- What is exposure?
- How can an exposure happen?
- How does a chemical get into your
body?
- If you are exposed to a chemical,
will you get sick?
ATSDR is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry. We are a federal health agency in Atlanta,
Georgia. ATSDR gives people information about harmful
chemicals in their environment and tells people
how to protect themselves from being "exposed," or
coming into contact with chemicals.
This Fact Sheet answers questions about chemical
exposures.
What is exposure?
"Exposure" means that you have come
into contact with a chemical, and it has gotten
into your body.
How can
an exposure happen?
For a chemical exposure to happen,
there has to be a place where the chemical comes
from. This place is called a source. A source could
be a landfill, pond, creek, incinerator, tank,
drum, or factory. There are many different sources
of chemicals.
You could come into contact with
a chemical at its source. Or, the chemical could
move from its source to a place where you could
come into contact with it.
Chemicals can move through air, water,
and soil. They can also be on plants or animals,
and get into the foods we eat. The chemical has
to get into your body to make you sick, or to have
an effect on your health.
But if you are not exposed to a chemical, it won't
make you sick.
How does a chemical
get into your body?
If you are exposed, there are three
ways a chemical could get into your body. These
are:
breathing air that has the chemical in it, eating or drinking something with
the chemical in or on it, touching something that has the chemical in or on
it.
If you are exposed to a chemical,
will you get sick?
This depends on a lot of factors
about the exposure.
- It depends on the way the chemical got into
your body.
- It also depends on how much of the chemical
got into your body. Sometimes, a small amount
of a chemical could make you sick. Other times,
you would not get sick from an exposure unless
you were exposed to a large amount of the chemical.
Factors that play a part in whether you will get
sick from a chemical exposure are:
- the type of chemical;
- the amount (how much of a chemical a person
was exposed to);
- the duration (how long the exposure
was); and
- the frequency (how many times the person
was exposed).
Also, people respond to chemicals in different
ways. Some people may be exposed to a chemical,
but may not get sick.
Other people may be more sensitive
to a chemical, and get sick from an exposure. (For
example, children can be more sensitive to chemicals
and may get sick more easily than adults.)
And some sicknesses would be caused
only if you were exposed to a chemical for a long
time.
But if you are not exposed to a
chemical, it won't make you sick.
For a print-friendly version of What is Exposure
Fact Sheet, download the PDF
version (117 Kb).
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