Risk Factors

Well over 30 years ago, i worked at an adhesives and plastics corporation.
It was not my first venture into the chemical industry, but it was eye-opening.
The company received a request from a very well known food company that there was a taste and odor problem in some of their product and could we help determine the cause.
There were consumer complaints.
This company's role was that they manufactured plastic adhesives to meld food packaging with product advertising packaging and this was used with the packaging for the product.


What we found was that the solvent used in the adhesive were still present in the finished product and that included some nasty, carcinogenic and toxic solvents.
The fix was that the heat sealer had broken and had been so for some months and was replaced at the packing plant.
The tainted product had been in the consumer market for over 4 months.
No recall was issued, no government agency was informed and life went on for the company (both of them) as if nothing had ever happened.
I was young and kept no documentation and so this is considered "hearsay".
but if one company can do that, how many others do it?
We wonder why there is such an increase in cancer and other problems?

The US EPA, my tirade

I think most people reading this blog realize I have a bit of a disdain for the US EPA.
Recently, in the news, the issue of PCB's in caulk at New York Public schools were brought to a climax with an agreement to "study" the real health issue.
They set a standard in 1977 (?) and now are kind of backing down because of the huge cost for remediation.
This is mostly the case for Us EPA policy.
Another example is that there were many pesticides banned for commercial use in 1977, particularly in agriculture, but pest control companies were allowed to use them for residential homes termite remediation!  Where it may well be part of the issue in some of the wells in the North Stamford area.

Money and health do not mix, except at the US EPA.

One Norwalk Shellfish operation

I know that Soundbounder did a post recently on Norm Bloom's shellfish operation, but i got to go visit with Stamford's shellfish commission.
The first thing that struck me was the smells, the fresh sea smells.  No decay, rest a wonderful sea salty smell that reminded me of Galveston and the shrimp boats.

Then there are the oysters and clams -piles and pile of them.
They made my mouth water!
Here are pictures:

First the oyster, just harvested, piles of them!:

Then we get to some of the workings:

A few boats in dock:








Then to an incoming boat:

The real cultivating of the oysters that he does is incredicble.

Sadly, no samples were available for organoleptic testing.

Phobias

We all have them, if we admit it.
Fear of germs, bugs, insects, spiders, snakes, SUV's. etc...
How do they effect us and what we do to the environment?
Farmers had a phobia of insects ruining their crops and insecticides were created and used (that goes back a long time to Egyptian times by the way).
I think that one will cause us problems for a long time to come.
Of course that one still continues to day and has spread to urban dwellers (to control roaches and bed bugs) and suburban dwellers (to control, ants, ticks, termites. etc...).
I do not use them.  I will use a bug spray on my self, but that is because of the next one...
Then there is a fear of germs and so everyone uses antibacterial whatever to try to stop them.
We will never and they are so necessary that it is a good thing.
Bacteria, most bacteria are very beneficial and necessary for life (and death) and we try to randomly stop them all.
I will admit to using chlorox, but I am mostly trying to stop bacteria "mats" from forming and making things slippery.
Having dealt with some of the worst bacteria this world has to offer (note I did not say viruses, thankfully we are not that sophisticated), Clorox is my lifeline.  At the same time, I don't really care about all the grimy every day bacteria that are in the soil and door knobs.  When I cook food, I wash my hands very, very often, too many of those nasties live in the food we buy and I prefer not to pass them on to the people I serve.
Now the question, what happens to all those antibacterial products we use when we are finished with them?
They go down the drain and many keep killing, long after their job with you is done,
I do like Clorox because it tends to get destroyed by common soil organics,  Some of the by products I do not like, but some of the others keep killing at very small concentrations,
What about peroxide?  great stuff, but does not penetrate the bacterial mats well enough for me,  And surprise as a very reactive substance, it also creates unusual compounds with soil organics, but it is not too bad.
So my statement?
I would like not to use anything and regular soap does a great job of removing bacteria from your hands with out destroying the rest of the world.  Yes regular soap, the pH and lathering does wonders!  So does hot water.
Use the tough stuff only when you have to and sparingly.

The Mill River has the last laugh!

With all the rain the past month, the Mill River has over flowed its newly prepared banks each time around the now deconstructed Mill River Park.
While pictures are worth a thousand words, I really only have the over flowed river.

The large boulders that were to be the rivers right bank edge are now almost an island as the river has had its way with the ways of men,
When will we ever learn?

Confusion

It was way too cold this winter, it started late in New England and I had parsley from my garden for Thanksgiving for the first time since i have been up here.
The cold weather reached Florida this year and the tomato crops were killed.
There was a lot of snow, all over the country, but the East coast has had record breaking warm weather for mid march, unheard of.
There are already floods on the rivers from all the snow melting.
This is the confusion about global warming or rather climate change.
We, who are not studying it, think with what we experience on a daily or seasonal basis and it becomes confusing.
Climate change means things are less predictable, an El Nino forms are the weather gets strange, we get more storms, more snow, more cold in one part that is typically very cold and another gets warmer weather.  Storms become harder to predict, a 25 mph front becomes a 80 mph hurricane.
It is the unpredictability of the weather that makes it climate change, not how cold or hot it is today or tomorrow or even this year.  Those are all variables.  It is the difference from normal patterns that spells a significant change.  It is abnormal fluctuations that are the problem and then there is the average temperature of the entire globe, which, despite cold in one place or another, is still going up.
We are in a solar minimum and that effects things greatly.  If it were not a minimum, the temperature would still be hotter.  The sun has a lot to say about it, so do we.
Now what about our part in it?
It is arrogance for us to think we do not effect the planet in very significant ways.
Is ours a major player?  No the major player is the sun and volcanoes, but we still have a part to play.
The climate changes and swings naturally also, but for us to deny that we contribute is arrogance or worse, greed.  Because it takes money and effort and it affects the bottom line for a company not to have an impact. 
Will it happen any way?  I would say yes.
Will it happen sooner if we do not do something to stop it?  I would say yes.
so why not try to help at least our grand children and they may be able to adapt.
It is clear that politicians and companies have no clue the way the debate rages on.
It is time to stop listening to either side of that debate, listen to the entire earth, we might see something.

Poll results

I was surprised and learned some things.
The first is that there is a movement away from bleach usage, but it is very small and most people have no idea about it.
While the poll was not scientifically random, it did include a wide cross section of people.
27 responders
3 no longer use bleach or try to use other products labeled "eco-friendly"
that left 24 in the category of "Who does not use bleach?"
To me, the 3 are significant in that I was not aware of any do not use bleach movement.
I had no responders from out of the USA.
The 3 were from different areas of the country, were different age groups and different politics (I am very sure of this in 2 cases, but not the third).
I learned something.