Glossary of Terms

  • Annoyance or Nuisance can be private or public:
    • Private nuisance: Activity, situation, or conduct of another person that annoys you or inconveniences you or your family. It is also an activity, situation, or conduct that interferes with the enjoyment, health, or safety of your land, home or building.
    • Public nuisance: Activity, situation, or conduct of another person that interferes or affects the comfort, health, or safety of the public.
  • CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operations): Agricultural operations where animals are kept and raised in confined situations. CAFOs bring together;
    • animals,
    • feed,
    • manure and urine,
    • dead animals, and
    • production operations on a small land area
  • Dermatologic: Originating in the skin of a person or animal.
  • Differential Diagnosis: Determining which of two or more diseases with similar symptoms is the one the patient is suffering. We do this by a systematic comparison and by contrast of the clinical findings.
  • Etiology: Cause of disease; the factors that contributes to occurrence of a disease.
  • Exposure Pathway: The route a substance takes from where it began (source) to its end point.
  • Genetics:The study of heredity.
  • Hematopoietic System: Pertaining to the organs that form blood.
  • Hepatic: Originating in the liver of a person or animal.
  • Multifactorial: A disease resulting from the interaction of many factors, for example Type II diabetes, which is caused by several factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, etc.
  • Perception/Perceiving: The process of using the senses to obtain information about your surroundings.
  • Quality of life: The degree of enjoyment and satisfaction experienced in everyday life (as opposed to financial or material well-being).
  • Sense of well-being: How well a person’s life is going for that person.
  • Somatic complaints: Complaints relating to the body.
  • Threshold: The starting point or point at which something begins or changes. For odor threshold, it is when you first smell that odor.
Page last reviewed: August 25, 2015