Sunday, March 29, 2015
Water Contamination Information
This weeks blog is going to describe how to navigate through a web site to find information about certain water contamination facts. We will start at the site http://www.odh.ohio.gov/ , and once here, we will click on the W listed in the A-Z index. Then, we will click on water quality, where a list of contaminants in the water will come up. Let's choose one, say selenium. So, we will click on selenium on the site http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprograms/eh/water/PrivateWaterSystems/quality.aspx , to obtain further information about selenium contaminating water. Once you click on selenium, you are redirected to another site. This site is http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/selenium.cfm , and there is a lot of information on the page. There are paragraphs with bold questions titling each paragraph about what each individual paragraph is going to be about. Examples are, what is selenium, uses for selenium, EPA regulations for selenium in drinking water, and selenium health effects. So, what is selenium? Well according to that site, it is a metal that can be found in natural deposits. An example of a natural deposit would be an ore. On this page you can also find other EPA levels and regulations on drinking water as well as how selenium can get into drinking water. Basic facts about drinking water can also be found on different tabs and links all through out this page, and there is also a tab towards the right of the screen that contains the maximum contamination level of selenium and the maximum contamination goal level of selenium. Again, we are just using selenium as an example, there is a whole list of contaminants that can be researched and studied that will also have these sort of facts on this site as well. I hope this blog was helpful in providing information about how to navigate this site to obtain the desired information about drinking water.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Fukushima Today
In March of 2011, there was a nuclear accident in Fukushima Diiachi power plant in Japan. So what is the clean up looking like? Well, according to http://fukushimaupdate.com/after-4-years-fukushima-nuclear-cleanup-remains-daunting-and-vast/ , which was posted on March 15, 2015, the area of the accident is completely deserted. Approximately 300,000 people had to be evacuated from all the nearby areas, due to the size of the accident. There are also flags everywhere describing that there is decontamination occurring all around. There are a total of 105 cities, towns and villages affected by the accident at Fukushima that are being decontaminated and searched due to the accident. The radiation of the accident still poses a major threat. According to the site http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/12/3-ways-the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-is-still-having-an-impact-today/ , underground water is still contaminated by the radiation from the accident, as well as many agricultural products in the area and also the nearby land. As for the condition of the plant itself? Well, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. The operator of the plant is TEPCO, and according to http://rt.com/news/234547-fukushima-new-leak-nuclear/ , on February 22, 2015 TEPCO announced that the plant had a radioactive water leak when readings were read at 70 times more than what the readings were normally at. So, what is it like at the Fukushima plant today? Well, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, both at the plant itself but also at all of the surrounding cities, towns and villages. A lot of study needs to be done at a lot of different locations that were effected by the accident because the levels of radiation need to be known because a lot of places aren't safe to be in. The plant is still, four years later, experiencing leaks of radiation that are being looked at as well, but that is a good example of displaying the condition the plant is in today. A lot of work still has to be done because of this accident and the radiation is still present from the accident.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Glyphosate in Food
So the title of this blog is Glyphosate in food, but first, what even is glyphosate? Well, according to http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html glyphosate is a herbicide, and "It is applied to the leaves of plants to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses." With this being said, it is no mystery that with glyphosate being sprayed on vegetation that it gets on/in our food. So, is glyphosate in our food safe? There are many sides to this question, both arguing that glyphosate is dangerous and we should be concerned about our health, and the other arguing that glyphosate is safe and we shouldn't be concerned about it. According to the site http://www.biofortified.org/2013/10/glyphosate-toxic/ glyphosate is safe for humans when used correctly. Here you can learn how the EPA has a safe level requirement of pesticides on plants, known as tolerances, and that there are checks consistently by the USDA to make sure that these levels are being met so that people are safe from the pesticides and if there is a problem somewhere, the FDA can recall food from a certain area and makes decisions based on the data. Others can argue that although there are tolerances being made on the pesticide, it is still toxic and dangerous to our health. Whether you want to believe it or not, glyphosate is in our food. According to the site http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/20/glyphosate-roundup-levels.aspx you are exposed to glyphosate when you eat meat that is from an animal that was eating soy, which contains high levels of glyphosate. Also, according to this article (published in 2014), the EPA raised the level of glyphosate considered to be ok anywhere between 15-25 times the amount in specific foods in 2013 due to the fact more pesticides are being used. If there needs to be a "safe level" requirement, it is obviously not good for our health and that is why there are tolerance levels needed to be done. I hope after reading this blog that you have a little more understanding of what exactly glyphosate is, and are aware that it is in the food we consume every day.
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