Methylmercury Toxicity

Did you know the EPA has been warning pregnant women about fish consumption? Or that methyl mercury accumulates in your hair -- giving analysts a simple way to get a sample to test? A Chemical & Engineering News article summarizing mercury toxicity was published in early 2004: go to http://pubs.acs.org/email/cen/html/033007161508.html to read more. One last factoid: the Dartmouth College professor who died after exposure to a drop of methylmercury had no symptoms for 5 months after the exposure.

MInimata Disease

I was disappointed in the lack of material presented about the mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan during the 1950s. The authors of the textbook even claim, "the poisonings at Minamata must surely rank as one of the major environmental disasters of modern times", but don't quantify the disaster. According to Japan's Ministry of the Environment, "2,265 individuals in Minamata and the surrounding area have been inflicted with mercury poisoning from the discharge of industrial waste water and 10,000 individuals are being compensated for their exposure and loses". Not to mention, the Japanese government and the Chisso corporation responsible for the mercury industrial waste have paid billions of yen to dredge the sediment containing the mercury and also to develop education programs about mercury poisoning. The picture really shows the horrible crippling that the body undergoes when exposed to toxic levels of methylmercury.

Oh no, no mo Rice!

I was struck in Chapter 8 when I read that there was an increased incidence of pulmonary adenocarcinoma (lung cancer) in Chinese women due to prolonged exposure to cooking-oil fumes. There have been numerous documented stories and research which has affirmed the presence and contribution of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's) to this phenomenon. This really hit home for me not only because of my love on chinese food and general concern for those who prepare it, but also my love of cooking. Have I been over exposing myself to high levels of PAH's in cooking oils and products all in search of that one delightful recipe? According to published work, the answer is yes. Although the names of the brands of synthetic oil were not revealed in these studies, the respirable cooking oil particulate is quite dangerous and prevalent. Ways to prevent high exposure are to take such cautionary measures such as working in well ventalated areas and to always cook with the blowfan on. Also whenever possbi;e try to avoid high oil temperatures because this serves to increase the amount of oil PM. For more, read this; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8161241&dopt=Abstract.

Plant Buddies

Rachel Carson mentioned a case study in Holland, in which city workers planted marigolds in rose beds to successfully diminish nematode destruction. As a young girl, I remember visiting my grandparents' vast garden, which was surrounded by marigolds. Until just a few minutes ago, I had no idea that they planted them there for the safety of their flowers and vegetables. Marigolds, like many herbs, have strong odors that keep rabbits away and also aphids, little bugs that feed on vegetation. Not to mention, they do the job of an herbicide without the danger of using chemicals and introducing foreign species into an area. In an article from Flower & Garden Magazine, many other 'plant buddies' are mentioned and I think that you should take a quick glance.

San Diego's Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Footprint Group #1

The mayor of San Diego county set a goal to reduce the GHG emissions by 7% below the recorded levels in 1990 by the year 2012. Unfortunately, the emissions increased from 32.10 billion kg in 1990 to 39.7 billion kg in 2005. In order to get to the anticipated goal GHG emission need to be reduced by 30% or 12.40 billion kg. These numbers listed above are from the class being separated into various groups to collect data about CO2 emissions from various state, county, and city agencies. The amounts of CO2 collected were converted into kilograms and analyzed. Then the class was split into two groups with each having a different area of focus. The focus of group #1 were CO2 emissions from transportation which included fuel, mileage, and fleet based emissions.

The highest CO2 fuel based emissions came from car fuels including gasoline and diesel. In contrast the lowest fuel based emissions came from aviation and jet fuels. In order for the 12.40 billion kg reduction to happen, it was split into six two billion kg wedges. Solutions for reducing the wedges were created and are as follows:

1. Reduce the driving week by encouraging people to drive only six days per week instead of seven.
2. Encourage the automotive manufacturers to increase or have government mandated miles per gallon ratings to improve the miles per gallon a vehicle gets.
3. Replace natural gas with renewable energy such as solar or wind power.
4. Encourage people to join a carpool.
5. Give incentives for people to own hybrid vehicles by giving tax cuts to encourage people to replace their old cars with hybrid models.
6. Give incentives and more protection on the road to encourage people to buy and drive motorcycles instead of cars.

According to an article from the Union Tribune, the goal of reducing GHG emissions to 7% below the 1990 levels maybe impossible. Two solutions mentioned would require more than half of the vehicles be removed from the road or eliminating all residential and industrial energy use in the city. Of course these solutions are unrealistic but unless something drastic is done to reduce the GHG emissions, the emissions will continue to increase with the growing population of San Diego. From studies, the reasons for the increase in emissions from 1990 to 2004 were due to an increase in computer rooms that must remain cool, energy use from residential homes, and vehicles on the roads. Many of the people are optimistic because city residents might not be willing to make significant changes to their daily lives to lower the GHG emission. In order for emission reduction to happen education of the public has to happen to make people aware of the severity of global warming and the city needs to make incentives for people to want to change their daily lives to better the environment.

Artificial Trees: A Good Solution?

Jumping back into our Monday discussion about greenhouse gases, I mentioned a website I had found that talked about artificial trees. I actually went back and found the website that was talking about these "trees" and the article did sound convincing to me. Although the name trees might be deceiving, these devices look more like windmills than actual trees. Apparently, these "trees" individually can remove 90,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to emissions of CO2 by15,000 cars. That sounds pretty amazing to me, considering the largest contributor to CO2 emissions are cars themselves. I do want to mention that these "trees" aren't perfect, they do take energy to collect the CO2, but it would create a renewable source of CO2 for synthetic gasoline.

San Diego's Greenhouse Gas Footprint Group #2

Have you ever considered how your city and even you could reduce carbon dioxide emissions? In San Diego, Mayor Sanders has advocated reducing carbon dioxide emissions in San Diego County to 15 % below 1990 levels by 2012. After some investigation, it was found that San Diego County’s Greenhouse Gas Footprint, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere via various sources, for 1990 was 3.16 E10 kg of carbon dioxide and 3.87 E10 kg in 2005. Since San Diego has managed to increase their emissions in the last 15 years, the reduction needed to reach 1990 levels is 30 %. Taking into account electricity, natural gas, and industrial emissions reports from the SDG&E it was concluded that the problem needed to be solved with 6 solution wedges, each representing a 2 billion kg decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. The 6 solution wedges included the following:

Widespread electrical conservation included turning off computers when not in use and unplugging appliances in the home while not in use. Many suggestions were included in the transportation wedge including biking, walking, raising gas prices, and adding incentives for carpools. Also purchasing cleaner 4 stroke marine engines would limit carbon dioxide emissions from transportation vehicles. Environmentally economical zoning and building purposes high density housing and living close to work as options for lowing carbon dioxide emissions. Two other suggestions focused on increasing laws and knowledge about carbon dioxide emissions. For example, people in San Diego should purchase locally grown food instead of allowing massive transport from far away places. Not to mention, they should recycle and conserve and educate others to do so.

In an article entitled, “Alter climate? Change Ways”, authors sadly claim that Mayor Sanders’ goal will not be reached because people are unable to change their lifestyles to accommodate carbon dioxide emission reductions unless national laws were in place. However, I believe that if we educate the citizens, which the city claims to be attempting, that anything is possible. Not to mention, national laws take many years to establish and enforce, but each individual doing some of the suggestions above could be done tomorrow without significant sacrifices except maybe high density housing. Therefore, I suggest that we continue to educate individuals about global warming and give suggestions that people can do themselves for relatively cheap to help in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Trace chemicals and reproductive health

Yesterday's Chemical & Engineering News has a great article about how environmental contaminants are causing infertility, declining sperm counts, miscarriages, and birth defects. This serves as a great introduction into our class topic! Give it a read and please comment.

Red Cross Symbol on Pesticide Products

Browsing through many different pesticide websites, I stumbled across one created by the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP). Their top story of the day reveled that the EPA gave manufacturer's of pesticides permission to place the Red Cross symbol on their products, in an exchange that the Red Cross receives part of the pesticide profit. The NCAMP group was furious with this decision, claiming that the EPA "violated the federal pesticide law and will mislead consumers into thinking that pesticides are not harmful". After viewing the Red Cross symbol applied to a Clorox container, I realized why some might be upset. It really does create a sense of false advertising. The cross is relatively large compared to the sentence describing the fundraiser aspect. People who cannot read, but recognize the Red Cross symbol as 'safe' might potentially be put in harms way. Especially, young children. Also, I believe that we should not have to resort to false advertising tactics that potentially could harm others in an attempt to make money for a agency dedicated to helping others! However, I also realize that this article was directly written by NCAMP and might be heavily influenced and filled with ideas that support their view.

Be Good to the Planet or Be Good to Yourself?

This week Time Magazine wrote a fabulous article on how the whole "Organic Craze" might not be the best thing for our environment. I may admit, I am one of those who eats organic foods as much as possible so as not to pollute my body and also to avoid all the complications that may arise when the pesticides reach the environment and water supplies. Never once did I think that my obsession with buying organic fruits and vegetables might actually not be the wisest decision.

It couldn't have been better timing for a greenhouse gas article to close up chapter 6 while also incorporating chapter 7 on pesticides. Since organic produce isn't always local, most likely it had to be flown in from across the country or even equator, thus contributing to the addition of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. Pretty much the act balances itself out. The articles main focus was to buy local. Even if the produce isn't organic, it hasn't been boxed up an shipped all around the world, just so someone can have an organic pineapple.

Time reporter Gussow's famous statistic is that "Shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calories of nutrition."

It makes you wonder if that strawberry is really worth it.