Do not flush pharmaceuticals!

Researchers have known for several years that after a person ingests a drug, their body may excrete residues of the chemical that remain biologically active. Thus, internal drug use, combined with improper disposal of unused drug stores, has been blamed for residues of everything from antibiotics to painkillers to hormones found in municipal and natural water supplies across the country. Because drugs are specifically designed to produce biological effects at very low concentrations, this pollution is considered a major threat to human and environmental health.

A study conducted by researchers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Touro University in Henderson, Nev., and presented at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in San Francisco has shown that the shower and washing machine may be even more potent sources of pharmaceutical pollution than the toilet.

"We've long assumed that the active ingredients from medications enter the environmental as a result of their excretion via urine and feces," study co-author Ilene Ruhoy said. "However, for the first time, we have identified potential alternative routes for the entry into the environment by way of bathing, showering and laundering. These routes may be important for certain APIs found in medications that are applied to the skin." she said.

"They include creams, lotions, ointments, gels and skin patches." The researchers reviewed hundreds of studies analyzing the body's use and metabolism of drugs, and concluded that drugs including acne medicine, antimicrobials, narcotics and steroids are entering the water system by being washed directly from people's skin in baths and showers. In addition, many medications dissolve in sweat and wash off the body into people's clothing, only to enter the water system when those clothes are laundered.

It is the first study to show a link between bathing or laundering and pharmaceutical pollution. In contrast to ingested drugs, which are broken down by the liver and kidneys and then released in less-potent form, drugs that wash off the human body enter the water completely unmodified.

"Topical [active pharmaceuticals] from bathing and showering are released unmetabolized and intact, in their full-strength form," Ruhoy said."Therefore, their potential as a source of pharmaceutical residues in the environment is increased."

Ruhoy advised consumers to do their part to reduce pharmaceutical pollution by always following directions exactly, not applying more of a topical drug thinking that if a little is good, more must be better." She suggested that doctors always prescribe the minimum effective dose for the shortest possible time. Researchers should work on developing drugs that can be absorbed more quickly and thoroughly, leaving little or no residue behind on the skin.

The EPA further encourages consumers to always properly dispose of all medications, carefully reading the information on drug labels and accompanying documentation, and taking advantage of drug take-back or hazardous waste disposal programs where they live. In areas without take-back or household collection programs, state or local waste management authorities should be able to provide guidelines for disposal of pharmaceutical products.

Protecting water from household pollution need not end with pharmaceuticals. The EPA advises that consumers use non-toxic household cleaners and other chemicals wherever possible, and limit pesticide and other toxin use. Leftover chemicals should never be disposed of by flushing!

Need more environmental friendly cultivation method for seaweed!!

Here I want to share something that I’ve been working closely for almost 2 year now. I don’t know how many of us really know that in our beautiful country, we actually cultivating seaweed in our beautiful sea in Sabah. Well, why only in Sabah? Actually, the answer is the quality of the water in Sabah water is much higher and better as compare to peninsular.

Seaweed are ecological important because they assist in supplying oxygen to the sea act as the primary producers in the marine food chain. Some seaweed has the capacity to remove heavy metals from the water and can potentially be used in biomonitoring and in the bioremediation of such pollutants. Seaweeds also possess excellent survival strategies to withstand many environmental stresses that they are exposed to.

The common types seaweed that being cultivate in Sabah is from type of red seaweed or also known as Rhodophyta. It is known as Eucheuma cottonii or kappaphycus alvarezii. It has been widely cultivate due to its kappa-carrageenan content and is highly demand on world market due to its diverse product application.

From my own experience being at the seaweed cultivation side is that, although seaweed is an important marine commodity to our country, but we must also look at the environmental issues that rise from it. One of the issues that being debate is the cultivation method that being applied currently by the farmer should be improves. Existing method that is highly practice is by using tie-tie. Tie-tie is a method of using raffia to tie the seaweed and empty mineral bottles as a float so that the seaweed will be at the water surface and grow faster. The disadvantages of using this method is after few months the empty bottle will be broken down and float around resulting pollution as well as damage the coral. So, a better cultivation methods needed to replace the current practice.

We need more Gurmit Singh !!!

“Don’t play play! Gurmit Singh is the best in Malaysia, and some said in Asia!”

I came across this article last two months in the Star Paper (click here). It is about a gentleman that tried his very best to protect the environment for the sack of our children future.

Gurmit Singh is better-known as an environmentalist and a social activist. He has organized various seminars, workshops, and forums to address the environmental issues in Malaysia. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Centre for the Environment, Technology and Development, Malaysia (CETDEM), an non-profit organization that provide consultation on improving environmental quality through use of technology and sustainable development.

In the article, Gurmit Singh commented that Malaysian are not willing to act “beyond me & mine” on environmental issues. He mentioned that although the environmental awareness among Malaysian has improved but it is not enough. I simply agree with his statement as we can see, the rivers are still in the polluted condition. Programmes and campaigns such as “Cintailah Sungai Kita” have not improved our rivers significantly. More efforts should be taken from all the parties involve.

On answering the question on what project that he will stop if he can travel back in time, the answer given was the Proton car project. The project has increased the air pollution, road and highways congestion, and noise pollution. One of the consequences was the public transport system was neglected.

This is true in sense that we are facing heavy traffic jam every time in prime locations and peak hours. Monitoring of air pollution index in KL area showed a clear trend that combustion gas pollutant (SO2 and NO2) are at the highest peak in the morning 8 a.m and night 8 p.m. due to the high volume of cars in the road. If the situation is not curb properly, it can be worse and we will live in fear of getting respiratory diseases.

On plastic bags issue, he suggested that more commitment should be put in by the stakeholders such as operators of supermarket to charge stiff amount at ALL the time for the issuance of plastic bags. He also encourage shoppers to bring along their own recyclable bags or containers when shop. In my opinion, plastic is there for us to use, but we must use it properly at a minimum usage and recycle it as many as possible.

Mr. Gurmit Singh has poured in tremendous effort to promote sustainable development and create awareness on environmental issues. We need more of this kind of people in the world so that the world can be “green” and sustain our next generation. Ohaiyo, let do our part in saving our planet!

Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos

carbon nanotubes

Inhaling carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as breathing in asbestos, and its use should be regulated lest it lead to the same cancer and breathing problems that prompted a ban on the use of asbestos as insulation in buildings, according a new study by Nature Nanotechnology.

During the study, led by the Queen's Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh/MRC Center for Inflammation Research (CIR) in Scotland, scientists observed that long, thin carbon nanotubes look and behave like asbestos fibers, which have been shown to cause mesothelioma , a deadly cancer of the membrane lining the body's internal organs (in particular the lungs) that can take 30 to 40 years to appear following exposure. Asbestos fibers are especially harmful, because they are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs yet too long for the body's immune system to destroy.

The researchers reached their conclusions after they exposed lab mice to needle-thin nanotubes: The inside lining of the animals' body cavities became inflamed and formed lesions.

Carbon nanotubes are generally made from sheets of graphite no thicker than an atom—about a nanometer, or one billionth of a meter wide—and formed into cylinders, with the diameter varying from a few nanometers up to tens of nanometers. (They can be hundreds or even thousands of nanometers long.) There is a greater concern about "multiwalled" nanotubes consisting of several reinforced cylinders, because they are able to retain their pointy shapes better than thinner nanotubes.

Scientists have been noting the similarities between carbon nanotubes and asbestos for the past few years, says study co-author Andrew Maynard, chief science advisor for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, based in Washington, D.C. Maynard, who has been researching and warning of the potential health and environmental risks of carbon nanotubes since 2003, says that there has been no coordinated effort to date to analyze the findings of carbon nanotube toxicity studies. He notes that technology companies have not found that the risks of using carbon nanotubes outweigh the benefits—they are excellent conductors of electricity.

Carbon nanotubes can also be used to reinforce polymers to create very strong plastics. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor researchers are scaling the strength of nanosheets and a nanoscale polymer resembling white glue. Visually, it looks like a brick wall, in which clay nanosheet "bricks" are held together by water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol "mortar". The result, according to the researchers, is a composite plastic that is light and transparent but as strong as steel.

IBM has identified carbon nanotubes as important for studying electrical and optical phenomena on the nanometer scale, and the company has high hopes for the technology. Carbon nanotubes show promise as building blocks for computer chips that are "smaller, faster and lower power" than those made of silicon, Phaedon Avouris, an IBM fellow and lead researcher on the company's carbon nanotube efforts, wrote in the March 2007 issue of Physics World. "One of the most exciting developments in carbon nanotube research is the recent discovery that nanotubes can emit light," he added. "That finding opens the door to circuits in which standard copper interconnects are replaced by optical waveguides made from nanotubes—allowing the possibility of fully integrated optoelectronic circuits."

Nanotubes are likewise being developed for use in new drugs, energy-efficient batteries, electronics and other products under the assumption that they are no more dangerous than graphite. But some scientists and environmentalists like Maynard caution that they harbor hidden dangers. Compounding this concern is the prediction that the market for carbon nanotubes will grow from $6 million in 2004 to more than $1 billion by 2014, according to studies by a number of firms, including the Freedonia Group. A 2006 report from Lux Research projected that nanoscale technologies will be used in $2.6 trillion worth of manufactured goods by the year 2014.

The Edinburgh CIR study, which will also appear in the June issue of Nature Nanotechnology, was very specific, looking only at nanotubes that emulated fiber behavior and their potential to cause a certain type of cancer; other types of nanotubes could affect the body differently—for better or worse, researchers say.

Maynard and his colleagues focused their attention specifically on the hypothesis that long, thin carbon nanotubes could have the same impact as similarly shaped asbestos fibers. "If you get these things into the lungs," he says, "they form scarlike tissue, and the body sees them like a scaffolding, building new cells over them and thickening the walls of the lungs."

The study is not intended to keep nanotechnology from developing further but rather to flag potential dangers of nanotubes in places at manufacturing and disposal sites, the researchers wrote in their paper.

There is an immediate need to examine how carbon nanotubes are being used and see if there's any chance that [people] are being exposed to dangerous materials.(sources:scientific american)

Current Flood in North Peninsular Malaysia, what might be the impact??

This article will be my last and memorable article, as by the time i'm writing this article, i'm waiting for the water from outside of my house in Alor Star, Kedah to enter inside. I don't know either this should be my greatest week or the worst week ever in my life..

As most of you know, it has been almost a week that north peninsular of Malaysia having this so-called flood, starting from Perlis and followed by Kedah. It has been said that, this flood is among the worst within 100 years. Well, i'm not sure about the past 76 years, but i can confirm you that this is the worst within 24 years of my life. We, who live nearby the river have experience this around once every 4,5 years.

On my way back, i over heard the conversation between the bus driver and one of the passenger. They said that the main cause of this phenomena were development as there are less paddy field exist days by days and the condition of the rivers which are not deep enough has worsen the current condition. Can u imagine,the rain keep falling for around 2 days, non-stop. But the day I arrived, it stopped. But even there was no raining, the flood keep worsen.

We keep updating current situation in some other places around. From the interview by the reporter in Astro Awani with someone from Department of Metereology, whom I can't remember her name, they said that, the la Nina phenomenon has cause this situation as the heavy rain not only happen in Malaysia, but also in nearby country such as Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. I guess, this should be the reason. But what make us worry is that, in a couple of days, the sea water level will rise, and 'they' will not 'accept' the water that flows. Now, if that happen, this situation will keep on worsen.

We can see the impact of the flood within and after the flood. As the flood still happening, there would be problems in terms of clean water supply and hygiene issues. Besides, the damage cause by flood also cannot be predicted. By the time this article is written, 6 people from both state have been flood's victim. Not only they lost and damage their properties, some of them even lost their loves one as the flood happen.

Whereas from interview with Prof Fatimah from UPM, there was a worried that there would be shortage of food supply as most of our rice supplied by Thailand. therefore, the price of rice was expected to be higher in coming month. Besides, it was expected that health problems cause by flood will also happen. All the people involved and also the government should help in avoiding this problem from happen.

Personally as Kedahan, i'm quite dissappointed with what happen in my state as many of the paddy field have to be sacrifices in the name of development. Kedah, which formerly know as ' Jelapang Padi' or paddy storage have lost its identity, and also causing imbalance in the ecosystem. So, what else can be expected to happen in the coming years?? We might not know, but we can predict. We can only wish for the best, and right now, I can only hope that current condition will not be worsen...

The Fear of Climate Change!

The fear that global temperature can change very quickly and cause dramatic climate changes that may have a disastrous impact on many countries and populations is great around the world. But what causes climate change and is it possible to predict future climate change? New research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen shows that it may be due to an accumulation of different chaotic influences and as a result would be difficult to predict. For millions of years the Earth's climate has alternated between about 100,000 years of ice age and approximately 10-15,000 years of a warm climate like we have today. The climate change is controlled by the Earth's orbit in space, that is to say the Earth's tilt and distance from the sun. But there are also other climatic shifts in the Earth's history and what caused those?

Dramatic climate change of the past

By analysing the ice cores that are drilled through the more than three kilometer thick ice sheet in Greenland, scientists can obtain information about the temperature and climate going back around 140,000 years. The most pronounced climate shifts besides the end of the ice age is a series of climate changes during the ice age where the temperature suddenly rose 10-15 degrees in less than 10 years. The climate change lasted perhaps 1000 years, then bang, then the temperature fell drastically and the climate changed again. This happened several times during the ice age and these climate shifts are called the Dansgaard-Oeschger events after the researchers who discovered and described them. Such a sudden, dramatic shift in climate from one state to another is called a tipping point. However, the cause of the rapid climate change is not known and researchers have been unable to reproduce them in modern climate models.

The climate in the balance

"We have made a theoretical modelling of two different scenarios that might trigger climate change. We wanted to investigate if it could be determined whether there was an external factor which caused the climate change or whether the shift was due to an accumulation of small, chaotic fluctuations," explains Peter Ditlevsen, a climate researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute. He explains that in one scenario the climate is like a seesaw that has tipped to one side. If sufficient weight is placed on the other side the seesaw will tip, the climate will change from one state to another. This could be, for example, an increase in the atmospheric content of CO₂ triggering a shift in the climate.

In the second scenario the climate is like a ball in a trench, which represents one climate state. The ball will be continuously pushed by chaos-dynamical fluctuations such as storms, heat waves, heavy rainfall and the melting of ice sheets, which affect ocean currents and so on. The turmoil in the climate system may finally push the ball over into the other trench, which represents a different climate state. Peter Ditlevsen's research shows that you can actually distinguish between the two scenarios and it was the chaos-dynamical fluctuations that were the triggering cause of the dramatic climate changes during the ice age. This means that they are very difficult to predict.

Warm future climate

What can happen to the climate of the future? "Today we have a different situation than during the ice age. The Earth has not had such a high CO₂ content in the atmosphere since more than 15 million years ago, when the climate was very warm and alligators lived in England. So we have already started tilting the seesaw and at the same time the ball is perhaps getting kicked more and could jump over into the other trench. This could mean that the climate might not just slowly gets warmer over the next 1000 years, but that major climate changes theoretically could happen within a few decades," estimates Peter Ditlevsen, but stresses that his research only deals with investigating the climate of the past and not predictions of the future climate.

This is a schematic picture of the climate represented by the red ball. The climate can be located in two different states, the two valleys on each side of a hill. In the first scenario the climate is like a seesaw. If the outside influences increase or, for example, increased CO2 makes the weight heavier on the other side, the seesaw will tip forcing the climate over into the other state. The climate change would be predictable. In the second scenario, the hill is fixed and a series of small chaotic kicks from wind and weather could cause it to roll over into the other state. This climate change is unpredictable. Mathematically speaking, the first scenario is a "bifurcation" and the second scenario "noise-induced transition". (Credit: Peter Ditlevsen, PhD. Dr. Scient. Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen