factors that determine whether nuclear waste is classified as low-level or high-level nuclear waste.

3. Outline how the following contaminated substances might be treated:

(a) paper and protective clothing used during an investigation with a radioactive isotope to monitor how a patient’s kidney is functioning.

(b) a concentrated solution of technetium-99m, a metastable radionucleotide with a half-life of 6 hours, used to monitor kidney function.

(c) A spent reactor of cobalt-60, which has been used in external radiotherapy. (Co-60 emits beta and gamma radiation and has a half-life of 5.3 years.)

4. Each year many IB Diploma students use an organic solvent to extract caffeine from coffee or tea as part of the experimental work for their extended essay or individual scientific investigation.
Explain why in industry supercritical carbon dioxide has mainly replaced organic solvents to extract caffeine and other substances, such as essential oils, from plant material.

5. There is a high demand for stocks of Tamiflu whenever an outbreak of a new influenza virus, such as “bird flu”, occurs. Tamiflu is a synthetic drug obtained by a multi-step synthesis using a compound called shikimic acid as the precursor. Shikimic acid can be obtained from the Chinese star anise plant.
Explain why much of the shikimic acid required to make Tamiflu is now obtained using genetically modified bacteria.

Download the Environmental impact of some medications questions to give to your students.