Tuesday, December 21, 2010

pointing fingers

KTVZ reports tonight that the water tested by EWG was from a private water company, Avion Water, rather than the City of Bend.  You can read the news report here.

I commend the local reporters for doing a good job with a scientific topic, but I hope they find a source who is not invested in the outcome of the testing.  Avion Water, the City, and the ACC aren't going to be able to persuade me of much, because each could be reasonably expected to want this little problem to just go away.  It's possible the EWG has some other complicating interest, too, beyond public health. 

It's not time to panic, but we need to attend to this.  Preliminary experiments indicate we might have a problem.  That's all EWG has shown us.  There is a serious shortage of data and a compelling case for more testing, now.

Time to go back to the lab!  Water from all over town should be collected and tested, using EWG's more sensitive testing method, so that we can have an informed discussion.

Monday, December 20, 2010

NIMBY!

The community of Bend is pretty darned proud of our wonderful tap water.  It really is amazing quality stuff, tasteless, odorless and about as wet as any water you could find anywhere.  Even more remarkable, to someone who doesn't come from this part of the world, is that such wonderful stuff could come tapped into our homes with very little processing.

There has been some local chatter about potential upgrades to our current water system, especially the part of the supply that comes from the Bridge Creek drainage.  That portion of our local water is surface water, which means that there is some potential for it to be contaminated from the surface.  With some pressure mounting, it looks like that system is going to have to undergo some upgrades in the near future.

And then comes this news:  the Environmental Working Group has tested water in 35 municipal supplies and has found chromium-6 in 31 of them, including in Bend (which tests at 0.78 ppb).  What does this mean for us?  It's too early to know, but it certainly is a call for more and better testing, and additional information for us locals about the sources and consequences of having it in our water at the current level.

The presence of chromium-6 from natural sources is a possibility, but I do find it a little concerning that this notice doesn't come with immediate access to the sort of maps of those deposits that we might want.  I wonder if anyone tracks this sort of thing?  It seems like it would be an easy thing to do, and that testing for natural contaminants of concern (like chromium, or arsenic, or fluoride in high concentrations) would be standard procedure when establishing new wells or other water supplies.

The statements from the ACC are also not very helpful, and also add to my discomfort with the lack of information flowing to us.

How do we compare to the other cities tested?  The graph about halfway down the page (titled "Chromium-6 levels in 25 cities’ tap water exceed safe limit proposed by California officials*"), in the original report, is pretty striking, and disturbing.

Monday, November 29, 2010

SoCMA, ACC, and more....about the potential for a Green Chemistry standard

Advancing Green Chemistry shares with us an article detailing the current discussion--or is it a squabble?-- about establishing a standard for Green Chemistry.  There are a lot of very powerful people interested in the outcome of this discussion, it appears!  Important people are listening and participating.  But there also appears to be some potential for gridlock as these groups try to find a standard that is good for everyone.

A variety of stakeholders care about the outcome of this discussion.  The public is of course one group that may benefit from a clear and rigorous standard.  It would make it easier for us to make greener choices without having to draw on a great deal of technical expertise (which few of us have).  On the other hand, industry is likely to strongly resist any standard which is going to give some products a competitive advantage over others.  AGC discusses this problem at some length.  But it's good reading.

One of the great strengths of the Green Chemistry community is its inclusiveness.  It bring all kinds of perspectives to the table.  When people with differing viewpoints find themselves working on a problem together, the opportunity to innovate for real change is more likely.  But the solutions that these various groups can agree to are rare, and difficult to discover.

It's good and difficult work, and we'll hope that the outcome brings us a step forward. 

Advancing Green Chemistry keeps a close eye on the chemical industry (ACC is an acronym we all ought to know), and provide frequent updates on issues interesting to the Green Chemistry community through their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Friday, November 26, 2010

fourteen.4 grams

Based on some serious Google research and with the help of my Introductory Chem class, I have determined that the 15.0 lb turkey cooked at my house yesterday contained a grand total of 14.4 grams of tryptophan. 

While the debate continues on the streets and at the water cooler about the biological effects of consuming a hefty portion of roast bird, there are a lot of other good reasons to get a nap on Thanksgiving afternoon. 

Turkey is not exceptionally high in tryptophan compared to some other fairly common foods, which leaves me wondering how the tryptophan story ever got off the ground in the first place.


Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

spinning vinyl

My collection of vinyl records still sits in my living room under a coffee table, though I haven't played them in years.  I have a turntable and a component system that is old enough to play them but it's just too much work, and a lot of the music I have is not interesting to me anymore.

I expect I would encounter some trouble if I tried to play them anyhow, since many of them were made when records were stamped on thin vinyl, which would warp over time if not occasionally rotated.  Letting them sit on one side for years could have caused some major problems.

I spent a lot of time as an adolescent listening to records, so just talking about them gets me feeling a little nostalgic. 

LP (long play) records like this are called vinyl because they are made from polyvinyl chloride.  Vinyl chloride is CH2CHCl, an alkene with a chlorine attached to the sp2-hybridized carbon, aka the vinyl position.  Addition reactions can be used to produce polymers which often end up bearing the names of their raw materials, or suggestions of what those raw materials are:  polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE), and polystyrene (PS) are all made from alkenes, through addition reactions that cause them to polymerize.

Organic students may recognize, if they think of it, that after forming a carbocation in an addition reaction one could imagine another molecule of the original alkene behaving as a nucleophile...the double bond itself is rich in electron density.  This is the underlying principle of the addition polymerization reactions that allow us to make all these different plastics.

Wikipedia has relatively informative articles on LP records, and on vinyl chloride.  PVC is not very environmentally friendly if you consider the problems that come along with handling the vinyl chloride monomer which it is made of, though some have argued it is very environmentally friendly precisely because it lasts so long--and often is used in applications to replace wood, or other plastics with shorter lifespans.

A few years ago a great (but admittedly biased) documentary about PVC was put out by Bullfrog Films.  You can watch the trailer here, and it's in our College Library.  It's worth your time and presents the serious problems associated with PVC with great humor.  And you know what's funny and ironic?  The videocasette that the film is on is probably made of.....you guessed it:  PVC.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

To celebrate the release of the latest Harry Potter movie....

....Daniel Radcliffe sings the periodic table song.

Here's the song sung by the author, Tom Lehrer.  Frankly, he does it better.  But he's not Daniel Radcliffe!

My favorite song about elements is a little newer....TMBG does the Elements

Thursday, November 11, 2010

more cosmetic chemistry

The masks they refer to deep within this article are surely not respirators....but I can imagine little cute filter masks. I'm presuming of course, but if that's what they're talking about they're not going to do a bit of good protecting people from volatile solvent vapors.

Can you imagine going into a nail salon where the employees are wearing respirators? Yeah. That would be bad for business. Yeah.

H2CO

Here's a good one. I caught this story a few weeks ago, when it was still a pretty unformed thing, but it appears that the situation is heating up.

Ah, formaldehyde, you disgusting stuff.....

Monday, November 8, 2010

what's the value of a penny?

Rare earth elements include Scandium, Yttrium, and the collection of elements with atomic numbers from 57-71: also known as the lanthanides. While their names are probably pretty unfamiliar to many--Prasiodymium, Promethium, Samarium, etc--their use has been increasing and their interesting magnetic and chemicals are increasingly exploited in high technology applications.

There has been some news recently about the global supply of these elements. While we have deposits of them in the U.S., recent supplies have been coming out of China. Until really recently, that is, since there have been issues with supply and allegations of price controlling.

Now the New York Times reports on another potential source of these elements. Manganese nodules on the surface of the ocean apparently contain not only valuable copper in significant amounts, but also rare earths. If the combined value of the materials in these rocks makes the economics work out, maybe people will start mining the sea floor for them.

Somewhere deep in the article the author mentions that the concentration of copper in the ore mined in the San Jose copper and gold mine in Chile (you know the one) is only half that of these nodules, which contain a paltry 1% copper.

That leaves me wondering why someone doesn't just collect all the pennies I have accumulated over the years and extract the copper from them. They're surely more than 1% Cu and it would be easy to get hold of them.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

good news in the land of AIDS

Well, it's not news that I'm getting older, but at least I am doing so at the same rate as everyone else. I remember the world when telephones had cords, reheating food meant putting it on the stove, and nobody knew of AIDS. Around 1986 I was working at the University of Iowa Hospitals when I encountered my first AIDS patient. I was doing phlebotomy. He was a haemophiliac. He had contracted the disease from injections of Factor VIII, used to control his disease.

We had to monitor his level of Factor VIII and it was a huge deal to go into his room and get the blood. Lots of precautions. He was a very sick man, and died within weeks. I learned right away how horrifying the disease was.

Years later things are much different for AIDS patients. We have retrovirals that make their lives much better, and their lifetimes much longer. But it is still an awful thing, and it is still great to hear about advancements in AIDS research.

NPR tells of just such a story, which references some work published in Science. Yay.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

I think I want some tonka beans

A great story about food, drugs, and chemistry is available online over at the Atlantic.

A quick look at the structures of coumarin and the drug known commercially as coumadin, both available from Wikipedia, will reveal their obvious similarities and differences. I remember reading about the history of the drug and the story of sweet clover disease in cows in my text books many years ago. Until I read the Atlantic story here, I didn't realize that coumarin itself has no anticoagulant activity.

So now, after reading the article, I would really love to try some tonka beans. Like many people I love vanilla, and I also love the smell of fresh mown hay.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

a very local tie to the KBR/Chromium story

The Bend Bulletin had a front page article about a week ago about Oregon National Guard troops exposed to Chromium-6 during work in Iraq in 2003. The story has been in the news for quite a while (an Oregonian story from 2009 is still posted here), but I didn't realize we had a connection quite this local.

Turns out the story is an AP article and is available free from various sources on the web. Here is one.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day

If you do not know who Rachel Carson was, you should. If you do know who she was, this is a lovely dramatization and interview.

Part I loads up automaticallly. Parts 2 can be loaded from a link directly above the main frame.

Behold the power of hormones

Just as we started a discussion of chemical messengers in class this week, npr provides us with a fascinating story about oxytocin. The trust hormone, eh? Seems like quite a stretch to link it to complex things like anti-government sentiment, but perhaps there is a kernel of truth in there somewhere. Much as I'd like to deny it, hormones are powerful things, and probably shouldn't be underestimated.

We really don't understand any of this stuff very well. We like to talk like we do, but come on. The cranium is one heck of a barrier: it's very tough to understand much of anything that goes on inside of there even with sophisticated imaging tools. We're still discovering hormones we never knew we had. We are kindergarteners when it comes to understanding how receptor systems work with these messenger molecules.

Our biochemistry is clearly affected by external stimuli of all sorts: bears jumping out at us behind corners, but also coming home to dog poo on the carpet or being surprised by a chance meeting with an old friend. Who is to say that little daily things like hugs, smiles, birdsongs, or the smell of rain do not cause biochemical changes that can change the way we function...just a little? While science requires evidence to back up any specific claims about this sort of thing, I like the idea.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Chasing Molecules

Elizabeth Grossman has provided us all with a book that features some of the brightest minds and best ideas in Green Chemistry. It is called Chasing Molecules, and includes both heebie-jeebie inducing stories about toxics in our most local environments and also stories of hope. Chemists play both the role of hero and of villain in the stories she tells. It's refreshing to get a balanced message such as this.

Many of the Green Chemists she talks about are among my favorite people in the field: John Warner, Amy Cannon, Paul Anastas, Jim Hutchison, Richard Wool, Terry Collins, and others. I have met these people! What a hoot!

I have to confess I knew about the book but hadn't read it until I attended a meeting where Ms. Grossman herself was in attendance. I should have had her sign my copy. I hesitated. And I missed her. But her message is not lost on me. And I hope the book allows her to bring her message to a broad audience who will listen.

Thanks to all authors who have the patience and talent to write books that popularize science!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

what's good for you may be bad for you, and etc.

CBC News (Canadian Broadcast, that is) reports today on a lawsuit levied against a number of manufacturers of fish oil pills. It appears that levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are high enough to make for real risks for consumbers.

I'm not a toxicologist, but sometimes I would like to be one. I have found resources on the web that give me links to reports of toxicity from these compounds, but I'm not savvy enough to weigh the risks related to the exposure that is reported in the news article. How much is kind of scary, and how much is really scary? While the CBC gives me concentration data (hoorah!) I don't exactly know how to react to it.

Thanks to the Sightline Institute for pointing out the story via Sightline Daily.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Ready??

It's time to fire things up at Mount Bachelor Observatory again, we're preparing for another season of sampling. Oh: you haven't heard of MBO? You can find out what's happening there by looking here and here.

Other groups will also be active, but the groups listed are those that have been around the longest, and that have had us most closely involved in their work.

After the gorgeous weekend we've had at the mountain, I'm feeling pretty excited for the upcoming work!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

about autism and toxics

Nicholas Kristof has written an op-ed about the potential links between autism and toxics for the NY Times. The article is impressive. It's cautious and honest. I think it's definitely worth a read no matter what you think of the precautionary principle.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

base oxidation rundown

Does the base of a ski oxidize after sliding on snow?

This question was put in front of me on the ski trail Sunday, and I've been thinking on it and doing a little investigating.

Ski bases appear to be made of polyethylene (polyethene, I suppose IUPAC would call it). There are no functional groups at all, just long, long chains of hydrocarbon. Polyethylene is completely saturated with hydrogen. It's nearly unoxidizable, unless you actually set it on fire.

A protective coating of wax on the base reduces the chance of air oxidation even further.

So I have to agree with some forum (I apologize for not having the url here) somewhere: when bases begin to show white (or grey on my black bases) it may be called oxidation in the ski lodge, but that isn't really the issue. Instead, the snow has physically damaged the base by putting lots of tiny little shreds into it, roughing the surface. It is of course real damage to the surface of the ski that will reduce glide, and it is to be avoided. You're overdue for a new coat of wax.

How rapidly this problem develops is going to be largely due to snow conditions when you're on the skis. Watch for it especially after fresh snow, when the snow crystals are still sharp, or when the snow is cold and icy.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

excatly right now

I am sitting on a couch that is coated with this goop. At least I am strongly suspicious of it, although not because anybody in my family has thyroid disease. I am suspicious because I remember many years ago (too many to name...you don't really want to know how old my couch is) I remember paying about 75 bucks extra for the couch and loveseat we bought to be treated to make them stain resistant. At the time, of course, it seemed like a decent idea. We wanted to protect our investment.

Now that it's time to buy a new couch I am much more inclined to lean the other direction and look for natural fibers and materials. It may be a bit of an overreaction but I am sure that I have spent a lot of time snuggled down under a blanket just like I am right now: 6 inches from the fabric surface, likely coated with PFOA.

It's a little icky to think about I must say.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Sunday, January 17, 2010

want to be a doc?

This article from the NY Times has something to say about the likelihood you'll do well....and it is not about your GPA.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010


So we all know the platypus is weird but that weirdness goes way beyond anything I ever imagined. This stuff wasn't in my biology book.

I am left speechless.

Platypus Genome Explains Animal's Peculiar Features; Holds Clues to Evolution of Mammals

Saturday, January 9, 2010

pranking

I don't remember where I heard this, but it was recently: the story is that someone created some serious fright with an old prank that involves some chemistry. Baking soda had been poured into ketchup bottles, and when the bottles were refilled and capped, the vinegar reacted with the soda and created pressure inside. The next person who opened the bottle was startled when the pressure blew the cap and contents out of the bottle.

The story is that this caused an actual bomb scare. I'm dubious, and I can't back up my story because I don't remember where I heard it and I can't find anything on Google.

There you go. I'm not suggesting anybody do this. But maybe I'm suggesting we should all be cautious when we're getting into the ketchup bottle at our favorite family restaurant.