This blog is run by Xelyn (X) and Yilan (Y), NUS students taking the module GE3246: Environmental Pollution under Prof. David Taylor.
We will post interesting insights and articles relating to how pollution affects humans on a weekly basis.
A little bit about our blog name – POLLUTO.
When you say it quickly enough, it sounds like PLUTO, which is a planet that has recently lost its planetary status.
Sometimes people treat pollution as if its Pluto – inconsequential and so minor that it doesn’t matter at all. This thus gave us the inspiration for this blog name.
Our posts will all link to how pollution affects the human experience – with regards to the 5 senses and each body part.
Should you have any questions, leave us comments on the relevant posts.
Chemical weapons have a part to play in causing marine pollution. This can be seen in 9/11 whereby pollution arose from the burning of the World Trade Centre buildings, which were made up of toxic metals, asbestos, dioxins, among others.
Other than this, chemical weapons also contribute to marine pollution. Some of them were dumped in the ocean after WWII. In 1917, a new type of armament was loaded onto German artillery. When the shells’ contents vaporised, an oily liquid was showered over Allied trenches. The fluid, smelling of mustard plants, soaked through uniforms onto skin and began burning them. Eyes were inflamed, and blisters formed. These shells contained sulphur mustard (SM), otherwise known as mustard gas. Nearly 90,000 soldiers were killed by sulphur mustard in WWI. Though the war eventually ended, the effects of sulphur mustard can be seen in war veterans. In a study done on Iranian war veterans, around 40,000 of the 100,000 exposed to suffer from delayed toxic effects in their respiratory tracts, neuropsychiatric systems, skin and eyes.
There was also the issue of how best to get rid of the remaining weaponry. Ultimately, it was decided that they would be cast into the oceans. It is estimated that 1 million metric tons of chemical weapons lie on the ocean floor.
Now, SM is a hardy substance. It is hydrophobic, and lipophilic. Once a victim comes into contact with it, symptoms may not appear until hours or days later. Also, it managed to survive for many years on the ocean floor. Stanislaw Popiel, an analytical chemist at Poland’s Military University of Technology conducted research onto why SM could survive for so long on the ocean floor. Bomb makers reported that SM would usually evaporate from the ocean floor within a day or 2 during warm summer conditions. However, it remains stable underwater, despite the metal bomb casings having corroded. The findings reveal that additives to the bomb, such as arsenic oil, caused the mustard to coagulate on the ocean floor and be shielded by a waterproof layer of chemical byproduct. This is good news for a number of reasons – SM would be unable to leak and contaminate the ocean. BUT, there’s no telling when someone or something would break the barrier and cause all that SM to leak out. Though some SM is kept behind barriers, traces of it have been found in sediments on the ocean floor. Furthermore, there is evidence of trawlers fishing for cod in known bomb dump sites. Any one of these trawlers could disturb an SM site and cause it to be released into the ocean.
Once released, it is toxic to fish, and can also accumulate in their bodies. SM will then be found in fish consumed by humans and can result in health problems later on.
So, even though wars have ended, we see their effects on us all – from environment to human.
It’s a bit late for a Halloween-themed post, and anyway the title is a bit misleading. It’s not really bones I’m going to talk about, but the body in general — truly ‘the body’ as a whole.
Today’s gonna be about epigenetics.
I came across two really fascinating articles about the relationship between epigenetics and air pollution.
What is epigenetics? Here’s a very short and entertaining video, and I hope you watch it before continuing to read, because it covers some very important aspects of epigenetics, DNA, and a human’s environment:
in which hank green attempts to pull off a mustache, and fails.
This blog already covered the shocking 5.5 million estimated deaths from China’s horrible air quality, which shows that there is a direct adverse effect on human health from air pollution. What Kirkpatrick’s article suggests is something even more chilling: that the adverse health effects of air pollution even when cleaned up will be present in the human genome expression for generations to come.
There is a lot of science in that article (read it here if you wish), but in short, pollutants found in traffic-related atmospheric pollution (TRAP) —particulates such as PM2.5 and PM10 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)— has proven to effect an epigenetic mark (histone H3 lysine 9 [H3K9]), which affects important functions such as DNA repair, cell differentiation and proliferation, and other cellular processes, among others. When exposed to TRAP for a prolonged time, the gene expression in the mice used for the experiment was found to trigger histone acetylation, all of which translates to higher risk of lung complications. The emphasis on epigenetics is because epigenetic markers can and will be passed down from generation to generation, which means that the high rate of air pollution now will translate into a persistent higher rate of lung complications in the population.
There is, however, a bright spot in this. A study found that vitamin B supplements (found in food or taken as supplements) can prevent another epigenetic change caused by air pollution, which exacerbated inflammatory responses.
So, while we cannot immediately impact the level of air pollution by ourselves, we can definitely incorporate more vitamin B-rich foods into our diet — and keep an eye out for more studies such as this — to somewhat mitigate the harmful effects of our living environment.
Just like in the west, China’s industrializing period has saddled it with a pollution problem. Add to that a past tendency to be accepting of the other countries’ waste dumping, China used to have a big pollution problem. The air pollution in Beijing is estimated to have a hand in the deaths of 5.5 million people per year, as reported by a BBC article in 2016. That’s a lot of people! And according to a GreenPeace report in 2017, nearly half of China’s provinces fail to meet water safety standards.
For now, 60% of China’s waste is going into the landfills, but they are no longer able to keep up with the growth rate of cities. So, the percentage of incineration is on the rise. It is privately estimated that there will be 500 incinerators across China by 2020— and one can only imagine the smokestacks-belching-smoke imagery that will result. In short, that is not a sustainable growth. There is more to say on this topic, but I will move on to the good news. If you would like to read more on how incinerators don’t really help with waste treatment, read Foreign Policy article here.
Good news, you say? Well, according to Reuters, China’s government is taking serious measures to improve enforcement of its waste management policies. We can expect stricter implementation of waste treatment and disposal across the board, since the Chinese government has already cracked down on officials who were paying lip-service to environment policies.
Given that China is such a big country, the cleaning up of its air and water will be hugely helpful to the overall health of the region. Not to mention that China, being a political juggernaut regionally and globally, might become an inspiration and a world leader for pollution clean-up policies, and have the other countries actually listen. See? Good news.
The protests in Hong Kong show no signs of slowing down, as violence erupts throughout the country. To try maintaining control, HK police have resorted to using tear gas at the protestors, who also use the same chemical agent to repel the police. Tear gas has be shown to cause an increase in respiratory complaints including cough, phlegm, dyspnea and chest tightness in those who are frequently exposed to it. It also affects the eyes and skin. The reason for all these effects on the body can be found in what tear gas is made up of. The most frequently used chemical agents are 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS), ole- oresincapsicum (OC), and chloroacetophenone (CN) [1, 2]. These irritate the respiratory system and even causes pulmonary function to deteriorate.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been used in armed conflict – they were used in both World Wars. and in a number of smaller ones throughout the world. The problem with war is the weapons used contributes to air pollution, harming millions of people worldwide. Air is fluid and cannot be controlled, and so the particulates it carries, good or bad, will affect who or whatever it touches. This is because when a bullet is fired, it releases tiny metal particles, such as lead into the atmosphere. In war, bullets are released in the millions, meaning that even more particles are released into the air, further contributing to air pollution.
This problem is compounded by large ‘bullets’ such as grenades and bombs. In the 1937 Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Air Force bombed the city of Guernica continuously for 48 hours, creating a firestorm (this is when fire gets so intense that it sustains its own wind system). Everything in the path of the fire was instantly incinerated, and whatever materials / components of them released to the air and surrounding. You can see how this all contributes to air pollution.
Whenever I come across the words ‘industrial pollution’ I only think of billowing smoke pouring from smoke stacks and slush being dumped into a river.
kind of pretty. kind of terrifying.
But of course industrial pollution is more than just air pollution. Chillingly, just by 1980 there were more than 70,000 different chemicals being produced in the USA, and the human and environmental impact of most of those chemicals are unknown. To check each of them would also be impossible — there wouldn’t be the incentive nor time to do so.
So how can we reduce this waste production? According to Hancock (2016), there are several ways:
Prevention– reduce or eliminate hazardous materials in its production; change the composition of the product with regards to its use and disposal
Technological developments– change the production process to be more efficient and produce less waste byproducts
Reuse/Recycle– use waste products as raw material substitutes for other process (vertical integration); incorporate waste materials back into initial process
Waste is generated at every stage of the industrial process and not all of that is being (or can be) properly treated. With all the products that are being manufactured to sustain our daily lives in the developed world — it is hard to fully imagine the scope of waste our lives produce.
We can’t hear underwater, so we think the underwater world is silent.
In the recent years, scientists have realized that the din we create through our shipping lanes and our drilling and our surveying is beginning to seriously affect marine life, who does communicate through sound.
We have long known whales and dolphin communicate through echolocation and clicks — they communicate to us that way — but the scale of things has just sunk in:
Commercial shipping lanes line the oceans, and the sound produced by these giant ships range from low frequencies (5-1000 Hz), which impacts baleen whales (range: 10-10,000 Hz). Baleen whales have been proven to be less stressed when there are so anthropogenic sources of sound around. Higher frequencies of sound are also produced in the range of orca hearing, affecting their hunting, which puts their survival into danger.
I imagine it would be like living with a foghorn blowing in the apartments all around yours while you try to get to your food, all locked in safes with tumbler locks, and you’ve forgotten the passcodes.
ah.. the sea… so fascinating, so wonderful… -French Narrator
– Y
Sources
Veirs, Scott, Jason D. Wood, and Val Veirs. “Ship Noise Extends to Frequencies Used for Echolocation by Endangered Killer Whales.” PeerJ. PeerJ Inc., 02 Feb. 2016.
On the 31st of October 2019, the Keystone XL Pipeline in North Dakota spilt 383,000 gallons of crude oil onto half an acre of wetland. You might remember the construction of this pipeline being highly controversial, given that:
There could be serious negative effects on the environment if there were to be a spillage as the Sandhils Region (which the pipeline would pass through) has a fragile ecosystem. Lands, drinking water and communities from Montana and Nebraska to the Gulf Coast would be threatened.
Construction of the pipeline signifies a commitment to develop Alberta’s oil sands, meaning that the amount of oil projected to be produced will double by 2030.
This is not the first time that the pipeline has had a spillage, with there being an incident in 2017.
WHY THIS HAPPENED
The cause of the latest leak has yet to be determined (or released), but the damage to the wetland is undeniable, and it could take years for it to recover. During the investigation of the 2017 spill, a crack was found in the pipe, and there were risks of further cracks developing. Though these risks were acknowledged, one man whose farm is in the pipeline’s path said that they have to be willing to take risks. Here, it can be seen that TC Energy (the company behind the pipeline) is prioritising their potential profit over the environment’s health.
DIFFERING LEADERS, DIFFERING PRIORITIES
Even the government was in two minds about approving the pipeline’s construction. The Obama administration had halted further work on the pipeline in 2015 after international climate talks in Paris, arguing that further approval would interfere with America’s efforts to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, President Trump recently approved the permit to continue construction in March 2019. Unsurprisingly, it was found that Trump administration had discarded prior factual findings related to climate change which the Obama administration had released. Trump’s priority is to “Make America Great Again”, not to Save Gaea, and this also foreshadows his pulling the USA out of the Paris Climate Agreement in early November 2019.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE AFFECTED AREA?
When oil is spilt, it penetrates into soil, causing acute and chronic damage to plants. This damage manifests in reduced stem height, density and aboveground biomass, as well as increased plant mortality (Lin and Mendelssohn 1996). Vegetation growing on the topsoil will thus be eliminated, and the marsh will be converted to open water, accelerating shoreline erosion (Getter et. al 1984).
Clean up of oil is possible but physical clean up activities are problematic as they may damage the highly fragile marsh environments more than the oil itself. Therefore, the recommendation after an oil spill is to simply leave the wetlands be. They can recover on their own through natural processes of vegetative regrowth. However, this may take years to complete, and the organisms that once lived there may not even return.
One alternative solution to clean up oil spills is to transplant marsh vegetation onto an affected area. However, limited research has been done on the effectiveness of this. An example would be transplanting Spartina alterniflora onto an oiled marsh with residual oil in the range of 1.5-17 mg g^-1 dry soil (Krebs and Tanner 1981)
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US?
Oil consists of toxic components, and gill-breathing animals in the coastal wetlands area are exposed to it when they swim through water affected by oil spills. Studies done gave evidence that exposure to the oil spill resulted in the appearance of acute physical, psychological, genotoxic and endocrine effects in exposed populations. Those most exposed to the oil would be staff tasked to clean up the oil, and those living around / near the pipeline. While we can “accept the risks”, we might not be able to accept the consequences that comes with those risks.
I know what you’re thinking, why leave the safety of my home and go outside, where air, noise, light and other kinds of pollution will slowly kill you? That’s where you’re wrong.
INTRODUCTION
Staying inside for prolonged periods of time can in fact have averse effects on the body, contrary to popular belief. Some examples of indoor air pollutants include nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and it’s by-product nitrous acid (HONO), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
CAUSES
Cooking on a gas stove releases NO2 and HONO. HONO is also a by-product of NO2 reacting to water on indoor surfaces. Many variables affect HONO’s concentration in the environment, such as NO2’s concentration, ventilation, surface material, temperature and humidity. Other than combustion, air-conditioning and high humidity also results in higher indoor NO2 concentrations.
Household cleaning products such as chlorine bleach can also contribute to indoor pollution, since chemicals are present in them and are released into the air we breathe every time we unscrew the cap.
In fact, most anything we use in the house also contains fragrances. As mentioned in a previous blog post on the harmful effects of scents, fragrances contain harmful chemicals that can do some serious damage to our bodies. Room sprays and air fresheners are some examples of fragrances that can contribute in some part to indoor air pollution.
EFFECTS
Air pollutants can play a part in increasing the risk of strokes. A team from 4 Korean institutions and the Harvard School of Public Health found that deaths from stroke increased consistently with rising concentrations of CO, SO2 and NO2 particulates 10 microns in diameter and smaller. From 1995-1998, there were around 22,000 stroke deaths, which coincided with the wide range of pollutant concentrations in the same time.
SOLUTIONS
Make this your mantra: Control-Ventilate-Clean (CVC)
To reduce the amount of indoor air pollutants, there are 3 main steps.
Source control
Getting rid of pollution sources is the most direct way. If it is not necessary, eliminate it.
Improve ventilation
Open your windows and doors, turn on the fan, clear the exhaust vents of your air-conditioners. All these serve to bring fresh air in the house. Ensure that activities which would generate high pollutant levels are done if possible – examples include painting, cooking and sanding. If possible, install a proper ventilator for the house to ensure that clean air is always in the house even when windows and doors are closed.
Air cleaners / purifiers
There are many inexpensive air cleaners on the market, and most are effective at removing particles from the air. Investing in one would help to reduce the amount of indoor air pollutants in your home / office, so it would be worth considering.
Fig. 1 – Bath and Body Works’ 2019 Fall Collection
IN A BID TO SMELL NICE
Fall season is here, and that means scented candles and fragrances. Retailer Bath and Body Works recently released their fall collection of candles and perfumes, featuring scents like pumpkin, marshmallow and autumn leaves. You might be enticed to follow the trend and embrace fall in this way, but before you do, read this post first.
CANDLES – SMOKING HOT
While scented candles smell and look amazing, the smoke emitted as we burn them can have ill effects for our health. Burning candles release Non-methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NVOC) which react with other air pollutants in the presence of sunlight to produce ground level ozone. One particular NVOC to take note of is formaldehyde, which can irritate eyes and upper airways, and even cause cancer in the long term.
This is no small matter as there are an estimated 36,000 deaths caused by toxic air in the UK alone every year. This has led the UK government to pinpoint candles in their 2019 Clean Air Strategy report as a toxic source. Not to say that all 36,000 deaths are a result of scented candles – there are many variables involved – but the high number alone is definitely worrying.
It would prove beneficial to switch to healthier home fragrance alternatives, such as soy-based candles, which burn at a lower temperature as compared to paraffin-based ones.
FRAGRANCES – FROM SMELLING NICE TO SMELLING OF POTENTIAL CORPSE
Around 4,000 chemicals are used to scent products, but these are not made known to the consumer. A 2018 BCPP study of personal care and cleaning brands also revealed that three-quarters worth of toxic chemicals that were detected in a test of 140 products came from fragrances. Hence, while we do not ‘harm’ others to our body odour, we are instead harming ourselves. Women, like myself, have a greater exposure to fragrance given that we use more cosmetics and beauty products compared to men. Around 35% of people complain of migraines or respiratory problems as a result of exposure to fragrance, so if you’ve ever had a splitting headache because of a strong perfume, you’re not alone. Furthermore, certain chemicals found in fragrances can cause cancer.
You may thus want to reconsider prioritising your health over having nice smells (and chemicals!) hang around you. The Environmental Working Group keeps databases on safe cleaning and personal care products, so you don’t have to go ‘commando’ just yet. Choosing unscented over scented would also help.
It might be fall, but you don’t want to fall sick, so remember to keep these tips in mind when shopping.
A few days ago I posted about nuclear energy and nuclear waste. Today I will talk more about the waste products generated in nuclear energy plants, how we have historically dealt with the waste, and the options we have going forwards.
The process of nuclear energy produces nuclear waste — many people already know of the longevity of the uranium used as fuel and how dangerous they are. The article I recently read brings the graphite storage units to the forefront too, because these blocks are used to store the fuel rods, and they need to be processed too.
The scientists in this article took that radioactive graphite, made it into diamonds, used the radioactive properties to make those diamonds into batteries, and while the reported current that can be run through these diamond-batteries isn’t enough to charge your phone, there are many other uses for small and long-lasting batteries that are diamonds!
This is a great example of using technology to reduce the harm of pollutants already in the world.
The University of Bristol even made a cute little video to explain the principle behind it. Do watch it!
I truly think nuclear energy is one of the viable non-fossil fuel methods of energy production that produces enough energy to be implemented on national/global scales, and we shouldn’t let fear-mongering blind us to the fact that coal power is still the most polluting of energy sources and that we must move past it.
Polluto | GE3246 19/20 