Battling malaria

Stopping malaria, a disease which kills 20,000 people every week, usually involves killing mosquitos. But mosquitos, like most insects, have quickly evolved resistance to sprays and chemicals, whether natural or synthetic, used against them. A recent article in Nature describes how people are now trying to spray mosquitos to stop the transmission of malaria (and dengue fever) without placing mosquitos under evolutionary pressure to evolve resistance. The secret? Malaria is transmitted only by old mosquitos. By spraying pathogenic fungi that kill mosquitos late in their life cycle, before malaria transmission can occur, fungi-infected mosquitos can still breed normally (and competitively). This way natural selection does not favor bugs who were resistant to the fungi, but they'll still die off before they can infect humans with malaria.

Comet Tail DNA

After reading Ch. 13 of Silent Spring, I was intrigued by how damaging pesticides can be to chromosomal development. The variety of birds that are affected by exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons begs the question of how greatly humans are affected by the same pesticides. A couple of years ago, a story came out about Punjab farmers in India suffering from pesticide poisoning. Indian researchers at Patiala University discovered that continued exposure to pesticides resulted in highly damaged DNA and a large increase in cancer vulnerability. They managed to rule out age, smoking, and alcohol during the study and concluded that the farming techniques used in India were really the major source of the DNA mutations. That's hardly a surprise since ATP is incorporated into nucleic acids by polymerases in the processes of DNA replication and transcription. Check out this image of the "comet tails" that damaged DNA produces during Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis.

You can see in the video newscast by BBC below that despite knowledge of the adverse affects of the chemicals they use to protect their crops, there really is little to no protection used in Punjab when the chemicals are sprayed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7408326.stm

Preventing PAH Exposure from Grilled Meat

Along with sources such as cigarette and wood smoke, vehicle exhaust, and coal and oil burning, exposure to PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) can also come in the form of grilled or charbroiled meat. Burning of the fat in the meat at high temperatures leads to production of PAHs, which have been shown to cause birth defects, difficulty reproducing, weakened immune systems, and cancer in animal tests. There is not conclusive evidence of their effects in humans, but they are thought to be carcinogenic. There are several possible precautions to reduce PAHs when grilling meat. Use leaner meat or trim the visible fat from the meat prior to grilling. Precooking the meat allows for shorter grilling time and therefore less time for production of PAHs. Marinating the meat is also effective because the marinade forms a barrier that prevents the reactions that produce PAHs.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/processing

Reducing Electricity Consumption

As I was looking for additional information about electricity use and its GHG footprint, I came across this site. It gives lots of helpful ideas about how to reduce electricity and energy use in homes and offices. It also made me much more aware of how much electricity I use on a daily basis and how many simple things can be done to add up to a big difference in energy savings. The author of the site explains how, by making a conscious effort, his family was able to drastically reduce their energy consumption. Although his advice about cutting out luxuries and focusing on necessary uses of energy sounds like a difficult task, he shows that taking small steps at a time can still lead to significant change.

http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/saving-electricity.html

10 Most Important Recent Medical Innovations

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Exploring the Link Between Environmental Pollution and Type 2 Diabetes

The possible link between persistent organic pollutants (POPs, a group which includes many pesticides) and insulin resistance, which can lead to adult onset diabetes is a neglected area which calls from more scientific research. A correlation has been reviewed demonstrating a very strong relationship between the levels of POPs in blood, particularly organochlorine compounds, and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

POPs came into prominence as effective pesticides with the introduction of DDT in the 1940s. However, many of these chemicals, including DDT, fell out of favour after they were blamed for the declining number of wild birds and other animals (brought to the public's attention in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring) and the possible negative human health effects. As the compounds biodegrade slowly, they continue to find their way into the food chain and ultimately into the blood streams of individuals even though many of these toxins were banned many years ago. Additionally, these compounds can persist in body fat for very long periods of time following exposure.

University of Cambridge

Chemicals and Pollutants Detected in Human Umbilical Cord Blood

	Mercury (Hg) - tested for 1, found 1 Pollutant from coal-fired power plants, mercury-containing products, and certain industrial processes. Accumulates in seafood. Harms brain development and function.
	Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - tested for 18, found 9 Pollutants from burning gasoline and garbage. Linked to cancer. Accumulates in food chain.
	Polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBDD/F) - tested for 12, found 7 Contaminants in brominated flame retardants. Pollutants and byproducts from plastic production and incineration. Accumulate in food chain. Toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system
	Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) - tested for 12, found 9 Active ingredients or breakdown products of Teflon, Scotchgard, fabric and carpet protectors, food wrap coatings. Global contaminants. Accumulate in the environment and the food chain. Linked to cancer, birth defects, and more.
	Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (PCDD/F) - tested for 17, found 11 Pollutants, by-products of PVC production, industrial bleaching, and incineration. Cause cancer in humans. Persist for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system.
	Organochlorine pesticides (OCs) - tested for 28, found 21 DDT, chlordane and other pesticides. Largely banned in the U.S. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain, to man. Cause cancer and numerous reproductive effects.
	Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - tested for 46, found 32 Flame retardant in furniture foam, computers, and televisions. Accumulates in the food chain and human tissues. Adversely affects brain development and the thyroid.
	Polychlorinated Naphthalenes (PCNs) - tested for 70, found 50 Wood preservatives, varnishes, machine lubricating oils, waste incineration. Common PCB contaminant. Contaminate the food chain. Cause liver and kidney damage.
	Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - tested for 209, found 147 Industrial insulators and lubricants. Banned in the U.S. in 1976. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain, to man. Cause cancer and nervous system problems. EWG Report

ACS: Harry Gray, Ph.D.

At the ACS meeting in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to attend to two incredible seminars on solar fuel by Dr. Harry Gray and Dr. Daniel Nocera. I'll let Amanda tell you guys about Dr. Nocera's talk since she wasn't able to attend Dr. Gray's...

Just a quick background on Harry Gray: He was the keynote speaker at Creative Collaborations two years ago and he definitely brought down the house with his vision of utilizing the sun to turn our lives around. He is currently the Arnold O. Beckham Professor of Chemistry at CalTech where he is working to design a cheap fuel cell that can produce hydrogen gas from water. Now, there are fuel cells that can effectively perform this chemistry, but the problem is the expense of the materials used. Platinum is not cheap, so his lab is focused on finding alternative materials that get the job done.

There are three main components of the fuel cell: the oxidizer, the reducer, and a proton membrane. What is really amazing is how much of an international effort the synthesis of each part has become. He has developed an intense network across the United States, with Canada, and even countries in Europe to work on individual components of the fuel cell. His team at CalTech is specifically interested in replacing platinum as a fuel cell material and they had enormous success using cobalt. A team in Canada is currently working on creating the proton membrane. This huge effort is being funded in part by NSF.

To hear more about Harry Gray's work, check out this full-length video of one of his seminars last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwqVsRLHq24

The complete list of things that give you cancer (according to epidemiologists)

Acetaldehyde, acrylamide, acrylonitril, abortion, agent orange, alar, alcohol, air pollution, aldrin, alfatoxin, arsenic, arsine, asbestos, asphalt fumes, atrazine, AZT, baby food, barbequed meat, benzene, benzidine, benzopyrene, beryllium, beta-carotene, betel nuts, birth control pills, bottled water, bracken, bread, breasts, brooms, bus stations, calcium channel blockers, cadmium, candles, captan, carbon black, carbon tetrachloride, careers for women, casual sex, car fumes, celery, charred foods, cooked foods, chewing gum, Chinese food, Chinese herbal supplements, chips, chloramphenicol, chlordane, chlorinated camphene, chlorinated water, chlorodiphenyl, chloroform, cholesterol, low cholesterol, chromium, coal tar, coffee, coke ovens, crackers, creosote, cyclamates, dairy products, deodorants, depleted uranium, depression, dichloryacetylene, DDT, dieldrin, diesel exhaust, diet soda, dimethyl sulphate, dinitrotouluene, dioxin, dioxane, epichlorhydrin, ethyle acrilate, ethylene, ethilene dibromide, ethnic beliefs,ethylene dichloride, Ex-Lax, fat, fluoridation, flying, formaldehyde, free radicals, french fries, fruit, gasoline, genes, gingerbread, global warming, gluteraldehyde, granite, grilled meat, Gulf war, hair dyes, hamburgers, heliobacter pylori, hepatitis B virus, hexachlorbutadiene, hexachlorethane, high bone mass, hot tea, HPMA, HRT, hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide, incense, infertility, jewellery, Kepone, kissing, lack of exercise, laxatives, lead, left handedness, Lindane, Listerine, low fibre diet, magnetic fields, malonaldehyde, mammograms, manganese, marijuana, methyl bromide, methylene chloride, menopause, microwave ovens, milk hormones, mixed spices, mobile phones, MTBE, nickel, night lighting, night shifts, nitrates, not breast feeding, not having a twin, nuclear power plants, Nutrasweet, obesity, oestrogen, olestra, olive oil, orange juice, oxygenated gasoline, oyster sauce, ozone, ozone depletion, passive smoking, PCBs, peanuts, pesticides, pet birds, plastic IV bags, polio vaccine, potato crisps (chips), power lines, proteins, Prozac, PVC, radio masts, radon, railway sleepers, red meat, Roundup, saccharin, salt, sausage, selenium, semiconductor plants, shellfish, sick buildings, soy sauce, stress, strontium, styrene, sulphuric acid, sun beds, sunlight, sunscreen, talc, tetrachloroethylene, testosterone, tight bras, toast, toasters, tobacco, tooth fillings, toothpaste (with fluoride or bleach), train stations, trichloroethylene, under-arm shaving, unvented stoves, uranium, UV radiation, vegetables, vinyl bromide, vinyl chloride, vinyl fluoride, vinyl toys, vitamins, vitreous fibres, wallpaper, weedkiller (2-4 D), welding fumes, well water, weight gain, winter, wood dust, work, x-rays.

Notification of any major omissions are welcome (with references) to cancer@numberwatch.co.uk

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/cancerlist.htm

THE MOST CONTAMINATED FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Based on over 100,000 recent U.S. Government tests, on 46 popular fruits and vegetables, The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non profit consumer watchdog group, came up with the “Dirty Dozen.” This is a grouping of 12 commercially grown fruits and vegetables that have the highest levels of toxic pesticide residue.

THE MOST CONTAMINATED FRUITS & VEGETABLES

1.PEACHES: Over 94% tested positive for traces of 45 different pesticides.
2.CELERY 94% tested positive for 29 different pesticides.
3.APPLES: 92% tested positive for 36 pesticides.
4..SWEET BELL PEPPERS: 68% tested positive for 39 different pesticides.
5.CHERRIES: 91% tested positive for 25 different pesticides.
6.IMPORTED GRAPES: 86% tested positive for 35 different pesticides.
7.NECTARINES: 97% tested positive for 26 different pesticides.
8.PEARS : 94% tested positive for 35 different pesticides.
9.POTATOES: 79% tested positive for 29 different pesticides.
10.RASPBERRIES: 59% tested positive for 39 different pesticides.
11.SPINACH: 83% tested positive for 36 different pesticides.
12.STRAWBERRIES: 90% tested positive for 36 different pesticides.

THE LEAST CONTAMINATED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES:

1.ASPARAGUS
2.AVOCADOS
3.BANANAS
4.BROCOLLI
5.CAULIFLOWER
6.SWEET CORN
7.KIWI
8.MANGOES
9.ONIONS
10.PAPAYAS
11.PINEAPPLES
12.SWEET PEAS

[EWG.ORG]

A View of Lake Pollution in India

A More Efficient Science: Finding Alternatives?

I just came across this Nature column about a laboratory in Massachusetts that focuses on reducing toxic chemical exposure by finding safer chemicals to replace them. Their point is that our current regulatory framework is adversarial -- users vs controllers -- and extremely slow, if not gridlocked, due to endless debates over levels of uncertainty. Furthermore, quantifying the health effects of chemicals at low concentrations is time-consuming and expensive.

Instead of participating in this, the lab instead found alternative non-chlorinated solvents and ultrasonic cleaning processes that were just as good as trichloroethylene, developed cost-benefit estimates, worked with small business to understand barriers to adoption, and cooperated with government and industry organizations to demonstrate the new cleaning processes. The result was a 90% reduction in trichloroethylene use in only two years!

Others have written suggesting a similar end-run around the climate stalemate: instead of asking people and nations to promise to give up stuff in the future, make a massive funding commitment now to developing and deploying alternative energy technology as quickly as possible. When you think about it, this is way CFC's were so easy to ban -- the manufacturers already had the replacements ready to go, so saving the ozone layer quickly became a business opportunity.

PAHs: Cancer Causing Agents

Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons are heavily common environmental pollutants. These compounds are distributed around the world in air currents and can be found in water, air, and soil. PAHs are released by industrial plant dump sites and incomplete combustion of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, and tobacco. PAHs are released from petroleum and shale refineries that convert coal into gaseous fuel. The pollutants are also found in rivers and lakes. They attach to sediments and then are incorporated into fresh water muscles before making their way up the food chain.
The major cause of lung cancer is cigarette smoke inhalation which contain PAHs. Cigarette smoke will cause lung cancer. It is speculated that longer periods of PAH exposure leads to harmful health effects. PAHs may be attached to dust or ash causing lung irritation. Also, skin contact with PAHs may cause redness, blistering. PAH's are shown to cause lung/skin cancer and lung tumors in laboratory animals. A PAH can also lead to reproductive problems in laboratory animals. A person’s lungs, liver, skin, and kidneys can be damaged by exposure.

Controlling Pesticide Use

At the time Rachel Carson wrote her book, "Silent Spring", there was no Environmental Protection Agency and pesticides were sprayed carelessly and without warning. Although there has been some improvement, the danger of harmful chemicals being sprayed on fields near where many people live is still a large problem. The article 'Pesticide Drift' Eluding Efforts To Combat It discusses the EPA's effort to place further controls on where pesticides can be sprayed, especially in regard to the proximity schools, hospitals, and child care centers.

Pesticides + Male Frogs = Female??

I tend to be the type who refuses to buy organic food because it is way out of my price range…after all, the main food supply of the stereotypical college student is 10 cent Top Ramen. Just last week (March 6th) I ran into Ralph’s on a desperate search for a red cabbage that I needed in order to make the acid/base indicator for Expanding Your Horizons that was going to start in two hours. There was, of course, only one red cabbage in the store at 7:30 am and it happened to be organic. I felt slightly robbed as I paid the $2.25 for a small cabbage I was planning to use only a ¼ of, if even that much! The point of that rant is that I’m probably not the only person out there who brushes off the negative effects of pesticides because of cheap price preference. Now, after reading about the multitude of chemicals we subject ourselves to and the detectable presence of a variety of banned pesticides in our fatty tissue, I’m starting to think that organic cabbage might not have been a bad investment…too bad I didn’t actually eat it, I just needed the dye.

One news story that really struck me was the study released from Berkeley about how atrazine (the most common weed killer used on corn) affect frogs. It turns out that exposure to the pesticide causes the male frogs to become infertile or, in about 10% of all cases, turn into female frogs! The genetically altered “she-male” frogs are actually able to reproduce with other male frogs. Now, I don’t know about you, but the fact that a pesticide can turn a frog into a hermaphrodite is a little on the creepy side and a tribute to why copious exposure to pesticides might not be the healthiest lifestyle.

For more on the frog mutations, check out the news report released from UC Berkeley: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/02/02_pesticides.shtml

Weapons of Mass Disruption and the Dirty Bomb Diaries

A "dirty bomb" is a conventional explosion that is combined with radioactive material. The goal of this chemical explosion is to disperse the radioactive material over a widespread area. However, while the radioactivity exposure due to this weapon is relatively high, it is not fatal. Therefore, dirty bombs are not universally considered "weapons of mass destruction". Its most effective purpose is to cause social panic due to ignorance or misconceptions about its true potential. It also can lead to economic damage and costs to decontaminate victims of the attack. These psychologically damaging effects of the "dirty bomb" has led it to be called a "weapon of mass disruption," instead of a truly vicious artillery.

The link below follows the second day of a dramatic episodic miniseries about a woman trapped in her home after a dirty bomb is detonated nearby. Her video diary records life changing events as the world around her changes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O26FqeyHRpg&feature=related