One of my current students sent this - it is pretty neat...
The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center created this beautiful animation called Perpetual Ocean which visualizes the ocean's surface currents over a 30-month period between June 2005 and December 2007.
Watch here:
http://gizmodo.com/5896376/time+lapse-of-ocean-currents-looks-like-a-living-van-gogh-painting
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Dioxins... Uh-Oh
The sordid history of industry, government, and the public... throw in a chemical group like dioxins and it makes for interesting reading... yes, there is a novel in here somewhere.
Understanding risk of contaminants to humans is a difficult task. Since toxicologists can't ethically conduct controlled experiments on humans, the agencies evaluating the risk have to rely on many different types of studies - for example, epidemiological studies from accidental exposures to humans (as in Vietnam), laboratory studies with animals (in vivo), and laboratory studies without animals (ex vivo). Some of the studies support toxicity, some don't. The level at which effects are seen depends on what the effect is and what the test organism is... it just isn't easy. Period. Most of the work, however, does support that dioxins are quite bad for humans and one specific dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) has been called one of the most toxic chemicals known to man. Dioxins can be lethal, they can cause a skin condition called chloracne, they can cause reproductive damage and birth effects, they can weaken the immune system, and they can cause cancer (ATSDR, 1998), but again, whether these effects occur and at what exposure level they occur depends on what animal is being tested and how the exposure occurs.
And so, the EPA is charged with determining how much of a toxic substance like dioxins can be in our food without causing an increased risk of cancer and non-cancer effects to humans. This was last completed in the 1980s. Reassessments of dioxins risks, based on new science since the last assessment has been on-going. The short story is that there was a reassessment completed in 2003 and evaluated by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Three years later, the NAS provided comments to the EPA on that reassessment. In 2010, the EPA released a draft reassessment incorporating comments from the NAS. They also decided in 2010 to separate cancer risk from non-cancer risk and had a goal of releasing the final Dioxin Reassessment for non-cancer risk by the end of January, 2012, which hasn't happened yet. According to Bottemiller (2012), the allowable level for non-cancer effects is expected to be 0.7 picograms per kilogram of body weight per day. The problem... industry, such as the American Chemical Council isn't happy about this level (see Bottemiller for a great summary of all of this). In the meantime, we are all exposed to dioxins from the meats, dairy products, and fish that we eat.
As of now, I suppose we watch what happens and make comments whenever the public gets a chance... this is a story to pay attention to.
Additional Information:
Understanding risk of contaminants to humans is a difficult task. Since toxicologists can't ethically conduct controlled experiments on humans, the agencies evaluating the risk have to rely on many different types of studies - for example, epidemiological studies from accidental exposures to humans (as in Vietnam), laboratory studies with animals (in vivo), and laboratory studies without animals (ex vivo). Some of the studies support toxicity, some don't. The level at which effects are seen depends on what the effect is and what the test organism is... it just isn't easy. Period. Most of the work, however, does support that dioxins are quite bad for humans and one specific dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) has been called one of the most toxic chemicals known to man. Dioxins can be lethal, they can cause a skin condition called chloracne, they can cause reproductive damage and birth effects, they can weaken the immune system, and they can cause cancer (ATSDR, 1998), but again, whether these effects occur and at what exposure level they occur depends on what animal is being tested and how the exposure occurs.
And so, the EPA is charged with determining how much of a toxic substance like dioxins can be in our food without causing an increased risk of cancer and non-cancer effects to humans. This was last completed in the 1980s. Reassessments of dioxins risks, based on new science since the last assessment has been on-going. The short story is that there was a reassessment completed in 2003 and evaluated by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Three years later, the NAS provided comments to the EPA on that reassessment. In 2010, the EPA released a draft reassessment incorporating comments from the NAS. They also decided in 2010 to separate cancer risk from non-cancer risk and had a goal of releasing the final Dioxin Reassessment for non-cancer risk by the end of January, 2012, which hasn't happened yet. According to Bottemiller (2012), the allowable level for non-cancer effects is expected to be 0.7 picograms per kilogram of body weight per day. The problem... industry, such as the American Chemical Council isn't happy about this level (see Bottemiller for a great summary of all of this). In the meantime, we are all exposed to dioxins from the meats, dairy products, and fish that we eat.
As of now, I suppose we watch what happens and make comments whenever the public gets a chance... this is a story to pay attention to.
Additional Information:
- Hamilton. A Chemical Conundrum: How Dangerous is Dioxin. NPR Morning Edition: Dec 28, 2010.
- World Health Organization. Dioxins and Their Effects on Human Health. Fact sheet N°225: May 2010.
- Tomson. EPA Misses Deadline on Dioxin Guidelines. The New York Times: Feb 1, 2012.
- Williams. EPA misses deadline to issue dioxin health assessment. NPR Environment: Feb 2, 2012.
- Bottemiller. EPA Misses Key Deadline for Dioxin Assessment. Food Safety News: Feb 3, 2012.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Mussel Watch: Citizen Science in Bellingham
Three students were out last night helping Whatcom County Public Works collect mussels for Mussel Watch, a national sampling program of NOAA. The students collected native mussels from the Squalicum (harbor) marina jetty. These samples and all others collected from the more than 300 sites in the United States will be analyzed for chemical contaminants in the tissue of the mussels. Once the analysis is complete, the data will be used to look at both temporal and spatial contamination in coastal waters and the Great Lakes.
Left to right: Jackson Barnes, Rachelle Combs, and Julie Fix.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Presentation from Maul Foster and Alongi
Several people from the Bellingham, Portland, and Vancouver (WA) offices of Maul Foster and Alongi had a special seminar for SMoCS students today. The seminar used examples of cleanup sites the company has worked on near Portland. They showed examples of dredging and a sediment cap being placed. They showed examples of models used for decisions as to how deep a sand layer should be for a cap, what expected contaminant concentrations are on a site, and a TCE and degradates groundwater plume. They also showed an a strategy for cleaning up groundwater contamination with a permeable reactive barriers.
This presentation was a great supporting element to the Fate and Transport and SMoCS classes. Thanks to all who attended and presented!
This presentation was a great supporting element to the Fate and Transport and SMoCS classes. Thanks to all who attended and presented!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Site Visit to the ESY Site
About 32 students went to the Port of Everett today to visit our site (the Everett Shipyard) for the SMoCS courses. We met representatives of the Port, who is responsible for the cleanup activities of the site. They presented background information about the Port, the site, and MTCA and then took us on a tour of the site. We saw the marine railway where boats were removed from the water and the areas where maintenance on the boats was conducted. The contaminated material from sand blasting was still present on site, which was interesting for the students to see. Our tour guides also showed up the new boat storage area, where all surface run-off is collected in underground tanks and sent to the municipal water treatment facility, essentially eliminating non-point source run-off from the site.
Monday, January 9, 2012
New SMoCS courses at Huxley
The new Science and Management of Contaminated Sites (SMoCS) courses started today. Almost 40 students from Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies and Journalism are enrolled. The students are in for a great quarter as we learn about the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), which is the Washington State regulations through which some contaminated sites are cleaned up. We are focusing on the Everett Shipyard (ESY) site this quarter.` I'll have occasional posts about the course here.
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