BIOSOLIDS? WHAT'S THAT?

                              

Many people have not heard of such a thing as biosolids before including myself. I am here to show you through my expensive research on this puzzling topic by exploring some of the aspects of biosolids. 

In other parts of the world, biosolids (human waste) from sewage treatment plants are treated and used as sustainable agricultural fertilizer. Research the pros and cons of this method and take a stand on whether this can be a realistic alternative to our current agricultural practices. Who are the potential stakeholders in this issue? Are we influenced by the western view of human waste as an unsanitary and disgusting nuisance?

What are we debating? 

The emerging topic of debate in the industry of agriculture these days is the use of biosolids in order to reduce the amount of waste being put into the wrong places, but what the heck is it? Should I trust this new substance to be applied to my food?  Bio solids are the product of human waste that is being nurtured in order to suit the requirements of a healthy fertilizer in the agricultural world. They can accomplish many great things and at the same time they can be fatal to people who don’t react well with the air quality they create. Is it worth it to have our crops thrive while the humans who are eating them are dying because of health concerns related to the actual process of creating these crops? I am not currently biased towards either side so I will state some reasons why they are beneficial to the future of our waste management or not based on my research.

Pros

According to Toronto’s Biosolids Management section of Toronto.ca, “Biosolids are a nutrient-rich, organic material. The users of the Toronto wastewater system generate about 195,000 tonnes of biosolids every year.” We cannot ignore such statistics. All of the waste that we generate in our showers, toilets, and sinks can often be inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds. We have biosolids as a result of the wastewater treatment process. Wastewater treatment is vital to the recycling of our renewable resource as every day we produce unthinkable amounts of waste.

Technology allows people to clean our water with wastewater technology in the past and present and it is being used to give us clean drinking water, have cleaner water for marine life, and eliminates the need for it to travel through sewers anymore. Of course some plants and companies still do this and that is another issue. Increasing concerns have been voiced to ensure that we recycle these biosolids much the same way as we do with water. We are now required to process wastewater and to make it reusable for the safety of the public. Can’t we do the same with biosolids? Even if it is cost effective we need to ensure that the material is safe to nurture the food we eat.

Tiny organisms benefit from the organic matter in these biosolids and are able to provide energy for earthworms and other little creatures cultivating our soil for us. Biosolids are cheaper to produce safely if you think about it. They are available for use during all seasons and don’t easily wear out compared to regular fertilizers, lasting a lot longer and providing for plants longer than usual. Of course the economic reality is that biosolids are more efficient and cost much less to produce. People would never run out of them ever!

Cons

Biosolids are not exactly the best when it comes to health concerns. Think about all of the farmers who are cultivating the land and using this fertilizer to do so. They have to take precautions that they probably wouldn’t have to take with lesser amounts of regular fertilizer that they already are familiar with.

Yes, this is a very important subject because if biosolids become the norm for society and people start selling other people’s feces and food produced from that same feces how are we to be absolutely sure where it came from? How can we be sure that it has been treated properly by the many treatment plants? There is too much uncertainty. They are wonderful for the environment but if you look at the people who have resulted in having health problems and even deaths because of a method that we never actually needed to implement to improve life.

It was recorded that an 11-year-old boy from Osceola Mills, Pa., died of staphylococcal septicaemia. Prior to, he complained of several irratations and problems resulting from the exposure of biosolids he encountered on a bike ride through a field where sewer sludge had been applied. He died resulting from bacteria that had gotten into his bloodstream and contaminated it. He died a total of only six days after exposure. Other cases involved little animals developing the same characteristics and symptoms as the boy had that ended up being destroyed. These innocent animals were exposed in the same way and it is unfortunate to have to do that to them.

Sludge and other wastes of the sort are taking a toll on us and who knows what the future holds. Many diseases can develop and have developed from the practices of using biosolids for farming.

Smell is a huge factor in this department too. It is grotesque and unpleasant for the people who must tend to fields of this material, DAILY. If one boy died from a simple bike ride past the field what can be done about people who are exposed to it as part of their careers? In warmer temperatures there is also an increased odour emanating from the pile distributed throughout farms everywhere.

Many would say that the pros far outnumber the cons but I believe in quality over quantity. I mean that if people die as an outcome of this new idea then it shouldn’t be worth doing. It is an injustice no matter how you look at it. Still, people would use this method because economics rule the world and people need to make a living. If there are people getting hurt then I think we should appreciate the little things, or rather, the bigger things such as life and the future of humanity because who really knows what will develop from these ideas? That’s just my opinions though, you decide. Mainly the use of biosolids seem unnecessary to me.

Potential Stakeholders

The potential stakeholders are the general public because we are the ones consuming these foods, the government and all of it’s workers who are working with these things and are being exposed to them. Also farmers and gardeners who wish to use these methods for cultivation. Then again it is their choice to work with these conditions and if they want to then they can just not use them and implement regular soil into the crops. Either way I have stated what I believe but now you decide what you think.

Are we influenced by the western view of human waste as an unsanitary and disgusting nuisance?

Yes I believe that in western countries they are more used to poverty and lower standards of living so they wouldn’t be affected in the same way as we do in Canada. We have cleaner resources and more money so we are naturally more concerned with healthcare as we have higher standards for being sanitary. Therefore I believe that we are influenced by the ways other people in other parts of the world are living their lives, with less resources, in a smaller area, filled with millions of people.  

Sources: 

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/452/452-304/452-304.html

http://www.cwwa.ca/faqbiosolids_e.asp

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2002/ed80502.htm

http://www.toronto.ca/water/biosolids/index.htm

Technology; the Future of Health Care

"Assess how societal needs lead to scientific and technological developments related to internal systems."

Hospitals rely on an increasing array of technology to improve patient care, diagnose disease, and improve efficiency.  The technologies in hospitals today provide vast improvements over methods of diagnosing disease and creating efficiency based on previous generations.  These technologies include tracking and diagnostic technologies, and emerging technologies that continue to advance the capabilities of modern medicine.

The use of infrared technology is quickly being integrated into hospitals and is growing fast.  Examples of such technology are a badge equipped with sensors that correspond with sensors on the ceilings of hospitals in order to call upon employees if needed, and are also important when locating specific resources and accounting for supplies.  Money is saved from these processes because of the convenience of keeping track of resources so to not lose money by losing chemicals or drugs.  Time is saved because less time is spent searching for lost items and more is spent on productivity.

Computerized Tomography, more commonly known as CT scanners are used to produce cross sections and images of internal systems and their progress.  The images that CT scans provide are more detailed than most x-rays and reveal crucial information about anatomy and internal structures and organs.  This scan is important for locating the problems with bones, muscles, and tumors or other internal injuries of the body.

                                                       

Emerging medical technologies include robotics, microtechnology, and nanotechnology and the promise that new medical advances will continue to be integrated into hospitals in the near future.  RoboCourier is a delivery robot for hospitals designed and built with capabilities to distribute and collect patient samples throughout the hospital.  Able to navigate on its own, RoboCourier eliminates the need for workers to transport medical carts around the hospital and gives them a chance to focus their attention on more important tasks, like treating patients!

Discoveries have been made concerning the likelihood of disease by looking at your genetic structure.  This is a major advance in medicine and technology because it allows people to see into the body and base their plan of action accordingly and makes it easier to learn how to fix any internal problems.  A recent study of men with prostate cancer found that diet and lifestyle changes could "switch off" some 453 cancer-promoting genes, while simultaneously "switching on" some 48 cancer-fighting genes.  

                                                  

Amazing improvements in prosthetics are making bionic limbs a reality, much like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek or Luke Skywalker’s arm from The Empire Strikes Back, this is well above the capacities of modern medicine.  It gives people another chance at the things that they may not even have been born with; the goggles worn by Geordi LaForge are actually almost reality. Scientists have developed something called the Bionic Eye which allows one to see using different perceptions of dark and light through a plastic eye. Well I’ll just let you see

The Bionic Eye for yourself.

Luke Skywalker's legacy continues below

Medical imaging is a rather massive field that brought the discovery of the X-ray when it was accidentally created in 1895.  Since then, the field has expanded, giving us Computed Tomography (CT scans), Positron Emission (PET scans), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs), and ultrasounds.  What can you say that’s bad about medical imaging? Well there are some downsides, such as overexposure which eventually results in different cancers. Continuous exposure to X-rays causes higher risks of getting cancer but that is just one of the downsides to Information Technology and Medical Technology, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

In our modern society we are blessed with these incredible discoveries and innovations that ultimately make life easier for us and decrease the cost while increasing the efficiency of methods of implementation.  Life is much more convenient when the methods of implementation are at their simplest.  With these aspects of hospital technology and medical advancements, there are endless possibilities.  I’m just glad that we live in this time when they are available to us and not far from home.  New possibilities are now available and life has been made easier by these discoveries. It will only get better from here and the future of technology has yet to be stumped!

Sources

http://www.jonbarron.org/baseline-health-program/07-07-2008.php

http://ojni.org/7_3/riversinfotech.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_13/b3926001_mz001.htm

http://www.breakthroughdigest.com/

Artificial Selection; It Was Never Meant to Be There at All

Environmental Selection is a very complicated subject to talk about in terms of ethics because it is hard to choose whether it has been more positive or negative for life on earth. By definition Artificial Selection is the selection of desired traits in plants and animals that ultimately benefits society. Artificial Selection has been used to modify certain plants and animals to make them into better mediums of agricultural purposes.

Artificial Selection allows for the intentional multiplication or increased frequency of certain traits or a mixture of traits. Now we ask, “Under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?” Personally I don’t agree with the cultivation of selected characteristics for our own gain. What can we do though? How can even we help it now anyways? Nonetheless, I don’t think we should have introduced the idea in the first place. 

Artificial Selection does have benefits for agriculture and it does let us choose what traits we would like to have in plants and animals but there are hazardous effects that come with these “beneficial” traits. Just because it helps humans with their lives doesn’t mean it is ethically right to encourage this practice either. For instance, there are cows that produce more milk and more beef, Persian cats with flatter faces, and dogs that are bred to be less violent. These certain modifications come with issues that not only cause us an inconvenience but also hurt the animals and plants in question. These cows may produce more milk, but the alterations with their DNA also causes increased infection and fertility problems; the Persian cats that we would like to see with flatter faces often develop respiratory issues and can’t breathe properly; and changing the appearance of Dobermans to become easier on the eyes has created a defect and given most Dobermans narcolepsy. These traits cannot further be helped because they are now a part of the species and cannot be weeded out by natural selection. If most Dobermans have narcolepsy then natural selection would not do very much because the majority have narcolepsy and it cannot be eliminated through the course of nature.

The same goes with plants. Have you ever wondered where corn came from? Some people think that corn is an entirely man-made species that is incapable of reproducing without the intervention of man, and others say that it is entirely Mother Nature who brought us this valuable vegetable. Now ask yourself. If corn cannot reproduce itself, then how could it have been on earth for all this time? Obviously it had to have evolved from deviations of a specific ancestor through Artificial Selection. It hasn’t necessarily had a negative impact on the world but it isn’t natural, so in other words it is a mutation of a natural substance that was changed by weeding out certain undesired traits. This is happening everywhere, from meddling with animals to form fatter pigs, faster horses, and more elegant breeds of dogs; but there are just a few examples. Based on our needs we are changing nature which is not always for the better. Also there is a difference between species and breed.

A species is a group of individuals that can reproduce with one another. A breed is a group of domestic animals that have altered appearances and have been changed by artificial selection over many generations. An individual of a breed will be able to reproduce with an individual of another breed properly, although both of the distinctive characteristics of the two breeds can be lost limiting biodiversity. This also makes a mixed breed animal.

Well originally we were trying to change plants and animals to produce greater yields. The simple wild mustard plant that they cultivated numerous times for desired traits has now become many things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and more. These are now part of many people’s every day lives. What about other things that have evolved because of people tampering with their genetic makeup? There are certain health risks that have popped up because maybe a person could be allergic to any new mutations that contain a mash up of things and become one substance. With this possibility, there are numerous health concerns and allergy risks for people.

With the selective breeding of any species there are increased risks on the limitations of biodiversity. Plant breeders are experimenting with favourable features in crops. Naturally we want the best conditions and features in our plants so weeding out certain traits so many times and only keeping those will eventually eliminate the existence of unwanted plants. This will create the scare that if something comes along that could eliminate the new desired plant, and then it would take out the whole species at enormous rates. If this diversity is not kept, there will be a removal of an essential element in life called variation and render it ineffective and thus useless. This we must take into consideration because if we continue to implicate processes like these with nature, there will be increased expenses as well. The huge costs and efficiency of the process complicates life for humans too if you think about it. We will have to create our own food when there are no more animals to do it for us.

Look at this cow (above). It was breeded in order to serve one purpose. It was to give us more meat at a cheaper price. It was not ever supposed to just live and even be accepted for it's physical properties. Humans have altered it's DNA so that it now has a huge burden to carry. It has to satisfy the agricultural needs of humans,supply more affordable meat, and it has to live with a demented body, which probably causes it pain or discomfort. This Belgian Blue Bull probably also suffers from a lack of myostatin inhibitors. Myostatin is a protein produced in the body that controls muscle growth. This abnormality is very rare to find in other animals, though it still exists, it is mostly found in Belgian Blue Cows.

We know that Artificial Selection brings ethical problems, money problems, health concerns, and mutations. What’s next? What if we never started it? Well if people hadn’t developed this procedure we would probably have been better off although we wouldn’t have such diversity in animals and plants on earth. We wouldn’t have those things but we would still find a way of living and meeting our needs head on because we are always looking for easier processes to reach our goals.

Therefore I conclude that even without artificial selection we would prosper and we would find our way around other things that come up. Things will no longer be natural and the balance of naturally occurring instances will be overpowered by the artificial means of doing things. If it does, human kind will have to work harder and create ways of artificially supplying ourselves with resources in the absence of animals and plants (It is like if we run out of bees because of cell phone abuse killing them all and we’ll have to make our own honey and pollenate all the plants and fruits). We would be without these things so we need to come up with alternative ways of popularizing trends in desired traits, but then… wouldn’t it still be a step backwards? That is the question.

Sources:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-artificial-selection.htm

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0_0/evo_30

http://www.sparknotes.com/biology/evolution/naturalselection/section3.rhtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/16/charles-darwin-scienceofclimatechange

http://www.helium.com/items/804222-artificial-selection-and-its-application-to-medicine

Designer Babies; Are they ethical or selfish?

Why do humans desire to be perfect? I believe that there are three main reasons for this. These reasons branch from three stages present in our everyday lives; wanting acceptance, wanting what we don't have, and wanting to correct our mistakes. First we have an overwhleming desire to fit in and be the same as the people around us so as to be part of the majority of the people around us, because nobody likes to be left out. Then there is the overwhelming desire to be better than the people around us which comes from our envy of others and wanting to compete for everything and even have the same things as others. Finally once we have achieved these two things we look towards the next step of perfection. This is the perfection of likely the last stage in life for most people, the development of our children.




With the advancement of technology in the last decade or so, scientists have been able to actually manipulate our offspring by genetically altering genes to create a certain desired quality that would normally be impossible for some couples to produce. The scientists insert genes from a healthy donor into the embryos of fetuses to cure diseases that are passed down through the generations. Health concerns such as diabetes and high blood pressure are very common in the U.S. and they can surely benefit from this new process. But some people have decided that they would like to choose what physical appearances their child will possess when they grow up. These are what the media likes to call "Designer Babies"The question is whether it is ethical or not and more importantly what will happen if the governments allow this to be accepted into our communities.




The United Kingdom does not accept this procedure because they believe it is unethical and that we should use the process to cure diseases carried on through families instead of improving our DNA. I agree with their decision. We can't live a lie by improving ourselves in an unnatural way. We should be proud to be alive and able to walk and see. Instead we think of ourselves as if it is a competition to see who can have the best looking or smartest children. Of course it would be nice to be naturally smarter or good looking. But that's the problem. It has to be natural. If it's not it's like living a lie.

We've accepted being human and having flaws, the very essence of being human, but is it right to choose the traits of our babies? Is it ideal? If we think of how we've been and what the events of real life suggests, then what is the need for designer babies other than to decrease health concerns at birth? Scientists have discovered processes to genetically alter the fetuses or our babies. They have paved a new way for the enhancement of mankind's abilities. They are playing God. They are being superficial and using their power for the wrong purpose. The only thing we should, and that's if we even ethically should improve on, are health risks and diseases that run throughout generations of families like high blood pressure or diabetes.


I personally believe that it is unacceptable to create "false" human beings. They are still humans and they still live and breathe like us and with us but they are made in our image. We changed the way God meant for them to turn out. I don't find that right. Everything has it's place. If people start to want only boys or only girls for children then it would become dramatically unballanced. The natural way would have saved us from global warming if we'd still been walking today but I digress.



Some countries have already over populated and are being limited to having only one child per family or even killing children based on gender. This happens with a new technology called the sonogram machine that can determine a childs gender even before birth. The British medical journal Lancet estimated that the difference between male and female population would be at 43 million with 100 million girls unaccounted for who were supposed be alive but were not. A huge amount of them would be Chinese and following close behind them would be Indian. If these cultures continue to produce males to such an alarming extent then what does that mean for the future of their race? Having no girls to mate with would mean fights over girls and it would be dramatically unbalanced. The reason for this problem is most likely the immense preference of male children, the sonogram machine being used to limit gender to strictly males, and low or quickly declining fertility levels in those countries.

Things like these lead to genetic mutations and a wide range of possibility for new diseases to form if anything happens incorrectly. We are not ready for that kind of phenomenon to occur. Being ready for disease isn't something we should be need to prepare for. Life is a gift. Maybe some people hope or desire or sort of fantasize about certain physical traits, but once that baby pops out, I don't think a lot of parents would really care anymore. They would just love them for the way they are...

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/1312708.stm

The War Against Baby Girls
http://www.frcblog.com/2007/04/the-global-war-against-baby-girls/

Time Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987-1,00.html

Human Interactions; Self destructive?

Welcome to my blog. I hope you will learn

something here today

Here is the question we need to ask ourselves:

Many scientists consider humans as the most invasive species, as humans can greatly change an environment and impact living things that reside there. Are we being stewards of the world? Look at an issue in which human intervention has positively or negatively affected the biodiversity of our

ecosystems.

As humans we are massive consumers who disrupt the environment and are careless with our waste. We should realize that we will, sooner than we think, ruin the wonderful place we live in that was once beautiful and flourishing with life. Throughout history, man has erased millions of species from existence. We need to realize that if this continues, our world will cease to exist in a future that is quickly approaching. This is why every person should make an effort to reduce, reuse, recycle and work to maintain life on earth.

Our excessive consumption of resources has a negative impact on our environment. According to "Thegoodhuman.com", about three species go extinct daily. Nearly 1141 out of the estimated 5500 animal species on earth are now endangered or extinct due to the crippling outcome of our human activities. Just think for a second. If three species of animals go extinct EVERY day then by a years time we will have lost 1068 uniquely amazing life forms that deserve to be alive. They were living peacefully for millions of years and now they are dying after we have taken over their environments and created agriculture.

We are too focused on the economy and entertainment to realize that some of the most important species are at risk and could monumentally effect our lives in a matter of years. When i say this i am talking about bees. Bees pollinate a significant amount of our fruit when they gather nectar for their hives. Bees accounted for 9.5 of the world`s total agriculture production in 2008. Now they too are disappearing due to excessive cell phone use. The reason for this being that cell phone radiation travel to a receiver somewhere disrupting their navigation methods. The bees then cannot find their way home, get lost and die. Albert Einstein said once that if bees were eliminated completely that life on earth would end in a matter of four years (Yes this is a wake up call so be afraid).

An article by www.un.org stated that four species or sub species are lost every hour, while forests covering areas the size of four times the size of Belgium are lost yearly. With these devastating numbers how long do we have before the end of the world? What will happen to our world's cute cuddly animals? Panda's and tigers will be gone before we know it and join their friends the dodo and sabertooth in animal heaven. We need to help our animals because it's not fair to them and it will be counter-productive for us as well. Each of us needs to realize that maintaining the world is a life long group effort and that if we want mankind to exist past our lifetimes we should work for it. We have negatively impacted the environment and should know better to just walk a little farther to throw something in the garbage or the recycling bin. We could also turn off lights that we are not using.

If you were to ask me if i thought we were good stewards of the planet I would not be able to give an answer. Yes some of us care about the planet and try to maintain it by growing plants and using techniques to save and reduce the impact of our lives on the environment, but not all of us. Politicians talk about carbon taxes and how we are going to make the world better but there's no follow through. Other people don't really care about the effects we have on everything around us. We are not doing all the things we can do to save our planet. The world could end in our lifetimes. With the absence of bees and the absence of clean air we won't have any other options. More and more babies are being diagnosed with down syndrome and birth defects. This proves how our environment is now taking a toll on ourselves. We wrecked our own lives whether unintentionally or not, and now we have to fix our mistakes. We have put animals on thin ice. Literally, on thin ice because of the polar ice caps melting due to global warming. The fish are dying because the waters are too warm. The diseases are being spread easier and fast because of heat and humidity, and the bees, most importantly, the bees are disappearing. We have not been doing a very good job.

Everyone thinks that the world will be taken care of by people not in their life time. They tell themselves "It's not my problem. Who cares about the future as long as it's not me who has to deal with it". I have heard many people say something along the lines of that. People in Mary Ward think Green Quest is a waste of time but what not everybody knows is that we were given a bunch of recycling bins that we wouldn't have unless Green Quest and it's members made the effort by taking time out of their days to order them (trust me that's a lot). Many think it's not cool to save the environment and say 'who cares other people will do it for us'. This is SELFISH. It's also a bad habit so stop being selfish and stop being lazy. Be a man (or woman) and do what's right!

This bio blog has been graciously offered to you by Michael Ansell please come again.

My Sources

110 Species to Go Extinct in 2008

The Last 15 Years Have Been the Most Destructive

Check out the video in this link to learn about Colony Collapse Disorder!

Disappearances of Bees

Bees Navigational Patterns

Mobile Phones Killing Bees

Green Quest