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The Bitter Side of Artificial Sweeteners

Sucralose
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Sewage treatment plants fail to remove artificial sweeteners completely from waste water. These pollutants contaminate waters downstream, and may still be present in your drinking water.

A new, robust analytical method, which simultaneously extracts and analyzes seven commonly used artificial sweeteners, demonstrated the presence of several artificial sweeteners in waste water.

Until now, only sucralose has been detected in aquatic environments. Through the use of the new method, researchers were able to show for the first time that four artificial sweeteners — acesulfame, saccharin, cyclamate, and sucralose — are present in the waters from sewage treatment plants, indicating incomplete elimination during waste water treatment.

You may also click to see:->Cancer study into artificial sweetener

Sources:
Eurekalert June 17, 2009
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry July 2009; 394(6):1585-94

 
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Microwaves Harmful During Pregnancy

It is hard to believe but true that the microwave oven you use to make food could be harmful to your unborn child, especially when the device is old or is wrongly used. Tests have shown that microwaves emit harmful electromagnetic radiation which could harm embryos and could lead to miscarriage.

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Microwaves can be harmful if they are leaking radiation,” says Dr Shivani Sachdev Gaur of Phoenix hospital. The waves of a microwave oven can travel up to 12 cm, so it is harmful for a pregnant woman to stand near a microwave oven, especially if it is old and damaged, she says.

If the door of the oven is damaged or if the user uses it with the door opened, then the leakage is more. In old microwave ovens the leakage levels of radiation could be more.

A survey conducted among Professional Service Associates, a group of US microwave repair servicemen, indicated that over 56 per cent microwave ovens two years or older leaked levels of radiation 10 per cent higher than the safety standards set by the FDA.

These radiations may lead to cell death, infertility, malnourished babies, damaged DNA and even miscarriages.

Source: The Times Of India

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Hot Antidote for Cool Climes

2D representation of CO2
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Recent research shows that the next ice age can be staved off if we act SO fast:-

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Conventional wisdom says that the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not good for the earth’s inhabitants. Carbon dioxide absorbs heat, passes it around, and raises the earth’s temperatures. The rising temperatures release more carbon dioxide, and the gas absorbs more heat, passes it around, and raises the temperatures further. We would want to avoid this chain reaction, unless we can control it like in a nuclear reactor. That is exactly what we might end up doing, according to new research published last month.

We do not like scorching temperatures, but mild heat may be preferable to intense cold. When the earth is in an ice age — a phenomenon frequent in its history — snow covers a substantial part of the globe, making agriculture impossible, except in some warm areas. Human beings just managed to scrape through the last ice age. We are in the middle of an interglacial period (period between two ice ages), and we do not know precisely when the next ice age will come.

As it now turns out now, higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are the best way to keep the ice age away. Says Gary Shaffer, scientist at Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen: “If we use the fossil fuel reserves wisely, we can modulate the carbon dioxide levels and keep the ice ages away for at least half a million years.”

Shaffer is not proposing a new idea but he has gathered enough data about it to crystal gaze with confidence. He has just finished a study on the earth’s climate for the next half a million years, using a new model he developed with his colleagues. The model points to one reassuring possibility. If we reduce fossil fuel use — compared to 1990s levels — globally by 20 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050, we would have done enough to keep the temperature rise to one degree centigrade. And we would also have enough fossil fuel reserves to increase the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at some time in the future when the temperatures begin to drop.

Shaffer’s study is a tangential piece of good news at a time when everything regarding climate change seems to be gloomy. While all studies point to disaster, Shaffer says that we would be in reasonable shape if we act fast enough.

There was more direct good news recently. The journal Nature reported that forests have been soaking up carbon dioxide at levels much higher than previously thought. Recent studies in the Amazon forests suggest that increasing levels of carbon dioxide spur plant growth, but scientists were not sure whether this happens all over the world. Now Simon Lewis and his colleagues at the University of Leeds say that it happens in Africa as well. In fact, forests have absorbed around 18 per cent of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

These two studies are unrelated, but they together point to one fact: the earth can recover from a potentially disastrous climate change if we act quickly, and that plants should be an important part of our strategy to fight climate change. Just three months ago, climate scientist James Hansen of Columbia University and 10 other leading scientists argued in a paper in the Open Atmospheric Science Journal that carbon dioxide levels should be brought back to pre-industrial levels of 350 parts per million (ppm), from the current 385 ppm, by the end of the century if we want to avoid total ice melt in the earth. “Ice sheets are the issue that matters,” Hansen had said some time ago, “especially to countries like China and India that have a large population near the coast.”

Hansen and others also calculated what it takes to do this. Technologies are being developed (one in Columbia University itself) to take carbon dioxide from the air and put it back to the earth. Hansen calculated that it would take at least $10 trillion to remove 50 ppm of carbon dioxide. But the good news is that the scientists have also calculated that improved agriculture and forestry methods can remove at least this much carbon dioxide in 100 years.

The Nature paper shows that the forests could make a more significant contribution as they grow faster when there is more carbon dioxide in the air. “We were very lucky,” says Lewis. “There is now more reason to preserve our forests.”

Palaeo-climate studies unambiguously show that the earth warmed up or cooled down depending on the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. There was a time when the entire earth had frozen, and it was the release of carbon dioxide that slowly warmed it. There could be a day when snow conditions return, but the presence of more carbon dioxide in the air would ward off snow for longer periods. And when an ice age is still inevitable, as is bound to happen during certain periods owing to the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, we could pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. “We should not use up our fossil fuel reserves completely,” says Shaffer. “We should save it for use when we need it.”

A scientific conference to be held in Copenhagen next week is likely to give us new guidelines on exactly how to go about it in this new light.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Indoor Plants Cut Formaldehyde

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Indoor plants can reduce formaldehyde levels in the air, according to a new study.

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The sources of the toxic gas formaldehyde are building materials including carpeting, curtains, plywood, and adhesives.

As it is emitted, it deteriorates the air quality, which can lead to ‘multiple chemical sensitivity‘ and ‘sick building syndrome‘, medical conditions with symptoms such as allergies, asthma, and headaches.

The prevalence of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOC) is greater in new construction.

In the study, lead author Kwang Jin Kim of Korea‘s National Horticultural Research Institute compared the absorption rate of two types of houseplants, Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) and Fatsia japonica, an evergreen shrub.

During the study, equal amounts of formaldehyde were pumped into containers holding each type of plant in three configurations: whole, roots-only with the leafy portion cut off, and aerial-only, with the below-ground portion sealed off, leaving the stem and leaves exposed.

The results showed the combined total of aerial-only and roots-only portions was similar to the amount removed by whole plants. Complete plants removed approximately 80 percent of the formaldehyde within 4 hours.

Control chambers pumped with the same amount of formaldehyde, but not containing any plant parts, decreased by 7.3 percent during the day and 6.9 percent overnight within 5 hours. As the length of exposure increased, the amount of absorption decreased, which appeared to be due to the reduced concentration of the gas.

Aerial parts of reduced more formaldehyde during the day than at night. This suggests the role played by stomata, tiny slits on the surface of the leaves that are only open during the day.

The portion of formaldehyde that was reduced during the night was most likely absorbed through a thin film on the plant’s surface known as the cuticle. Root zones of ficus removed similar amounts between night and day. However, japonica root zones removed more formaldehyde at night.

Researchers consider micro-organisms living among the soil and root system to be a major contributor to the reduction. Japonica was planted in larger pots than the ficus, which may account for the lower night reduction rate of the latter.

Sources: The Times Of India

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Magnet Therapy Helps to Remove Lead From Blood

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South Korean scientists may have found a way to remove dangerous heavy metals such as lead from blood by using specially designed  magnetic receptors.

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The receptors bind strongly to lead ions and can be easily removed, along with their lead cargo, using magnets, they wrote in an article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a leading chemistry journal.

“Detoxification could theoretically work like haemodialysis: the blood is diverted out of the body and into a special chamber containing the biocompatible magnetic particles,” they wrote. “By using magnetic fields, the charged magnetic particles could be fished out. The purified blood is then reintroduced to the patient.”

Lead is a dangerous heavy metal and is especially toxic to children. Safe and effective detoxification processes are especially important.

The South Korean team, lead by Jong Hwa Jung at the Gyeongsang National University‘s department of chemistry, managed to remove 96% of lead ions from blood samples using these magnetic particles.

Exposure to lead in developed countries is mostly a result of occupational hazards, from lead used in paint and gasoline. Outside of occupational hazards, children sometimes fall victim to lead poisoning. A child who swallows large amounts of lead may develop anaemia, muscle weakness and brain damage. Where poisoning occurs, it is usually gradual, with small amounts of the metal accumulating over a long period of time.

Sources: The Times Of India

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