Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Chemical warfare was used heavily in the First World War. Biological poisons were so dangerous and against human rights that the Geneva convention banned it from combat. #blog


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Like I said in my blog. Anything is poisonous in a high enough dose. This has been said since the beginning of time itself. Especially medicine. Which is ironic because medicine can be poisonous too. #blog


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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.  

This is a picture of two different types of pollution. As you can tell, this is severe pollution. You can't even see the ground because of all the waste that is there. The fumes from the air stacks are destroying the air quality. #blog


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This is a picture Of multiple environmental pollutants. This just shows you how many that there actually are. And how there are so many things that can affect us. #blog


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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. 

IEUBK model results



Hello, I am writing you today to tell you about my experience with the Ieubk model. At first I was extremely worried because I had no idea how to even work the model or wear I could get information from. I stayed in contact with my partner and he has helped me out extremely with the process. I understand that this is a very important test so I am going to write about each part of the experience. The first thing I had to choose when I signed into the model was if I wanted the model to run in beginner or advanced I obviously chose beginner because I had no idea what i was really doing.  The next window that pops up after I press next is the soil tab.  The first thing it wants you to do is enter the soil lead concentration. Then the model usually calculates the mean of the concentration of the soil and lead concentration. Another thing that you need to add is total dust plus soil intake that Is a very big factor in determining lead concentration. After you are done figuring out the lead in soil and dust concentration, the next tab is outdoor air quality. Two big factors that you have to calculate is the time spent outdoors,  the ventilation rate, and the percentage of lung absorption these play huge factors because lead can be dissolved into your lungs very easily. The next step in the process is your dietary values. I feel like this is the most important part of the model. I think this because of my research most deaths from lead poisonings come from young kids ingesting small organisms and toys which are filled with heavy traces of lead. So when you are ingesting things with lead there are higher chances of you becoming poisoned. The dietary intake table even gets as specific to calculate the lead intake based on specific ages from ages 1-7. This model is so intricate it even wants you to put in the lead concentration for specific foods. These specific foods are, home grown fruits, home grown vegetables, fish from fishing. This model is tended to be take very seriously. The next tab in the model is water consumption. This one is also very important your water has to be safe. This tab shows everything from the lead concentration in flushing toilets all the way to lead concentration in water fountains. The final slide on the model has to do with the median concentration. The last slide is basically a summary of all of my results. Then you click proceed and it calculates all of the possibilities of the amounts of lead in the specific ae groups.    I am going to give you all of the links that I have used to run my tests. From. I learn from example. It is easier for me to retain information if I am doing it myself. If I have learned everything from about understanding this model from doing it. 

link 1 

Sunday, November 13, 2016

This is a picture of one of the results that you will get from the IEUBK model. There are graphs, tables, charts, almost everything to make sure you are getting the answer you are looking for. This model can help in life or death situations. #blog


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This is a picture of all of the factors that are accounted for in the IEUBK model. As you can see there is a lot. This is a lot more intricate then I thought it was at first. #blog


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IEUBK Model for Lead in Children



Hello, I hope you are having a wonderful morning. I am writing my blog today on the IEUBK model.  The IEUBK model is short for “The integrated exposure uptake biokinetik. It is a model that is used to test for lead when it has to deal with children.  All of last week we only focused on the model so I am thinking that this topic is very important. Dr. Moss told us to download the model on Monday and I have been playing around with it ever since. When I scroll and navigate through the model on my laptop I notice that it is very easy to use. There is an easy version and an advanced version when you first start it up. I chose the easy version because I know I was not ready for advanced yet. Anyway, I was scrolling through the model and it is pretty self-explanatory. There are tabs for pretty much everything from soil to water to air. All you have to do is fill out numbers and put them into the model and it runs and does all of the calculations for you. Then at the end it presents you with graphs tables and data/ information on the amount of lead in certain things. The model shows traces of lead in children that are under seven years of age. Why lead? And why only children under seven? I think they made a model for lead because lead is very deadly in high amounts. It is also odorless colorless and tasteless. Lead is also found in almost everything that we use. There are high amounts of lead in toys that are made in china. I think the model is for people under seven years old because when you are in an adolescent age range lead and other things are more toxic because your body hasn’t been built up to them and you aren’t used to it. Also you are smaller so smaller doses can have a larger impact. Another thing that has to do with the age is that is the time when you are playing with toys. Most of those toys are from overseas and contain high amounts of lead. This is very bad and can be deadly because when you are at that adolescent age you tend to put a lot more things in your mouth   when you are young you use your sense of taste like you would with sight touch and hearing. So when you are really young and you see something interesting. You are going to put it in your mouth too. This is very bad because that is the easiest way for lead to get into your system and harm you. Kids don’t know that this could be deadly so they keep doing it. They don’t understand the consequences. We are going to be using this model in class all next week for a project and I am excited to see and actually put this model to the test. To learn more about the IEUBK model click on the links below, other than that, have a wonderful rest of your day and thank you for reading.