Embedded Water

Water is essential in everyday life.  It is crucial for survival, and it is said that you need water every couple of days in order to survive.  According to the site http://www.virtualhospice.ca/en_US/Main+Site+Navigation/Home/Support/Support/Asked+and+Answered/Nutrition/How+long+can+someone+live+without+food+or+water_.aspx
an exact amount of time that a person can go without water is unknown due to the fact that everyone responds different to the amount of fluids they intake.  It is said that a person can go only a few days without water because it starts to have negative health affects on someone.  So it is clear that water is very important to life and critical for survival, but water, clean, drinking water, is rare to find in some areas of the world, even in the US today.  California has had a horrible drought that is causing their water supply to be shortened and obviously in high demand.  People are having to go to the local fire departments to get water because there is no water coming to their houses.  Countries around the world have little to no access to clean drinking water and are forced to use dirty, polluted water for their water needs.  This leads to so many health problems it is ridiculous.  So with that being said, shouldn't there be an effort to try and save water as much as possible?  Well what if I told you that you use lot more water than you think you do?  How could this be you ask?  Well, this is called embedded water.  According to the site http://www.waterwise.org.uk/pages/embedded-water.html embedded water is all of the water that is used in making food and/or non-food things like the clothing you buy or the beer you drink.  Water is used in the production of making clothing and also in the making of alcoholic beverages, so the water that you get from the sink or use for a shower is not the only water that you use!  You use water in a lot more ways than you probably could ever imagine.  Also on the same site it is said that  person in Britain uses about one hundred and fifty liters of water from the tap per day.  However, when you look into the embedded water products used as well, that number per day of water usage increases all the way up to 3400 liters per day!  That is a huge difference from what most people think their water usage would be.  So, what kinds of things do people use everyday that they may not know uses water?  Well, according to the site http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/product-gallery/ , milk powder, wine, bio-diesel, leather, cucumbers, coffee, and chocolate all use water.  How does water usage relate to products that aren't food related you my ask?  Well, a cow can produce about 6 kg of leather.  In a cows lifetime, the water footprint of a cow is about 1,890,000 liters.  the majority of this water is derived in the beef of the cow, however there is a portion of the water from the cow that is derived from the leather.  So, leather clothing, bags, etc. all use water or have water in them due where the product came from.  There are so many things you use in a day that you may not even know needed water to be used in the manufacturing process to cool a machine or to be mixed with to make a pigment for something.  I hope this article was helpful in describing how water is used a lot more than the typical uses, like cooking and showering, but also in the formation of non-food products, as well as in foods themselves. 

 

The branches of tree

 

In front of Ellis Hall

 

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West

Sulfur and Nitrogen Dioxide

What exactly are sulfur and nitrogen dioxides?  Well, they are each linked to one of the six criteria air pollutants, those being nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides and neither are good for one's health.  So you may be wondering, where do these nitrogen and sulfur dioxides come from?  Well, according to the site http://www.epa.gov/airquality/sulfurdioxide/ , the major source of sulfur dioxides is a result of big industries burning fossil fuels as well as the burning of fuel that contains sulfur.  This is also where you find most of the sources of nitrogen dioxides.  These sources include motor vehicles and power plants.  This information was also found on the same site that is linked above.  So obviously if these pollutants are watched carefully by the EPA they must not be good for one's health.  According to the site http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=251&tid=46 , sulfur dioxide has very negative health effects from a long term exposure and even short term exposures, especially if the exposure time is in an area where the level of sulfur dioxide is high.  These health effects include airway obstructions and it also effects different functions of the lungs and can cause a burning to the throat and also the nose and respiratory problems and irritations.  The health effects of nitrogen dioxides are very similar to those caused by sulfur dioxides.  According to the site http://www.epa.gov/airquality/nitrogenoxides/health.html , they are respiratory problems, as well as loss in functions of the lungs.  Also, airways may be inflamed due to exposure.  Respiratory problems from both these pollutants are a wide variety of things.  Sulfur dioxides and nitrogen dioxides have similar effects on the respiratory tract when exposed, however, their effects are also slightly different.  According to the site http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mmg/mmg.asp?id=249&tid=46 , the exposure to sulfur dioxides reacts with substances in the upper airway which then causes the lower airway, or the bronchioles, to constrict.  So you could say that both the upper and lower tract of the respiratory tract are effected by sulfur dioxides.  According to the site http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mmg/mmg.asp?id=394&tid=69 , the lower respiratory tract is the main area that is affected when exposed to nitrogen dioxide, as opposed to sulfur dioxide that has an effect on both tracts.  Sulfur dioxide effects both while nitrogen dioxide really effects the lower tract.  To learn more in detail about the upper respiratory tract and lower respiratory tract, go to this site: http://www.webmd.com/lung/respiratory-system-18881 .  So what kind of effect do these pollutants have on plants, say, lichens?  Well, both actually have a negative effect on the lichen population, according to the site http://staff.concord.org/~btinker/gaiamatters/investigations/lichens/affectslichens.html .  This site describes that sulfur dioxides have a lot of responsibility in the decrease in the lichen population compared to nitrogen dioxides.  Yes, nitrogen dioxides are harmful to lichen as well, but sulfur dioxides are the main cause for loss in lichen species.  They say that lichen will either be destroyed by the pollution or a different type of lichen more tolerant to the pollution will start to grow instead.  I hope this article was helpful describing some information about the health effects of sulfur and nitrogen dioxides as well as where those pollutants come from and how they can be harmful to the plants that are exposed to them as well.

Air Pollution Control

Today we will be discussing air pollution control.  Specifically, we will be finding information from the Ohio EPA website, http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dapc/sip/sip.aspx . 

So how is the objective of having clean air achieved?  Well, there are State Implementation Plans, also known as SIP’s that are basically a set of rules (regulations) that are set in order to help maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.  This is also known as the NAAQS and these standards are for the six criteria pollutants.  These six criteria pollutants include ozone, PM2.5, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, lead and carbon monoxide.  PM2.5 stands for particulate matter up to 2.5 micrometers in size.  The most recent standard set for ozone since 1997 was made in 2008 and this 2008 eight-hour ozone standard is 0.075 ppm.  The standard in 1997 was 0.08 ppm as the eight-hour ozone standard.  There are three different standards for the PM2.5.  The first is the 1997 Annual standard which is 15.0 µg/m3.  The next standard was in 2006 and is a 24-hour standard of 35µg/m3.  The last standard for PM2.5 is the 2012 Annual standard of 12.0 µg/m3.  The US EPA changed its standard for nitrogen oxides in 2010.  The standard used to be a one-hour primary standard of 53 ppb.  After the recent change, the new one-hour standard for nitrogen oxides is 100 ppb.  The standard for sulfur dioxide was also changed in 2010 from its previous standard to a new one-hour primary standard of 75 ppb.  Lead had a huge change in it’s standard in the year 2008.  The standard USED to be 1.5 µg/m3, but after the change the new standard is now set at .15 µg/m3.  According to the site http://www.southwestohioair.org/naaqs.html , the standard of carbon monoxide is 35 parts per million.  The eight-hour average for carbon monoxide according to the same source is 9 parts per million.  This is according to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.  When reading about these six criteria air pollutants you might come across the words attainment and nonattainment.  What is the difference you ask?  Well, according to the site http://www.deq.state.ne.us/AirWaves.nsf/cf7e4bdd49c643bf8625747f005a1515/3b00b887a2bae40b8625748e005ffbf5 , if an area has a criteria pollutant over the allowed standard, then that area is described as a nonattainment.  Therefore, an area where a criteria air pollutant is below the required standard then that area is describes as an attainment.  So, with that being said, what is the state of Ohio considered, attainment or nonattainment?  Well, according to the site http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=282 , Ohio would not be able to be described as an attainment as a whole because there are areas, especially near Cleveland that are exceeding the ozone standard.  Thus, Ohio is a nonattainment because it has areas where a criteria pollutant is exceeding the standard allowed.  These air quality standards in Ohio are enforced by the EPA who basically has the power of law and writing regulations about air pollution control.  I hope this article was helpful in providing some helpful information about air pollution control in Ohio and also about the six criteria air pollutants and their standards.