Some say Lion's Mane mushroom is the Jungle's King in fighting neurodegenerative diseases

Very recently, an incredible docuseries debuted on Netflix. It covers the highly interesting world of Fungi, their emergence as kings of the ecosystems, debunking the public generalised idea of an apparent vulnerability. We couldn't be 'more wrong'!!!! If there is a resilient species, clever for their societal dynamics, incredibly adapted to making their presence noticed with the sporulation of millions of very light microspores that get carried away by the weakest breeze, FUNGI are the deal. I wouldn't be able to reduce their tenacity and biological cleverness in a small book, let alone a paragraph in a blog post. 

Please watch the series 'Fantastic Fungi' (hopefully the link will be available for the years to come for everyone to savor the educational quality of its content).

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Fungi are very adaptable and in the game of survival that all species play for their own sake, they went from absurdly evolved underground networks to making other species do exactly what they want; a process as bizarre as the morbid zombie-like approach I have written about in a previous post entitled 'Survival of the Poisonous: "Ophiocordyceps vs. Ant'.

Nevertheless, a particular species of mushrooms that immediately caught my attention was the one known as Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus). This mushroom has been identified as having very interesting properties that can help solve, once and for all, the most challenging aspects of the neurological decadence in humans, especially those related to Alzheimer's. In a time where researchers try their very best in gathering the most clinically relevant information concerning this disease, and where predictors of incidence in humans are now starting to emerge from these research projects (like the one from the Lund University [1] that might help tackle the price and diagnosis' limitations that see around 20 to 30% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease ending up wrongly diagnosed even within specialised healthcare [1]. The project lead by Professor Oskar Hansson generated a prototype online algorithm that makes use of the combination of a simplified blood test ('measuring a variant of the tau protein [phosphylated tau] and a risk gene for Alzheimer’s') associated to a short (~10 minutes) triplet of cognitive tests. Alongside the simplicity of the process, especially when considering how challenging these patients can be when facing complex tasks, is the fact that the diagnosis predicts correctly with over 90% certainty exactly which patients would be in risk of developing dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease within a period of four years. 

This tool will not only increase the quality of care of patients in a predictive and planning fashion, but also concentrate and focus the targeting of the different developed drugs in more accurate indicators and variables, treatment-wise.

It is here, when it comes to treatment, that some researchers have been interested in the incredible potential that Lion's Mane Mushroom is reporting from the different investigational projects around the globe. For example, some investigators have observed this mushroom to have therapeutic properties that promote recovery of nerve and brain health [2] due to its erinacine production in the mycelia of its organism. The same authors even propose an optimised process for an advantageous fermentation process, so the content in erinacine A (the only erinacine substance that has been confirmed as having pharmacological activity in the central nervous system in rats) is increased [2]. Their rat models have helped identify protective properties in Ischemic Stroke (showing capacity to reduce neuronal apoptosis and stroke cavity size in the studied rat brains), Parkinson's Disease (a disease with a profile of gradual loss of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta region of the brain, and that ultimately ends up resulting in motor problems such as 'resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability') - however, with Lion's Mane erinacine A, the dopaminergic injuries and accumulated oxidative stress in the stratum and substantia nigra were significantly improved. And even with transgenic rat-models of Alzheimer's disease where the occurrence of amyloid-β plaques that participate also in the increasing of secondary brain comorbidities such as 'inflammation, excitotoxicity, and apoptosis', and add on to the negative effects associated to the deposition of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins - in this study the observed transgenic mice treated with H. erinaceus mycelia were able to 'recover behavioral deficits after 81 days of administration'.

***

The range of protective/recovering activities observed in the brain of different transgenic mice mimicking the different aforementioned neurodegenerative complications, reveal a promising way forward, as some studies have recently established:

Li, I-C. et al 2020 with the 'Prevention of Early Alzheimer’s Disease by Erinacine A-Enriched Hericium erinaceus Mycelia Pilot Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study' studied the effects of capsules containing two contrasting concentrations (350 mg/g and 5 mg/g) of erinacine A per day in treating mild Alzheimer's patients and observed that the highest concentration is well-tolerated and beneficial to their neurocognition.

Their cytotoxicity has already been established a long time back as low by other studies, I hereby mention solely two as an example to avoid a longer text [3] [4]; but this study by Li et al (2020) [5] where a 70-fold higher concentration has been used without observed clinical cytotoxicity is ever so promising for the future paths this realm of investigation may take.

Post picture kindly taken from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lions-mane-mushroom.

[1] Simple Diagnostic Tool Predicts Individual Risk of Alzheimer’s, Neuroscience News, [https://neurosciencenews.com/individulaized-alzhiemers-risk-tool-18484/], last visited on the 3rd of August 2021, last update on the 24th of May 2021

[2] Li, I-C., Lee, L-Y., Tzeng, T-T., Chen, W-P., Chen, Y-P., Shiao, Y-J., Chen, C-C. (2018). "Neurohealth Properties of Hericium erinaceus Mycelia Enriched with Erinacines". Behav Neurol. 2018.

[3] Mori, K., Inatomi, S., Ouchi, K. et al. (2009). "Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial". Phytother Res.; 23: pp. 367–72.

[4] Nagano, M., Shimizu, K., Kondo, R. et al. (2010). "Reduction of depression and anxiety by 4 weeks Hericium erinaceus intake". Biomed Res.; 31, pp. 231–7.

[5] Li, I-C., Chang, H-H., Lin, C-H et al (2020). "Prevention of Early Alzheimer’s Disease by Erinacine A-Enriched Hericium erinaceus Mycelia Pilot Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study". Front. Aging Neurosci.; 12 (155), pp. 1-13.

"Vaping nearly killed me, says British teenager", by BBC News

I thought it would be pertinent to share this brand new story that came out published online today in the BBC News website. I had already posted some information on the topic concerning the dangers associated to vaping and vaporisers, but more and more reports are coming out that show detrimental effects on lung tissue caused by vaping fumes/toxicants. The truth is that people have been now using these for a while and even though the so called long-term studies aren't still available, the first real-world data is starting to come out... and it doesn't look good.

If you'd like to revisit my post access HERE. For the BBC News story entitled "Vaping nearly killed me, says British teenager" please access HERE. 

Limonene in vaporisers and e-cigarettes might induce health problems

I gave it a million thoughts before I even started imagining this post. Believe me, it was one of the hardest I wrote so far, and not because of the science on it, but because of the lack of science available on it!!! 

Even though there are million pages out there on the dangers associated to the use of limonene, as you already know, I'm not one willing to duplicate or replicate anyone else's work, especially if already presented with excellent content. 

I then decided to do it a tad different, and when I realised I wasn't writing a post on the toxicity of limonene anymore, I was writing a post on a very specific putative danger associated to its inhalation via e-cigarette/vaporiser.

But before progressing any further and for the sake of contextualisation, it is imperative to draw a few preliminary lines on the whole topic. For that matter I'll use some direct questions in order to make scientific sense of the info readily available on limonene. 

What is limonene?

Limonene, also known as Alpha-Limonene, Alpha-Limonène, Dipentene, D-Limonene, D-Limonène, L-Limonene, L-Limonène, Limonène, Limoneno, R-Limonene, R-Limonène, S-Limonene [1] is a low toxicity volatile organic chemical compound that can be found in the peels of citrus fruits, among other plants.

What is limonene used for?

The different industries realised that limonene has many applications. This compound has been used, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry in products that require improved skin penetration [2], in weight loss drugs and supplements [3], extensively used in immunooncology research [4, 5], in the food industry as flavouring [6], in house cleaning products due to its scent. In this sense the volatile nature of this product is often related to certain hazards, but if you need to know more I advise you to read this source [7] containing a great easy-to-understand summary on the dangers of inhalation of limonene, and consequently, formaldehyde. You don't know what formaldehyde is? Well, it is a product that in the specific case of the example we are hereby analysing, is generated by the reaction between ozone and limonene. If we consider that limonene is extensively used in air sprays or as a solvent, then we must also consider the large amounts of formaldehyde (a strong carcinogenic, irritant and corrosive substance) [8] that is being inhaled by people all over the globe. However, specialists at the World Health Organisation consider these to be of trace levels, and thus, irrelevant health-wise.

On the dangers associated to inhaling limonene... for fun... or out of habit:

Now imagine if you are one of those people that have replaced sucking on a cigarette (a terrible unhealthy habit I mastered from the age of 17 to the age of 27) by sucking on a device known as Electronic Cigarette (some with crazy shapes like dragons or butterflies). Many of those daily recreational users of electronic cigarettes or vaporizers tend to claim these are a safe option. But in reality there is still insufficient data to claim these devices and their contents are safe for human use. From the Herbert Gilbert's idea of an electronic cigarette back in 1967, to the first modern e-cigarette by the Chinese Hon Lik company in the year 2000, very little research on short-, long-term use inhalation of the numerous constituents of these inhaling solutions has been presented to public eye. No one can immediately state that electronic cigarettes and vaporisers are safe or less unhealthy a habit in comparison to the murderous predecessor cigarette.

I found an article that 'supports' the idea that people randomly vaporising my face (when I'm out there on the streets) is enough a reason to go bonkers and mentally imagine slapping that sh*t out of their faces. I never do it, but the rabid Dwayne Johnson in me clearly wants to come out seeking vengeance. The article I tell you about is the Clapp and Jaspers (2017) [9] where the authors produced a great review linking e-cigarettes to asthma. Something the public should be reflecting on. In their article they go on about, among other very important aspects, the possible impact of the potent TRPA1 agonist role of common electronic cigarette's/vaporiser's flavouring agents... such as LIMONENE (the one that offers that lemony scent). Meaning that these agents promote a strong pulmonary reflex response that might be involved in contributing to exacerbation of asthma, but is also related to exacerbation of oral lichen planus (a chronic inflammatory condition affecting oral mucous membranes [10]). In itself, oral lichen planus is not seen as a serious condition... until we realise that there is a 1% risk of developing into an oral cancer [11]. That's 1 in 100, 10 in a thousand, and so on and so forth.

In summary, there is so much more to know and research about these vaporisers that until we can actually assume full understanding of the impact of such agents on human health, a lot of studies must be adequately conducted. My question is, if so little was known about the short- and long-term use of these substances, how come were they so easily made legal for human consumption as inhalers? And if we go a bit deeper, most of the knowledge gathered so far, that actually excuses the use of substances like limonene in vaporisers and e-cigarettes, is based on single exposures... someone forgot to look into the combinatorial effects. A simple example is the one aforementioned: Limonene + Ozone = Formaldehyde!

*** 

[1] Limonene, WebMD, [https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1105/limonene], last visited on the 2nd of March 2019, last update unknown.

[2] Almirall, M. ,  Montaña, J. ,  Escribano, E. ,  Obach, R. ,  Berrozpe, J. D. (1996). "Effect of d-limonene, alpha-pinene and cineole on in vitro transdermal human skin penetration of chlorpromazine and haloperidol". Europe PMC, 46(7), pp. 676-680.

[3] Brudnak, M. A. (2002). "Weight-loss drugs and supplements: are there safer alternatives?". Medical Hypotheses, 58(1), pp. 28-33.

[4] Rodrigues, B. S., Ávila, R. I., Benfica, P. L., et al (2018). "4-Fluorobenzaldehyde limonene-based thiosemicarbazone induces apoptosis in PC-3 human prostate cancer cells", Life Sciences, 203, pp. 141-149.

[5] Yu, X., Lin, H., Wang, Y. et al (2018). "d-limonene exhibits antitumor activity by inducing autophagy and apoptosis in lung cancer". OncoTargets and Therapy, 11, pp. 1833–1847.

[6] Guneser, O., Demirkol, A., Yuceer, Y. K. (2017) "Production of flavor compounds from olive mill waste by Rhizopus oryzae and Candida tropicalis". Brazilian Journal of Microbiology, 48(2), pp. 275–285.

[7] What is limonene, cleansmart, [http://www.ukcpi.org/features/limonene], last visited on the 2nd of March 2019, last update unknown.

[8] Medical Management Guidelines for Formaldehyde, Agency for Toxic Substances, last visited on the 2nd of March 2019, last update on the 21st of October 2014.

[9] Clapp, P. W., and Jaspers, I. (2017). "Electronic Cigarettes: Their Constituents and Potential Links to Asthma". Current allergy and asthma reports, 17(11), pp. 79-101. 

[10] Shan, D., Long, H., Lai, W. 2017). "TRPA1 may contribute to the exacerbation of oral lichen planus through Koebner phenomenon". Oral diseases, Letter to the Editor.

[11] Oral Lichen Planus, British Asociation of Dermatologists, [http://www.bad.org.uk/shared/get-file.ashx?id=111&itemtype=document], last visited on the 2nd of March 2019, last update on May 2016.

Post image by Finn Gross Maurer on Unsplash.

***

https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

http://www.ukcpi.org/features/limonene

https://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/cicad/en/cicad05.pdf?ua=1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35281338

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+1809

https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

Walkers launches recycling scheme after storm over crisp packets

"Walkers said packets kept the crisps fresher for longer and therefore cut food waste.

A recycling scheme for crisp packets has been launched by Walkers after it was targeted by protests on the issue.

Walkers was the focus of a campaign where its crisp packets were posted back to the snack firm, which led to problems at Royal Mail sorting offices.

Now the company said it had put in place collection points across the UK and also offers a free courier service.

Environmental group Beach Guardian welcomed the move, but said "the most vital thing is that people use it".

Leicester-based Walkers had faced months of criticism that its metallised plastic packets were contributing to litter and marine pollution.

Packets dating back decades were found on beaches, and a petition demanding environmentally-friendly packaging received more than 330,000 signatures.

Another campaign saw people encouraged to post packets back to Walkers, prompting Royal Mail to intervene as the plastic pouches were slowing down its systems.

The new recycling scheme was first announced in the summer, but is officially launched on Monday.

A spokesman for Walkers said: "Crisp packets are technically recyclable, the issue until now has been that they weren't being separated or collected for recycling.

"This scheme will tap into an established network of recycling collection points around the UK.

"It is simple and free to use, all brands of crisp packets will be accepted and will ultimately be turned into other basic plastic items."

It is planned the packets will be recycled into basic household items
Those who cannot get to a recycling centre can use a dedicated courier service free of charge, the company said.

Emily Stevenson, co-founder of Beach Guardian, said: "This scheme is a great step in the right direction. It gives people an option to dispose of their packets responsibly.

"Of course the most vital thing is that people use it."

Original article from the BBC News (HERE) published on the 10th of December 2018.

Post image kindly taken from TUCO, The University Caterers Organisation, [https://www.tuco.ac.uk/component/k2/item/285-walkers-crisps-to-create-uk-s-first-nationwide-recycling-scheme-for-crisp-packets].

The Great Plastic Pick Up

I am organising a small event that you can replicate wherever you are, be it Britain or the States, Zimbabwe or North Korea. Well, maybe not so much in Zimbabwe and North Korea for the time being, but I'm sure one day it will also be possible for them to organise... environmental activities.

The event is as simple as it gets, a plastic/rubbish clean up of our county/national parks as a wonderful way of offering some environmental awareness to our children. With that we will also be helping with maintaining our parks clean and picnic-prone!

These are the details of the event I am organising after finding out about the The Great Plastic Pick Up Project through a Nottingham City Council newsletter and on the Daily Mail's. Why don't you join in and start your own movement towards getting rid of all unnecessary plastic in the vicinity of your neighborhood and from the depths of your favourite county park?!!!

Organiser name: The Toxicologist Today Event name: The Meadows will clean Colwick Park Date: 12/05/2018

Planning ahead is really important so before you start your clean-up download our Great Plastic Pick Up Guide.

Afterwards, we would love to hear how your event went, please tell us.

Thank you for getting involved in the Great Plastic Pick Up. Good luck with your Pick Up!

Iceland supermarket chain aims to be plastic free by 2023

"Supermarket chain Iceland has said it will eliminate or drastically reduce plastic packaging of all its own-label products by the end of 2023.

Iceland says the move will affect more than a thousand own-label products.

New ranges will be packaged using a paper-based tray, rather than plastic.

It follows recent outcries over the packaging of cauliflower "steaks" and coconuts, and Sir David Attenborough's Blue Planet programme, which showed vivid images of plastic pollution.

Prime Minister Theresa May has called plastic waste "one of the great environmental scourges of our time".

The UK uses 3.7 million tonnes of plastic a year, according to trade organisation Plastics Europe, and recent changes in China have made it more difficult to process.

• What is your chosen supermarket doing to fight plastic?

• Reality Check: Where does the 5p plastic bag charge go?

• May defends 'long-term' green plan

• Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem

Nigel Broadhurst, joint managing director of Iceland, explained the typical ready meal was packaged in particularly bad way: "Take a typical Iceland prepared meal, it is currently in a black plastic tray. That black plastic is the worst possible option in terms of toxins going into the ground and the ability to recycle that product."

He said there could be changes to other packaging in future: "Take oranges, they come in a net; apples come in a plastic bag. It doesn't take a lot of shift to expect that you could put an orange net round an apple."

The company says it is aiming to complete the change to its own-brand packaging within the next five years, removing plastics wherever feasible.

Iceland also said its research found that 80% of shoppers would endorse a supermarket's move to go plastic free.

The chain has also earlier supported the idea of a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.

Mrs May has pledged to ban all avoidable plastic waste in the UK by 2042.

In an attempt to tackle the problem, the PM has called on supermarkets to introduce "plastic-free" aisles, and to consider taxes and charges on single-use plastic items such as food containers."

in BBC.co.uk on the 16th of January 2018 (original article here)

The bee cause

I am a monthly sponsor of Friends of the Earth (FotE). One of the causes defended by FotE is the bee cause. Bees are endangered all over Britain and need the participation of everyone to bring their numbers back, for the sake of agriculture, a balanced ecosystem and to a greater extent, life on Earth as we know it. There are several issues that have been threatening the existence of bees in this country, probably in many other countries also. You will find that the erroneous/unexpected weather conditions cannot be blamed for everything; loss of natural habitat, natural competitors/parasites, pollution and a terrible choice of biotechnology products have done their part. 

Bees have in Varroa destructor (figure below) a terrific external parasite phoretic (symbiotic transport) mite that wipes with tremendous homicidal capacity species such as Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. if you wish to know more about this parasite please visit these incredibly good blogs, one by Emily Heath and also this one by her friend Emma Tenant. As I mentioned in different posts, whenever I find an excellent source of information that does not need me to compile, study, research and gather extra information due to its undoubted quality, I see no point in overloading the Internet with unnecessary info. These blogs are of extremely good quality, you go and read them!!!

In addition, there is the issue with the neonicotinoids hitting the first pages of the different science magazines. Neonicotinoids are neuroactive insecticides, the newest major class of.  Even though they show very low toxicity to mammals [1] (for sure the reason  why we ignore their toxic nature to other species - again our selfish nature) they are tremendously effective against many species of insects. BUT THEY DO NOT DISCRIMINATE, they snipe whatever they come into contact with as long as they have three sets of legs. There is an amazing article by Tomizawa and Casida (2005) covering these insecticides (find it here).

But the whole picture could only be fully accounted for if one also reads the 1991 Falk's book "A review of the scarce and threatened bees, wasps and ants of Great Britain" (access here). This matter is actually going global, and kind of mimicking a global economical crisis it is pounding colonies of bees from this island to the new world USA. Just take a look at the 25 minutes video embeded and learn how nefarious it is becoming, not only for the ecosystem and the beautiful world we are jeopardising very day, but also for the beekeepers who are now losing 30 to 50% of their beehives each year!!!!

Very recently I watched a show about a German researcher developing a study on bees and neonicotinoids that was quite impressive. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find it on youtube. Basically this fella created along with his team, a series of studies supported by a funny helmet attached to the bee and a satellite signal reader. He studied their normal behaviour and the erratic behaviour of specimens intoxicated with neonicotinoids (incapable of finding back their hives no matter how long they'd search for, eventually dying of exhaustion and malnutrition).

If these clear facts are not strong enough then read these words very attentively: "The economic value of pollination worldwide is estimated to be at least £153bn, which represents almost one-tenth of the value of the world's agricultural production for human food." [2]

1st image - Adventuresinbeeland's Blog, [http://adventuresinbeeland.com/2012/10/21/3rd-honey-bee-pests-diseases-and-poisoning-revision-post-the-lifecycle-of-varroa-destructor-and-monitoringtreatment-techniques/], last visited on the 12th of August 2013, last updated on the 21st of October 2012.

[1] Tomizawa, M. and Casida, J. E. (2005). "Neocotinoid insecticide toxicology: mechanisms of selective action". Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 45, pp. 247268.

[2] Novel research looks to transform the decline of the beekeeping sector, Nottingham Trent University, [http://www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/135794-15/Novel_research_looks_to_transform_the_decline_of_the_beekeeping_sector.aspx], last visited on the 12th of August 2013, last updated on the 28th of February 2013

Tatatatatatatatata tatatatata, that is the sound of compressed-air-powered-cars speeding

Fossil combustion has a limit to its existence, we all know that. Companies have been trying to come up with different ecofriendly strategies to replace fossil fuel for greener engines. Engineers have been talking of Biodiesel, waste vegetable oil, electricity, ethanol, propane, hydrogen, but it seems that every single one of these approaches does show numerous contradictions and limitations. For instance,

Biofuels, a fuel made of different waste vegetable oils, does not force great changes to the engines in terms of adaptation, it is cost effective, can be recycled, it is far less dependent on market's price fluctuation, trigger enhancement of local employment rates by stimulating local growth of raw material, causes less air pollution. However, the energy output is lower (what can be tricky for a society depending on growing availability of energy like ours); the process of producing biofuels can actually contribute a lot to the carbon footprint, the manufacturing plants are expensive to assemble, food shortage and food prices derived from such shortage help increase the price of these biofuels, and finally there is a massive consumption of water necessary to irrigate the original crops. [1]

Electricity, this source of energy had its go on motion vehicles during the 70s due to a shortage of gas but interest died as gas had revised low prices and the Citycar soon perished - like Zap Xebra that in 2008 repeated Citycar's misery. Having said that, there is also a series of disadvantages in using electric cars, such as, reduced range (limited mileage range), maximum top speed limited to 70mph, engines are a lot more costly than gasoline powered engines, and the batteries are known to produce toxic residues. [2]

Ethanol, usually obtained from corn fermentation and sold in the market as E85 fuel (15% of it being gasoline) can also be obtained from bagasse of sugar cane (like in Brazil). This flexible fuel is offered by several car manufacturers, cost of using E85 or E10 (the so called gasohol - 10% ethanol 90% gasoline) varies regionally. There are more than two thousand filling station in the United States of America, access HERE to know where in the US you can get yours filled up. Even though there is no major differences in terms of performance when compared to 100% gasoline propelled engines, there is a 25 to 30% drop in terms of miles per gallon used because ethanol simply does not contain as much energy as petrol! [3]

However, quite surprisingly, a fourth power is surfacing from the depths of the engineering minds. Minds themselves grouped in a boiling brainstorming process yet developed by another surfacing power, India. 

The air-powered car works under the "influence" of compressed air, not alcohol, or vegetable oil nor even petrol. This invention is gaining ever more relevance and the famous Tata Motors allied to a crowded traffic-jammed country and low income of the average Indian is helping to modernize the idea. Tata Motors is now entering the second stage of the air-compressed car development and a sneak-peak delivers us this cute model that promises to bring a revolution to our urban roads. As we can read in [5]:

"Created by mechanical engineer Guy Nègre back in 1991, Luxembourg-based MDI has floated a number of products in its efforts to develop and promote zero pollution engines. The roll-out of the technology has been plagued by false starts and litigation, however, including a promised U.S. launch in 2010 that never eventuated.

The most promising push to market appears to be the ongoing agreement between MDI and Tata motors. In 2007 Tata licensed MDI's technology with the aim of producing and selling compressed air cars in India. Tata has now released a statement that, although no firm time frame is given, suggests that the project is heading in the right direction.

Tata says that the first "proof of the technical concept" phase of the program is now complete with "the compressed air engine concept having been demonstrated in two Tata Motors vehicles."

Above: The MDI's MiniFlowAIR urban 3-seater [5]

The air-powered car releases only air from its exhaust system, can be filled up in three minutes for less than 2 quid and allows one to drive up to an average of 250Km (approx. 155 miles). There is also a small air-compressor that can be used when your vehicle is running out of compressed air and you only need electricity around; in less than 4 hours your car will be ready to go again. The lubrication system works with a liter of vegetable oil, that needs changing every 50000Km (~31068 miles). Because the exhaust system releases only air, at a temperature between 0 to 20 Celsius a bypass can be applied to use this same air in an air conditioning system for the same vehicle. The vehicle possesses a cylindrical tank made of carbon fiber in which there is only... AIR!

One of the models in the market is the Non-Poluting AirPod, a 10K dollars that has enough space for three adults and a child. It is controlled with a joystick rather than a wheel. I would prefer a wheel but I must say I never tasted such experience of driving a vehicle with the help of a joystick.

There is a lot to be written and debated on this matter, but one thing is certain, the future to come will bring a lot more good news and we all hope that, for the sake of the environment, our roads can be completed with ever more and more of these ecofriendly vehicles. Where do you stand on this matter, any disadvantages seen? Do you appreciate the idea?

If you can't wait for Tata's final product then analyse the Airpod in more detail. Check HERE for some more technical details about this great vehicle. Also take a look at the video, it might help you decide for this model or just wait for the future models to come.

Let The Toxicologist Today know where you stand by sharing your comments with us.

[1] love to know green living - Advantages and disadvantages of biofuels, [http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Biofuels], last accessed on the 25th of October 2012, last update unknown.

[2] Crave Online, Top 5 disadvantages of electric vehicles, [http://www.craveonline.com/lifestyle/articles/131790-top-5-disadvantages-of-electric-vehicles], lasta ccess on the 25th of October 2012, last update unknown.

[3] US Department of Energy - Ethanol, [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml], last accessed on the 26th of October 2012, last update on the 26th of October 2012.

[4] Air Powered Car, [http://www.toxel.com/tech/2012/08/18/air-powered-car/], last access on the 26th of October 2012, last update on the 18th of August 2012.

[5] Gizmag, [http://www.gizmag.com/tata-motors-air-car-mdi/22447/], last access on the 26th of October 2012, last update on the 07th of May 2012.

1st image taken from ZAP Jonway, [http://www.zapworld.com/zap-xebra-electric-sedan],last accessed on the 26th of October, last update unknown

2nd image from unknown source.

3rd and 4th image from [4].

5th from unknown source. 

The Toxicity of Surfing

A friend of mine who is wise in the sciences of Marine Biology, just sent me this very nice review picture on the toxicity associated to the Surfing Culture. I do not intend to copy-paste an article you can easily find on the web, but I must share the review picture with you as it is straightforward, appealing and offering concise information. I'd like to thank Licinia Gouveia for sharing this piece of pertinent information with the readers of this blog and just in case you guys would like to read the whole article, you can find it by accessing the Care2 page here. Another positive thing you can find here are the recommendations and alternatives the industry can start applying to make this awesome sport a much more eco-friendly one. I know that Care2 sometimes can exaggerate things a little bit, but when they offer numbers to be supposedly real, they put their own necks at stake, so why not just read and think about it.

Husking Spanish Strawberries - Part 2 of 2

I've been trying to find some time to just finish a few important posts I have been postponing, some of them so important that I cannot neglect an inch of the quality level I want them to have. However, I must first complete the previous one regarding the culturing of strawberries in the south of Spain. Firstly, I don't wish to go on and on about how seriously damaged a Natural Reserve and its wildlife are being affected. People these days enjoy of some good in-depth education that does not need stressing constantly how important a role is played by both ecological balance and equilibrium of the ecosystem. Needless to say that future generations are going to suffer, just the same way we've been suffering for we are the future generation of the previous ones. Now, if environmental protection and respect for the different types of life is not that important for some parts of our societies, then let's focus on what can kill us slowly and make us really agonise in the process.

Remember when the last post said chloropicrin and bromomethane are used for means of erasing the microfauna so more space is made available for the strawberries? Well, let's very briefly know some facts then:

"Chloropicrin is a soil fumigant used for its broad biocidal and fungicidal properties, primarily in high-value crops such as strawberries, peppers, onions, tobacco, flowers, tomatoes, and nursery crops. John Stenhouse, a Scottish chemist and inventor, synthesized chloropicrin in 1848. Because chloropicrin is toxic by all routes of entry, it has the potential for widespread destruction as a chemical warfare agent." [1] 

"Chloropicrin is an irritant to all body surfaces... This liquid decomposes in the environment... Chloropicrin photodegrades, with a half-life of 20 days" [1]

Detection

The odor is a distinctive warning property of this liquid compound.

I believe these informations give you a pretty good idea of how toxic chloropicrin can be, but if by any chance you are still suspicious take a look at a garage experiment with choloripcrin shared on youtube and make up your mind the way you see fit. Embedding has been disable by request from the video creator however you can access directly by clicking here!

As for Bromomethane:

"Bromomethane is a manufactured chemical. It also occurs naturally in small amounts in the ocean where it is formed, probably by algae and kelp. It is a colorless, nonflammable gas with no distinct smell. Other names for bromomethane are methyl bromide, mono-bromomethane, and methyl fume. Trade names include Embafume and Terabol. Bromomethane is used to kill a variety of pests including rats, insects, and fungi. It is also used to make other chemicals or as a solvent to get oil out of nuts, seeds, and wool."[2]

Exposure to this chemical can affect your cardiovascular organs, your skin, your digestive system, and even cause neurological damage; although carcinogenic effects were never proven [2].

What happens to bromomethane when it enters the environment? 

o It moves very quickly into the air when released to the 

environment or when present in soil or water. 

o It breaks down slowly in air over several years. 

o It breaks down quickly in soil over a few days. 

o Small amounts can move from the soil into the 

groundwater. 

o It breaks down in groundwater over a period of several 

months. 

o It does not build up in plants or animals.

Source: [3]

If nothing else made you think twice, focus solely on the results presented by the table above and imagine how all those animals are affected by drinking water contaminated with two very strong pollutants.

[1] Medscape reference, Chloropicrin poisoning, http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/832637-overview, last visited on the 20th of November, 2011, last updated on January 2011.

[2] Agency for toxic substances and disease registry, Bromomethane, , last visited on the 20th of November 2011, last update on September 1995.

[3] Agency for toxic substances and disease registry, Bromomethane CAS# 74-83-9, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts27.pdf, last visited on the 20th of November 2011, last updated on september 1995.

Husking Spanish Strawberries - Part 1 of 2

It is not unusual to be emailed countless messages concerning different scientific, social, political or even economical topics. Some of these forwarded messages I already know them profoundly whenever they reach my mailbox. For others, I just don't care or simply refuse to waste my precious time on them. However, now and then some important issues reach my eyes, like the one I am to discuss hereby with the audience of this blog.

A few weeks back I got an email from a friend who is actually working in Spain. Because I do not know how the person would feel if I was to disclose her name in this post, I prefer to say that she is science educated and an excellent professional in her area. Nonetheless, that does not immediately trigger me to write about the numerous subjects that hit my box. The subject has got to be interesting, important to this blog's context and remarkably pertinent. By then, I thought it wasn't; not until I got the same email sent from my mother, who is not science educated, but still, is a very educated professional in areas that are not immediately science related. This made me realise that if the content of that email had been pinned up by different people, with different professional and social backgrounds, in different countries, relevance and pertinence were immediately accounted for to my standards, obviously!

The message entitled "Poison in the Spanish strawberries" had to be revealed, analysed, discussed and shared with my audience. So I will just translate to English the content of the forwarded message and expect to draw the initial deck of cards in a discussion that I hope becomes more interactive:

"When you happen to buy strawberries always mind to check their origin. If they are Spanish... be aware of the consequences they'll have on your own and your family's health status, the consequences on strawberries, on other people and the environment. 

Are the Spanish greenhouse strawberries edible?

The answer is NO!

... if the only problem of these greenhouse strawberries was just the lacking of flavour, we could consider ourselves happy... Unfortunately, these strawberries offer much more serious problems, starting with the fact that this culture covers around 6 thousand ha, where a huge part happens to be in a Protected Reserve Area - Parque Nacional de Doñana - an extraordinary sanctuary for migratory and nesting birds. Nevertheless, the local political power ignores it widely.

For these strawberries to reach their destination in the European markets, they need to be  transported by trucks and vans for thousands of kilometres. Around 16 thousand lorries complete this route every year. Considering an average of 10 tons per vehicle, these strawberries worth their weight on CO2 generated and toxic gases produced and released to the environment, thus affecting people.

But the dangers associated with these crops aren't only the ones stated before. Is the reader aware of how the Spanish strawberries are actually cultivated?

The strawberry plant is a vivacious plant capable of producing fruit for several years. However, the strawberry plants destined for this type of production are destroyed every year. For giving strawberries even when it's not their season, plants produced in vitro are put in refrigerators during the Summer's Peak, in order to simulate Winter Season, thus activating production. During the Autumn, the sandy land is cleaned and sterilised, and the microfauna destroyed by means of bromomethane (methyl bromide) and chloropicrin.

Bromomethane is a powerful poison prohibited by the Protocol of Montreal on gases that are toxic for the ozone layer. Chloropicrin, composed of chlorine and ammonia, it's not less dangerous for it blocks the pulmonary alveoli. 


The strawberry plants are grown in a soil covered by black plastic and the irrigation used includes fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides. The water comes from artesian wells from which more than half is assembled in an illegal fashion.


All these factors are responsible for transforming Andalusia into a dry savannah, causing the exodus of migratory birds and the extinction of the last of the Pardel Lynx felines, since these little carnivores (from which only around thirty may yet subsist in the region) feeding off of rabbits - also animals on the verge of extinction there.


On the other hand, for finding adequate place for the strawberry plants, at least 2000 hectares of forest have been devastated.


Production and exportation of these strawberries cropped in Spain starts slightly before the end of the Winter season and ends up around early June. Workers, at that specific time, need to go back to their houses or anywhere else, for if they get sick due to the noxious substances inhaled before, they will have to seek for treatment on their own expenses.


Most of the producers of these Spanish strawberries make use of Moroccan manpower, seasonal workers, sometimes clandestine workers, poorly paid and housed under precarious conditions. For heat at night during Winter, these workers burn the plastic used for covering the strawberry plants.


Anyway, every single year at the time of the end of the cropping, the 5 thousand tons of plastic used are taken by the wind, buried somehow, anywhere, or burned on the spot...


Needless to say that in this part of Andalusia, where aberrant agriculture thrives, lung and skin diseases are in frank progression. And who cares about it? No one!


And what is the reasoning behind the media's complete silence? Mysteries that are not only due to politics but also to economics.


But when the region becomes totally vandalised and the production becomes costly, the producers will just transfer everything to Morocco; country where they have started to settle. Later on, they will probably just move on to China... European population is happy for buying cheap products, however they will eventually fall ill for consuming these products, as well as see employment raising.


What can we do for fighting this tendency?


Each one of us is free to act in his own conscience and knowingly: to buy or to boycott the purchasing of any article that is not brought up according with the laws of nature and/or human rights. We all can opt for a personal boycott. And if the majority of the citizens thus proceed, the gigantic "sharks" in the economy will be forced to change their methods under penalty of presenting themselves to danger.


Citizens are to make the final choice!


Kind regards,


Mario Pinto

The previous text was translated by myself from the Portuguese and reflects entirely the opinion of the person hereby signing the message. However, by presenting this information I intended solely to open the discussion that in a biochemical toxicological perspective will be fully developed in part 2. See you then!

1st image taken from Fresh Plaza, Global Fresh Produce and Banana News,  http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=15656, last visited on the 07th of November 2011, last update on the 02nd of January 2008.

2nd image taken from Viagens Lacoste, Parque Nacional de Donana - fotos soltas, http://viagenslacoste.blogspot.com/2010/04/parque-nacional-de-donana-fotos-soltas.html, last visited on the 07th of November 2011, last updated on the 30th of April 2010.

3rd image taken from unknown source.

Plastic Stupidity Awareness Day

All great lobbies have an awareness day for basically everything, why shouldn't this Toxicology blog hold the same policy if the intention is to claim attention to a global event that jeopardises our lives. Straight to the point I am talking today about something that most of us are not aware about or, to some extent, wish not to be aware of - The Plastic Vortex - characterised by enormous amounts of pelagic plastics (referring to plastics surfacing on water layers far from the bottom of the oceans), chemical sludge (effluents of gaseous and liquid human/industrial waste of inorganic and organic disposal) and other types of debris entrapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre -, but not everything will be about bad news as we are simultaneously introducing you Project Kaisei and their ultimate mission that will, in time, help us save this planet, i.e., Capturing the Plastic Vortex.

I worked as a volunteer for P.O.F.A. (Program for the Observation of Fisheries in Azores; P.O.P.A. in  Portuguese) a project conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceanography [D.O.P., in Portuguese] (University of Azores, Portugal) concerning the dolphin safe stamp (the tuna catching), and as part of that project there was a protocol between the D.O.P. and the University of Florida for registering details of the Caretta caretta turtle. It was an amazing month for me, I was going through an emotional roller-coaster and that month at the high sea helped me to start seeing things a little bit selfish-less, to concentrate on other needs and develop personal interests (me and my friends had started MAPPA - a youth organization caring for animal rights and ecological issues back in Faro, Algarve, Portugal) supported by the vision of non-academic fisherman who were trying to cope with the difficulties of having to fish for money and food whilst trying their best to respect the environment and other life forms that are subsequently killed in parallel with the four main tuna species rambling on in the Atlantic Ocean. It was then, due to the information we were given as part of the induction all of the volunteers were to receive, that we were informed of the dangers of plastic and other kinds of rubbish thrown to sea, for many marine life forms. That was back in 2001, I was 22 years old, that was nearly 10 years ago!!!

It is now the year 2011 and the dangers of rubbish, specially plastic-type debris thrown to the ocean is still a major problem several bodies need to deal with. Amongst them we can find Project Kaisei - "a non-profit organization focused on taking you through a voyage to increase awareness of the scale of marine debris, its impact on our environment, and the solutions for both prevention and clean-up" [1]. The history of this group tells their recent start back in 2008 "by three co-founders from the San Francisco Bay Area, all with many years of ocean stewardship and activities behind them" [2]. Their first and initial concern was simply to draw attention to the amount of plastic that has been building up in our waters under our watch in the last 50 years, but Project Kaisei, "the name of the iconic brigantine vessel used in [their] expeditions, but also roughly means Ocean Planet in Japanese" [2] quickly turned into an organization that was building a global collaboration of science, industry, technology, innovation and policy to help bring about solutions to the way we treat waste in our daily lives, much of which finds its way to the sea" [2]. Well, the numbers easily spoke for themselves as "roughly ninety percent of marine litter is made from plastics, a class of pollution that is growing at a rapid rate, outpacing global recycling capacity and infrastructure, as societies around the world consume more disposable items" [2]. 

Amongst Project Kaisei's main goals and objectives one can find the upbringing of "new technologies , innovations, and capabilities that can both help us clean some of the plastic debris from our ocean, as well as prevent it from entering in the first place" [3], to educate society in terms of the value of our marine lives and their niches as well as of the environmental awareness (just what exactly this blog is up to today!). Such can be accomplished by acquiring and validating "information on the scope and status of the North Pacific Gyre (also known as the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and Pacific Trash Vortex), which can help to establish the metrics and plans needed to bring about a larger scale clean-up in the future, and finally to "bring about more focused education and research on marine debris issues, which will entail information on toxins, ecosystem impact, remediation or recycling possibilities, and new prevention options" [3].

For those who haven't recognised the problem yet, I am leaving now a brief summary of what is going on and what is trying to be raised up by Project Kaisei and their members. Then it is up to you to recognise what you can and cannot do to help. There's donations you can offer if you save at least 25 dollars for helping the environment [4], but for those sick of throwing money at projects and wanting to go straight to action by facing the sources of this huge problem, there's educational activities you can be part of, just visit their website and you'll get to know a lot more about it. For now let me just basically copy & paste info from a web blog I have found when researching this very same issue. 

For you, right now, an article from the 05th of February, 2008, by Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent, and Daniel Howden, extracted from the greenable.blogspot.com entitled,

"The world’s rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan,

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.   The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents.


This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.  Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr. Moore founded, said yesterday: “The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on.  It is not quite like that.  It is almost like a plastic soup.  It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States.” Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: “It moves around like a big animal without a leash.”  When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic.  “The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic,” he added. 

The “soup” is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern pacific Garbage Patches.  About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms.  The rest comes from land. 

Mr. Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race.  He had steered his craft into the “north Pacific gyre” – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems.  Usually sailors avoid it. He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land.  “Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by,” he said in an interview.  “How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?” Mr. Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the stew would be double in size over the next decade. 

Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was “no reason to doubt” Algalita’s findings.  

“After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems.”  Professor Karl is coordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. “Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere,” said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute. 

Mr. Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water’s surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. “You only see it from the bow of ships,” he said. According to the UN Environment Programme, Plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food. Plastic is believed to constitute 90 percent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Dr. Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles – the raw materials for the plastic industry – are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. 

These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. “What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It’s that simple,” said Dr. Eriksen."

[1] http://www.projectkaisei.org/, last seen on  the 10th of January, 2011.

[2] http://www.projectkaisei.org/kaisei_history.html, last seen on the 10th of January, 2011.

[3] http://www.projectkaisei.org/goals_and_objectives.html, last seen on the 10th of January, 2011.

[4] http://www.projectkaisei.org/online_donations.html, last seen on the 10th of January, 2011.