Silent Spring

Chemicals in Sofas Causes Serious Burns to Customers

More than 2000 people in the United Kingdom suffered serious burns from chemicals that were put into sofas made in China. More than 100,000 of the sofas are thought to have been sold on the High Streets in the UK. The chemical in question Dimethyl Fumarate (DMF) were put into satchets, which were then inserted into the sofas to stop them from going mouldy while they were in storage in Asia.

Retailers in the UK were unaware that the chemicals were been used in the sofas and sold them unwittingly to their customers. But in the homes of those that bought the sofas, the solid chemicals turned into gas which went through the customers clothes burning and irritating their skins.

Many people developed painful rashes all over their bodies. A few suffered from severe blood poisoning. Thousands suffered as a result of using the sofas they bought which contained DMF.

Unfortunately, there are still thousands of suites that still contain the chemical. The EU have issued a directive, and have stated that DMF have to be removed from all products and products containing the chemical can no longer be sold. In the UK, a judge at the High Court has ordered that many popular High Street retailers pay out more than £20 million in compensation to the many people that have suffered burns due to the ‘toxic sofas’.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster Worse than Predicted

The Oil spill is now thought to be much worse than previously predicted. Initially the oil spill was thought to be gushing out at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day. But after experts looked at a video released by British Petroleum, they’ve come to the conclusion that the oil could be gushing out at a rate of 50,000 barrels a day.

If these new estimates are correct then the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could already be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 which leaked more than 250,000 barrels of oil.

BP officials have tried to play down the escalating seriousness of the situation by stating that there is no reliable way to estimate the rate of flow of the oil leak. But experts in the field don’t agree. There are known and well established ways to estimate the rate of oil flow. A method known as Particle Image Velocimetry was used to analyse the videotape of the gushing oil from the sea floor. A computer program was used to trace the flow of particles and from the data collected it calculated how fast the particles were moving. Another method was also used to calculate the fluid flow.

Both methods came to the conclusion that the rate of flow was more than ten times greater than was originally thought. BP has already started to discredit the results of the findings and state that there is no way to estimate the flow of oil coming out the pipe accurately.

But of course there isn’t a way to estimate accurately the degree of spillage. But the methods used are supposed to be approximations. It seems that the new results might be better approximations to the actual rate of flow than those first agreed upon by BP.

The problem with this particular environmental disaster is that it is happening incredibly deep in the Ocean floor (1500m). It is very difficult to guess the true environmental impact of the spill because by the time it begins to show it has already spread miles and miles from its point of origin.

Hopefully, the spill will be controlled soon but for progress to be made BP needs to face up to the seriousness of the situation.

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Silent Spring

Oil Spills and the Dangers of Chemical Dispersants

The problem about some of these methods is that they take time to execute and none is guaranteed to work. Every method is just one of many in a list of possible ways to contain the oil spill. While each method is applied and only partially works the oil continues to spill into the surrounding environment.

One of the more worrying methods of dealing with the oil involves the use of chemical dispersants. These chemicals are used primarily to break up the oozing oil, allowing it to decompose more quickly or evaporate before washing ashore.

In a recent test, more than 3,000 gallons of chemical dispersant was shot into the well in order to ‘weaken’ the effects of the oil.
But how much chemical dispersant will be needed to control the worst effects of the oil spill?

Corexit 9500 is one of main agents used in the dispersant and it is known as a moderate human health hazard that can cause eye, skin and respiratory irritation. No-one knows the long term effects of this chemical on humans and animal life. Environmental tests have already confirmed that it is bioaccumulative and can be stored in the fatty tissue of living organisms. It is also quite persistent as tests discovered that more than half of it was stored in sediment with only a relatively small amount dissolving in water.

It seems that dispersants do not remove oil. How could they? Oil is an extremely complex organic liquid. But what it seems to do is relocate it from the shores where it is visible to the water column and sea floor where its effects are not so obvious.

The environmental impacts of chemical dispersants are not really known. So far there haven’t been used in extremely worrying amounts but the possibility exists in this particular situation concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

It seems that the toxic effects of the chemicals present in dispersants may be more tolerable than the damaging effects of the oil itself. All we can do is wait and see.

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Silent Spring

How do you contain a Deep Sea oil Spill?

As we have witnessed over the last few weeks, there is not easy way to contain a deep sea spill.

Fortunately, it’s not the worst oil spill ever (that honour goes to the oil spill in Iraq during the first Gulf War where more than 520 million gallons of oil was deliberately released into the desert).

So far, the authorities have used a number of different ways to control the spread of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill but none so far have been successful in containing the spread of the oil.

Rough water has prevented the burning of oil from properly working. The agitated seas have worked against this method by mixing the oil with water, making it harder to burn. Why this method was initially favoured was because that it gets rid of the more volatile components of the oil, leaving only the more solid tar which is easier to scoop up in nets.

However if the tar is not properly collected, it could cause even more damage to the environment by leaving a very persistent residue that is extremely resistant to breakdown.

Another way that was used to contain the oil spill is to use booms to corral the oil. Already more than 30,000 metres of boom has been used with more than 87,000 available. But again the weather has prevented this technique from been used effectively.

The solution that most specialists believed would may work in containing the spill is the use of a 100-tonne concrete-and-steel giant funnel which would be secured over the source of the spill. Unfortunately, this technique hasn’t been used below a few hundred metres; the Deepwater well is more than 1,500 metres down. It has just recently been proved ineffective in stoping the flow of the oil and so another method is needed to stop the spill from been the worst of its kind.

For more information go to:
Silent Spring

The Environmental cost of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Again the environment is paying the cost of the reckless activities of Man. More than 5,000 barrels a day is gushing into the Ocean from the embers of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Already environmentalists have stated that dolphins, turtles and bird populations will be affected due to the spill. It is also likely that the oil will also hit a number of barrier islands that have yet to recover from the damage caused by hurricane Katrina.

More than 400 species of wildlife are under threat from the continuing spread of the oil. The area is especially significant because of the unusual combination of land and sea that makes up the local environment. The area also contains 25% of US wetlands; an area low in human occupancy and therefore perfect for birds and local wildlife. The species of special concern include; brown pelicans, heron, oystercatchers, plovers, swallows and buntings. Other affected animals include; manatees and Atlantic bluefin tuna.

The long term consequences of the spill are yet to be determined but in a region that has been hit recently with a number of natural disasters the prospects for local wildlife off the Gulf of Mexico doesn’t look good.

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Silent Spring

Study of the Effects of Phthalates on the Behaviour of Young Boys

The study was published in the International Journal of Andrology was led by Dr. Shanna Swan at the University of Rochester in New York. The basis of the study was quite simple. Samples of urine were taken from a group of women that were in their 28th week of pregnancy and was tested for phthalates.

The group of mothers who gave birth to 71 girls and 74 boys were then contacted when their children were about 4-7 years of age.

They were asked about the toys and the activities that their children enjoyed most. The study discovered that the mothers who had higher concentrations of the common phthalates –DEEHP and DBP- gave birth to boys that generally preferred feminine play.

High presence of the chemicals had no impact on the girls.

The higher phthalate boys often preferred gender neutral activities and were less likely to play with traditional male toys such as guns, cars and trains.

This is a shocking and very worrying conclusion. Though the results themselves are not conclusive it does reinforce our worst fears concerning the possible effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals. The developing foetus is extremely sensitive to the effects of chemicals that mimic hormones. Unfortunately, these common chemicals have become unwanted components of our bodies. We couldn’t avoid them if we tried. Everywhere we look there is something that contains one type of plastic or another that is leaching phthalates, bisphenol A, nonylphenol etc… the list goes on.

Our only option is to try and limit our exposure by taking sensible action that reduces our everyday interactions with chemical leaching plastics.

For more information go to: Silent Spring

The Phthalates Problem

The chemical that was focused on in the study was phthalates. Phthalates are a group of chemicals that can mimic the action of the female sex hormone oestrogen.

Other studies have connected phthalates and a number of other endocrine-disrupting chemicals with the worrying increase of genital defects in boys and the lowering of sperm counts in men all over the world.

The new research however, is the first of its type to relate phthalates with behaviour. Studies have shown possible short term effects in young boys, but experts are worried about further possible effects as the children in the study group grow up.

The problem with phthalates is that it is everywhere. Plastic are ubiquitous. They have become embedded into our very way of life. Plastics in many ways are a crucial component of our ‘convenience’ lifestyles.

Phthalates is often found in household objects like furniture, shoes, flooring, shower curtains and even cosmetics. Pregnant women cannot avoid been contaminated with a significant amount of the chemical every day. Fortunately, the chemical breaks down relatively quickly in the human body. But because it is so widely used, our daily load is often fully replenished before nightfall.

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Silent Spring

Chemicals in Plastics are Feminising Boys

A disturbing study has shown that chemicals used in some types of plastic are feminising the brains of baby boys.

It has been shown that boys exposed to high doses of certain chemicals commonly found in everyday plastics are less likely to play with traditionally ‘male’ toys such as cars. The boys are also less willing to join rough and tumble games.

The research adds to increasing evidence that endocrine-disrupting chemicals present in a multitude of household products interfere with the proper development of children. A number of environmental campaigners have voiced their concern and have called for a more thorough investigation into these worrying finds.

A Different way is Needed to Test Toxic Chemicals

But how should new testing methods go?

How can you test for chemicals that could affect foetal development at concentrations at one part per trillion?

The current approach is the complete opposite of that required to deal with endocrine disruption. Industry is allowed to use a new synthetic chemical unless a danger has been proved with scientific certainty. But everyone know that if is near impossible, to establish scientific certainty of causation of most health problems in humans. Therefore the laws are extremely biased towards the unrestricted use of poorly tested synthetic chemicals in industry.

However, the situation is becoming very serious. Every day that nothing is done to control the use of already established endocrine disruptors endangers the health of a whole generation of children. The warning signs are there, the cases seen in wildlife of sterile alligators, panthers and declining bird populations. Among humans, increases in reproductive health issues and the decreases in the average sperm count of men in industrialized countries.

Everyday new evidence is coming to light, but everyday we drag our feet. There has to be a change in the way toxicity is measured and this change has to be quickly applied to law where it can be used to regulate the use of possible endocrine disruptors.

For more information go to:
Silent Spring

What Dose of Toxic Chemicals Causes Harm?

Endocrine disruptors have turned classical toxicology on its head. For decades toxicologists have focused on acute toxicity; the more chemical added the more marked the effect. The thinking been that at low enough doses there is a point you reach where there is no observable adverse effect of the contaminant in question. It has always been a question of how do high levels of chemical pollutants affect health? What high dose causes cancer and what high dose causes death?

This way of thinking has been ingrained into the minds of generations of scientists, but slowly things are beginning to change. Evidence suggesting that another way is needed is growing fast.

‘The dose no longer makes the poison,’ in the case of endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are proving that extremely low doses are enough to cause serious physical damage to complex organism, if applied at crucial stages of their development. Endocrine disruptors can interfere with the role of hormones during foetal development resulting in physical changes that are sometimes not apparent till a child has reached puberty and beyond.

Old laws and regulations based on old paradigms cannot apply to endocrine disruptors. The methods used by industry for testing are simply out of date. Most testing methods do not encompass the subtle yet serious long term effects of chemicals that are potential endocrine disruptors.

For more information go to:
Silent Spring