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Sunday, December 4, 2016
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
biological poisons
Hello, today I am here to write my final blog of this
toxicology class. At first I just wanted to say thank you for teaching an
amazing class. I picked the class because yes, it was a part of my major but
toxicology also sounded really interesting. I found out that it was. I loved
learning about all types of toxic things. I loved how you encouraged the class
to participate and it was not just a boring lecture. You made me want to come
to class every day. Anyway, back to the blog. This is the final blog and this
is about biological poisons. What is the first thing that comes to your mind
when you think of biological poisons? The first thing that I think of is how
the military used mustard and chlorine gas in chemical warfare in world war
one. They literally used biological poisons that were so deadly that they ae
now banned in combat by the Geneva Convention.
According to the Biological Weapons Convention, “toxins are poisonous
organisms. Unlike biological agents, they are in animate and not capable of
reproducing themselves.” Poisons can vary in all sorts of things so
let’s dig a little deeper into the subject.
Poisons are known as substances that are harmful to
living organisms. One of the most famous quotes that has to deal with poisons
is this, “the dose makes the poison”. This makes sense because any substance in
the world can be poisonous at high enough doses. An even scarier part of that
is many of these substances that can be used as medicines can be the deadliest
and the most poisonous in high amounts. Poisons
vary in many different ways, which can be anything from biological compounds or
even manufactured chemicals by humans. Biological poisons are also known as “toxins”
these toxins are produce by every living organism in the world. Let’s explain toxins. The definition of a toxin is this, “A toxin
is a poisonous substance that is a specific product of the metabolic activities
of a living organism and is usually very unstable, notably toxic when
introduced into the tissues, and typically capable of inducing antibody
formation. Toxin is derived from the ancient Greek word “τοξικόν toxikon” Is a poisonous substance that is
produced by living cells and organisms. Toxins are often able to be
distinguished by the way they are produced. To this day there is still an
ongoing debate between NATO and the Warsaw Pact over whether to call a toxin a
chemical or biological agent. Toxins are very small and are capable of causing diseases
when they come in contact with the human body by the multiple routes of
exposures. Toxin or biological poison does not technically specify the method of
how it is delivered into your body. For
example “venom” is injected into your body. “Poison” is absorbed, or ingested. The
name of this class is toxicology, so obviously it is very important to talk
about this. Thank you for teaching such an interesting class. I am looking
forward to all of the classes in the future. To learn more about toxins or
biological poisons, click on the link below.
Environmental Pollution
There are several forms of environmental pollution. The three main forms of environmental pollution include air, land, and water. These forms of pollution negatively impact our environment on a daily basis much more than most understand. Environmental pollution not only hurts our environment, but also the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.
The air we breathe is harmed by the various adverse affects from human interaction. Many of the main forms of air pollution comes from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. The issue that comes into play is that these fossil fuels are used as our main forms of energy. The most used energy source for electricity in the United States is coal. In a world without coal, it would be extremely hard to produce electricity. However, there are many other forms of electricity generation. These forms of electricity generation include nuclear power and hydropower. The main issue with nuclear power is that it isn’t sustainable and is very dangerous. Hydropower is a very efficient form of energy generation, however a large issue is that the reservoir of water used for hydroelectric power produces large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, producing similar amounts of pollution as burning fossil fuels. Along with producing carbon dioxide and methane, hydropower oftentimes disturbs live water habitats because of large dams or turbines. Along with electric power, one of the biggest air pollutants are cars, which burn gas in order to operate and give off harmful exhaust pollutants. Along with these forms of pollutions, humans and animals alike also are harming the environment in the process of respiration. When inhaling oxygen, that oxygen is converted to carbon dioxide and released freely into the air, ultimately resulting in increased air pollution.
Along with air, our land is being polluted on a daily basis. Our land become polluted from human waste, such as littering. One of the largest forms of littered items are cigarette butts. Aside from the pollution that smoking puts in the air, many smokers oftentimes throw their cigarette butts directly onto the ground. These improperly disposed cigarette butts account for around half of all littered items. Another major form of land pollution is illegal dumping. The world has a waste issue. We’re producing so many disposable items, but we have nowhere to put them once we are finished, resulting in many natural habitats, both on land and water, being depleted and ruined. This debris then collects, and ultimately damages the environment. Generally, a majority of the debris from land pollution gets pushed into bodies of water and through one way or another, ends up reaching its destination in our oceans. Along with land debris, industrial waste, radiation spills, and runoff from farming ends up in our water as well. Along with these various forms of spillage, a major problem with water pollution is runoff of raw sewage tends to find its way into lakes and streams as well.
It seems as if pollution is an unsolvable problem. In a world where it becomes hard to breathe and water becomes undrinkable, the world will eventually find what it’s like to be unable to survive. These many pollution issues are extremely challenging. We don’t know where to put all of our trash, we don’t know how to make cars run without burning fossil fuels, and it’s not like we can change our biology so that animals don’t produce carbon dioxide through respiration. These many issues will likely lead to the demise of mankind itself. In my opinion, we are unable to prevent all of these problems. The only thing we can hope to do is limit these issues and push them back until they catch up with us. to learn more. click on the links below.
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