Rob Cooper
EH 2000
Spring 2017

Food Safety

In the United States, there are many regulations that we place on the quality and freshness of food to minimize the risk posed to us by contaminated food. There are three ways food can be contaminated: physically, chemically, and biologically.

The first type of contamination is chemical. The food we eat can be contaminated by several different chemical vectors. Sources of chemical contamination that many worry about are pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides used during the farming process. Many of the foods we eat today make it to the dinner table with these chemicals still on them. Pre-washing food before consuming it is a good way to remove these chemicals, although it does not have 100% effectiveness.

Another source of chemical contamination is from the pharmaceuticals used on cattle. The same antibiotics we get from our doctors end up in our meats. Farmers use copious amounts of drugs on cows, pigs, and chickens to keep them healthy for the slaughter. These chemicals have managed to have effects on the endocrine system of countless Americans who consume the meat treated with it. The effects are exacerbated among humans going through puberty, often causing them to begin changing earlier than usual.

Physical contamination is a more worrisome threat to the average person because of the natural fear humans have of biting into something dangerous inside our food. Physical contamination of food entails non-food items, such as nails, glass, hair, or even beaks inside one’s food. The FDA requires safety precautions against this sort of contamination, but non-food items certainly do end up in food from time to time. There is also the worry of employee sabotage, be it from a sassy waitress or from the butcher himself. From first-hand experience in the food industry, I can say that sort of occurrence is extremely rare, but not impossible. If there is a case of physical contamination reported, not only should the food in question be examined, but the entire process of that food’s production should be examined to find the source.

Lastly, biological contamination refers to the contamination of food by organisms that do not belong in that food. This can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, or even parasites. This is probably the most common type of food contamination, being that most food has at least one type of these organisms in them already. Food should always be kept at a safe temperature and cooked for long enough to be considered safe before eating. Cross-contamination is also another common source of problems. Raw meat should always be prepared separately from produce. Even cutting boards that were once used for meat must be washed before being used to cut something else.
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/avoiding-physical-contamination/?singlepage=1

FAT-TOM is a useful acronym to remember the factors that affect how quickly harmful organisms will grow inside your food. F stands for food. Obviously, some foods will go bad faster than others. Leaving chicken or pork out will result in harmful levels of bacteria in roughly four hours. Honey, on the other hand, will never go bad. “A” stands for acidity. Some bacteria grow faster in a highly acidic food product; some will grow more slowly. The first “T” stands for time. Bacteria has a generation time which is how long it takes for them to reproduce and double in number. Leaving the food out for longer will result in more harmful bacteria. The second “T” stands for temperature. Hot food should always be served hot. Cold food should always be served cold. Most bacteria grow best somewhere between 30 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping your food outside of this range slows the progression of harmful pathogens. The “O” stands for oxygen. Many bacteria are anaerobic, but most found in food are aerobic so minimizing airflow to your food will slow their growth substantially. Lastly, “M” stands for moisture. Bacteria require water to reproduce, and moist food is an endless source of water. Dehydrating food keeps bacteria at bay for long periods.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/L4.1

The five most common causes of food contamination are as follows.
1. Holding potentially dangerous foods at the wrong temperatures.
2. Improper cooking temperatures of food.
3. Dirty or contaminated cooking or handling utensils.
4. Poor employee hygiene.
5. Food from unsafe sources

http://www.ocfoodinfo.com/illness/risk

Rob Cooper

EH 2000

Spring 2017

Air Quality

Although regulation on air quality seems like a necessary part of our environmental protection, legislation wasn’t passed to protect us from air pollution in the United States until 1971. The current reliability of the Environmental Protection Agency is up for debate, however they made great strides pushing for higher standards of air quality from the 1970s onward. Before this, smog and carcinogenic particles were very common, especially in cities with heavy industry. In some cases, the level of pollution would cause cold air to sink to ground level while hot air floats above. This would allow the pollution to be trapped at ground level and kill anyone exposed for long enough. Since those days, the EPA has created several standards and released many statements regarding air pollution.

The EPA has created an Air Quality Index with six levels of concern to be viewed by the public. The scale ranges from zero to 500. Zero to fifty is considered “Good”. 51 to 100 is known as “Moderate”. 101 to 150 is shown as “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” such as asthmatics or the elderly. 151 to 200 is considered “Unhealthy” for all. 200 to 300 is “Very unhealthy”. Finally, 301 to 500 is known as “Hazardous”

https://www3.epa.gov/airnow/aqi_brochure_02_14.pdf

In addition to the Air Quality index, the EPA provides a score for most cities and a forecast for their near future. At the moment, the AQI for Cincinnati is 52. In Cleveland, the index is at 46. Columbus is doing slightly better with an AQI score of 40. Dayton has a score of 50. Lastly, Dayton has the best air quality of the day with a score of 31. Of all these readings, only Cincinnati has a score which is less that “Good” and that is just barely. Other states such as California have scores that regularly go near or above 100.

https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_state&stateid=36

Put simply, a State Implementation plan, or an SIP, is a framework which would allow a certain state to meet air quality goals set by the EPA over the course of several years. These plans may be changed over time if the regulations set by the EPA happen to change, or if the state meets the SIP’s requirements and desires to simply maintain their air quality.

Another list the EPA maintains is the NAAQS or National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These standards represent the maximum allowable level of pollutants in the air. The pollutants listed range from gases such as Nitrogen dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide; to particulate matter and heavy metals such as lead.

In Ohio, there are exact limits on these pollutants. For Ozone, the maximum concentration is 0.075 parts per million. The limit on particulate matter 2.5 is twelve micrograms per cubic meter. For sulfur dioxide, the maximum allowable is 75 parts per billion. Nitrogen dioxide is only allowed to reach levels of 0.053 parts per million. Lastly, lead, which has disastrous effects on neurological function must be kept below 0.15 parts per cubic meter.

http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dapc/sip/sip.aspx

In conclusion, the Environmental Protection Agency has created several standards for our Air quality which have allowed us to enjoy at least a moderately more healthy breathing atmosphere.

Glyphosate

Rob Cooper
Blog 5
EH 2000

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that was fist synthesized in Switzerland in 1950 as a chemical agent that would bind to and remove heavy metals. In 1970, Monsanto discovered Glyphosate while trying to find a chemical water softener. It was only incidental that they would learn Glyphosate is a mildly effective pesticide. Since then, Glyphosate has become the most widely used pesticide of all time. The science journal Environmental Sciences Europe released report recently stating that since 1974, the United States has used 1.8 million tons of Glyphosate on her crops. The same report shows that throughout the world, 9.4 million tons has been used. In 2013, Friends of the Earth Europe cited an experiment from an independent laboratory which tested individuals from eighteen different countries for glyphosate. 44% of the test subjects’ urine tested positive for glyphosate.

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html

The herbicide is engineered to be highly effective on broadleaf plants and grasses. The reason desirable crops survive the application of the herbicide is that they have been genetically modified to do so. These are called “Roundup ready crops”. The Roundup is then sprayed directly on the crops.

There is great debate in the United States and other countries around the world concerning the health effects of using Roundup on our crops. The controversy does not stem only from the use of the chemical glyphosate, but the amount of glyphosate that is to be used. Some sources report that glyphosate or Roundup is sprayed on crops multiple times, including right before harvest, which wouldn’t seem to make much sense. Whether glyphosate is a carcinogen depends on whom you ask. Unsurprisingly, Monsanto strongly disagrees that glyphosate causes cancer in humans. Perhaps less surprisingly, the Environmental Protection Agency agrees with them. Since 1983, the EPA has also relaxed its standards on what it would consider a “toxic” amount of glyphosate. Most studies done on mammals (mostly dogs and mice) show little effect on the test subjects’ health that can be attributed to glyphosate. While it can be an eye irritant in large doses, it is passed through the body largely unchanged. The only type of animal glyphosate showed even mild toxicity to is birds. Even then, the LD50 was recorded at 4,500 parts per million. One must keep in mind however that anything can be toxic or non-toxic depending on dosage.

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/dienochlor-glyphosate/glyphosate-ext.html

On the other side of the argument, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer made a statement in March 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans”. Newsweek published a less contested study which showed that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor and interferes with hormone production in humans.

http://www.newsweek.com/glyphosate-now-most-used-agricultural-chemical-ever-422419

Interestingly, the wide use of Roundup or glyphosate on weeds all over the world has caused the rise of Roundup-resistant weeds. Roughly half of American farmers must deal with weeds that have evolved a genetic immunity to glyphosate, and continue to grow and spread. The phenomenon occurs the same way as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which evolve a genetic defense for antibiotics and then spread throughout the body.

The Zika Virus

Rob Cooper

Blog 2

EH 2000

Zika is a virus common to warm and tropical climates that is passed to humans mainly via the bite of the Aedes mosquito. Named for the forest where it was first documented, the virus itself was discovered seventy years ago in Uganda. Since then, outbreaks have occurred in Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia. The virus can also be passed sexually from one individual to another, or from a mother to her unborn baby. The symptoms of the Zika virus are common to many other diseases and include fever, muscle pain, red eyes, and headache. It is speculated that the inconspicuousness of the virus is what leads to it being spread around more easily. While people rarely die from infection, the symptoms can last for weeks. Like with most diseases, the young, the old, and the immunocompromised are at greatest risk of infection. After individuals regain their health after an infection, they receive an immunity from being infected by Zika again. At the moment, there is no treatment or cure for the Zika Virus. The best prevention methods involve protecting oneself from mosquitos in areas known for having cases of Zika, and avoiding sexual contact with individuals who have potentially contracted the virus. The risk for most individuals who contract the Zika virus is relatively low as it manifests similarly to the common flu. The largest issue is with pregnant mothers. Babies born to women who have contracted Zika often display brain and skull deformities such as microcephaly and other ailments. This has led the CDC and other governmental and travel agencies to make travel warnings, especially concerning expecting mothers advising them not to travel to areas at high risk for Aedes mosquitos, or having sexual contact with people from those regions.

https://www.cdc.gov/zika/about/overview.html

They also suggest pregnant women do not visit areas with an elevation lower than 2,000 meters above sea level as this also puts them at higher risk.

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/Zika.html

A man named Jason Farned who worked for the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District stated for the LA Times that the mosquito is “The deadliest creature in the world”. According to some statistics, mosquitos cause the death of more humans per year via the viruses and bacteria they carry, than any other animal. Zika happens to be just one of many viruses the mosquito threatens humans with. There is even worry of the virus coming as close to home as California, where the CDC is preparing for possible cases to occur this summer. The winter time is a natural barrier for us against mosquito-borne disease as much of the mosquito population drops during the cold months. So far no one in California has contracted the disease from a mosquito, but preemptive preparation may be the difference between an outbreak and avoiding one. The Aedes mosquito has proven to be a formidable species when it comes to controlling them. Apparently, no affected community has been able to wipe out the mosquito, and the only effective method for dealing with them has been to systematically remove all standing water the mosquito could use to reproduce. With a vaccine years down the road, communities must use any solution at their disposal to limit the spread of the Zika virus and prevent an outbreak from occurring in the future.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-zika-future-20170130-story.html