See also: Related OurFood News
Subsections
Biofuels are a wide range of fuels which are in some way derived from biomass.
The term covers solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases.[1] Biofuels
are gaining increased public and scientific attention, driven by factors such as
oil price spikes, the need for increased energy security, and concern over
greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermenting the sugar components of plant
materials and it is made mostly from sugar and starch crops. With advanced
technology being developed, cellulosic biomass, such as trees and grasses, are
also used as feedstocks for ethanol production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel
for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a gasoline additive to
increase octane and improve vehicle emissions. Bioethanol is widely used in the
USA and in Brazil.
Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled greases.
Biodiesel can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually
used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and
hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles. Biodiesel is produced from oils or
fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe.
Biofuels provided 1.8% of the world's transport fuel in 2008. Investment into
biofuels production capacity exceeded $4 billion worldwide in 2007 and is
growing. [1]
In its report "Eating Up The Amazon" Green peace illustrates the soya crisis
through the example of two key global players: Cargill (possibly the largest
private company in the world) in the Amazon and McDonald's (the largest fast
food company in the world) in Europe. Green Peace documents the flow of soy
from ilegally cleared farms, to Cargill and its competitors,
through the ports, processors and meat producers of Europe, and finally into
the Chicken McNuggets sold under the golden arches across the continent.
According to this report Cargill and ADM have been encouraging local farmers
to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soy monocultures.
[2]
[3] The Amazon forest is menaced by biofuel and food industry. Man made and wild fires change the vegetation of the region preparing large areas for
agriculture and cattle breeding.
Barlow and Peres 2008 write that a land-atmosphere global climate model
predicts a widespread dieback of Amazonian forest cover through reduced
precipitation. According to the authors, these predictions are controversial,
however, structural and compositional resilience of Amazonian forests may also
have been overestimated, as current vegetation models fail to consider the
potential role of fire in the degradation of forest ecosystems.
In a vegetation survey of the region of the Arapiuns River basin in the
central Brazilian Amazon the authors evaluated the consequences of recurrent
fires. Barlow and peres concluded that episodic wildfires can lead to drastic
changes in forest structure and composition, with cascading shifts in forest
composition following each additional fire event. The authors used also the
results of their survey to evaluate the validity of the savannization paradigm. [4]
Barros et al.2011 reports that hydroelectric reservoirs cover an area of 3.4X10(2) Km(2) emotting significant amounts of greenhouse gases. The researchers analysed 85 hydroelectric reservoirs and found that they emit 48 million metric tons of carbon/year, and 3 million metric tons of methane, resulting of the degradation of organic material. The reservoirs were found to emit 48 million metric tons of carbon/year, and 3 million metric tons of methane, resulting of the degradation of organic material. This is by far, less than 321 million metric tons of carbon/year which were calclated by previous studies relying on insufficient amount of data.
According to the authors only 17% of hydroelectric potential reservoir sites have been exploited. Their impact depend on reservoir age, size, and location. Higher emissions of new hydroelectric reservoirs are expected at tropical Amazon region.
The advantage of hydroelectricity compared with coal firing power plants should, however not divert from the damage dams and resulting industrialisation cause in the Amazon region. Photovoltaic and wind farms could provide energy for the local population. Megalomaniac projects like exploiting mineral and oil resources of the region do not provide prosperity for locals and destroy the sustainability of the environment for coming generations. The authors stress the need to consider the geographic location when planing new hydroelectric reservoirs. Studies should also assesses a site's carbon emission before and after reservoir construction. Pre- and post flooding analysis would clarify the net carbon impact of hydroelectric reservoirs, say the authors. [5]
Daily emissions of methane from Lake Wohlen, Switzerland, amount to more than 150 mg per square metre surface area. At a water temperature of 17 degrees C the rate is twice as high, which makes it comparable to the emission rates observed for tropical reservoirs. The reservoir of the river Aares produces 150 tonnes of methane a year. It is therefore not quite as climate-neutral as people assume, says Del Sontro of Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. However, a coal-fired power station with the same output produces 40 times as much C02.
Methane production is attributable to organic matter transported by water. The organic matter undergoes microbial fermentation and during summer masses of methane bubbles are seen rising to the surface. Methane production is minimal during winter because of low temperatures.
During the winter, on account of the cold temperatures, methane emissions of lake Wohlen are minimal. Low water temperatures and low nutrient inputs found at other Alpine reservoirs do not give rise to significant methane emissions. Temperature and nutrients content at the Amazon basin should therefore be considered when calculating tropical reservoir emission of methane and CO2.
Brazil, aiming to industrialise the Amazon region, proceeds building Belo Monte, the third world's largest hydroelectric dam. It displaces tens of thousands of people and threatens the livelihoods of thousands. The Dardanelos Dam, also in Brazil, has already depleted river fish stocks that local indigenous communities rely on for protein. Belo Monte will feed the aluminium production. [6] The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity
of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To
date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been
responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United
States and have helped preserve more than 100 million acres in Latin America,
the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. [7]
Cargill, however, argues that it alone cannot ensure sustainable soy development
throughout Brazil. [8] The US Army has pursued "zero footprint" base camps, and the Air Force is
looking into a variety of alternative propellants that could be turned into
jet fuel. Now the Navy is going green, signing a memorandum of understanding
with the USDA to demo a Green Strike Group of biofuel and nuclear powered
vessels by 2012.
By 2020, the Department of the Navy also plans to halve the fossil fuel
consumption entirely, across the entire force. That means ships, aircraft, tanks,
shore vehicles and naval bases will all be switching to a half alternative fuel
from corn and other grains, including algae. Airlines are looking for biofuel for its
engines. The British Airways presented in February 2010 its plan for the
production of 72 million litres of fuel from plant wastes to be used by its
aircrafts in 2014. In 2009 107 million tons of
grain, mostly corn were used for production on fuel. It will be increased
fivefold till 2017. Lester Brown, director of the Earth Policy Institute in
Washington D.C. Says the food used as fuel could have fed 330 million people
for one year.
Green law in Europe demands the addition of two per cent of alcohol to gasoline,
and has to rise up to 8 per cent till 2020. The Indonesian and the
Malaysian government issued a decree which declares palm plantations as
forest. This enables the palmoil industry to avoid the ban of fuel from
deforestation, extending the actual 8 million hectares of plantations to 18
million till 2020.
Oil palms and sugar cane plantation use best crop land and need a triple amount
of water water compared with tomato and corn. Monocultures need high input of
pesticides and fertilisers. [9]
The Blackstone Gruppe is a 110 Billion Dollar investment fund with seat in New York. Blackstone enters the palm oil business in Africa. The Sithe Global owned 100% by Blackstone, together with Sithes and Herakles Farm will plant 60 000 hectares oh oil palms- [10]
When the European powers invaded the continent, they quickly realized that they could profit from trading palm kernels and palm oil, initially from natural palm stands and soon followed by the establishment of large-scale plantations, in most cases based on either forced or slave labour and in the appropriation of communities' lands.
Independence resulted in the further entrenchment of the plantation system -encroaching on local peoples' lands- now based on state-owned enterprises with attached large industrial processing units.
World Bank and IMF: World Bank and IMF-led structural adjustment policies imposed on African governments in the 90s resulted in the privatization of most of those industrial complexes and in the return of control over industrial palm oil production to foreign corporations.[3]
Sime Darby: Malaysian big player in the oil palm sector with 220,000 hectares of land lease in Liberia and is negotiating a 300,000 ha lease of land in Cameroon.
SG Sustainable Oils (SGSO) based in USA: The SG Sustainable Oils is planning a 70,000 hectares oil palm plantation in the South West Region of Cameroon. SGSO has operated in an unscrupulous manner.
[11]
The Brazilian company Petrobras, together with the Italian consortium ENI develop agrofuels in Africa, according to press reports in 2007. Europe, which is very interested in the development of renewable fuels as a source of energy, lacks the farmland necessary to produce major quantities of raw materials for biodiesel or ethanol. According to Petrobras supply director Paulo Roberto Costa, the two countries try to develop plantations and refineries in Angola and Mozambique focusing on biodiesel. A portion of the oil will be put on the domestic edible oil market, but the main output will be used as biofuels. [12]
Brazilian sugar cane plantations are responsible for the destruction of large
areas of cerrado and forest, including the Amazon. The industry will tell you
no tropical deforestation occurs as a result of sugar cane plantations. Yet in
September 2009 the Brazilian Government felt the need to propose new
legislation that would prevent sugar cane expanding directly into the Amazon
in the future. The government states, however, that "sugarcane plantations
currently in progress, and also the scheduled expansions, even in the
Amazonia… should not be prohibited."
Shell is planning to make the largest ever investment in biofuels in a deal worth
USD 12 billion. The oil company is preparing to form a joint venture with
Brazilian company Cosan to produce and sell ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane. Shell will
contribute about USD 1.625 billion and 2,740 filling stations.
[13]
The Swiss company Addax Bioenergy starts a 90 million litres/y ethanol project
in Sierra Leone. Half of the population is undernourished. Addax Bioenergy leases 20 000 hectares of best crop land to plant sugar cane and cassava for
fuel for European cars. German investment and development company DEG will
participate in this 240 million Euro project.
Sierra Leone, exploitet by biodiesel agrogiants [14]
SOCFIN, a corporation with seat in Luxenburg, will plant oil palms for biodiesel in Sierra Leone. Politicians and functionaries sell off the lands of local farmers and suppress the protests. Small farmers are fighting to keep their land.
Biofuel politics of Germany and the EU is based on massive import of "green energies". The population of the affected regions loose their livelihood and biodiversity is menaced by the monoculture of oil palms.
The company is a subsidiary of the Belgian corporation SOCFIN, registered in Luxembourg.
SOCFIN Group has a complex structure of subsidiaries and is present with rubber and oil palm plantations in Cameroon, DR Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Cambodia and Indonesia. The company's roots go back to the 19th century colonial period in the Belgian Congo.
SOCFIN Group says on its website that it is committed to the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for instance transparency, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, responsible consideration of employees and individuals and communities, environmental responsibility and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity.
SOCAPALM is part of the SOCFIN group and operates in Cameroon, where it operates five oil palm plantations and is accused of environmental and labour violations.
A complaint is filed that SOCFIN has breached OECD guidelines by failing to take action to prevent SOCAPALM's negative impact on the environment, workers and local communities.
Sources: Misereor, CED, Sherpa: The impact of the privatization of SOCPALM on Communities and the Environment in Cameroon. Briefing Paper. Dec. 2010. [16]
subsubsectionSOCFIN Group [17]
According to the homepage of Socfin SA the parent holding company of the Socfin group is Socfinal based in Luxembourg. The group embraces Socfinasia, Socfinaf, SOGB and Okomu. The company has interests in plantation companies throughout Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Kenya and Indonesia, producing palm oil, rubber, coffee and roses. Socfin claims always to adhered to sound long term sustainable decision, respecting the environment and the culture of the country in which it is operating.
Together with other corporations and Arabian governments such as the Saudi Star Agricultural SOCFIN is part of a system which destroys the social peace displacing the local small farmers and imperils the rain forests. Cargill, for instance, is an example how such investments destroy the ecology and the social stability of these places. [18]
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatar has agrarian Joint venture funds in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines. Kuwait Investment Authority approached several countries in South East Asia to discuss potential for long-term investment in agriculture and other sectors. Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP), Libya accomplished a partnership with the Liberian Foundation for Africa Development Aid, to produce rice in Liberia. Lybia will also develop 100,000 ha in the Office du Niger, the land area with highest agricultural potential in Mali.
Jatropa is increasingly being planted in China, Brazil, Myanmar, Malaysia and
various African countries. Its seeds contain more than 30 per cent of non-edible
oil which is used as biodiesel. These plantations displace rice fields and
deprive poor peasants of their livelihood.
According to Gerbens-Leenes, Hoekstra, and van der Meer 2009 jatropa has an
adverse water footprint, compared with with soybean and rapeseed which need less
water to grow. The authors stress further that the production of biodiesel has a
water footprint raging from 1,400 to 20,000 L of water per litre of biofuel. For
the production of ethanol, sugar beet, and potato (60 and 100 m(3)/GJ) were found
by the authors to need the least amount of water, followed by sugar cane (110
m(3)/GJ). [21]
ISCC is an international certification system for Biomasses and Bioenergies
describing the rules and procedures for certification. majority are
causing deforestation and land use changes that are increasing climate changing
emissions and pushing people off their land. "Biofuels are not the answer to our
energy woes - the UK should scrap its targets and must focus our attention on
developing greener transport alternatives to cars, such as fast and affordable
rail services and cycling and walking." [22]
Destruction of the Brazilian rain forest dropped 11 percent to 6,238 square km over the 12-month period.2010/2011. However, in the Amazon state Rondonia the deforestation doubled, and in the state of Mato Grosso deforestation rose by 20 percent. Two large hydroelectric dams are being built in Rondonia, boosting the local economy and will increase deforestation.
The news of an overall drop in deforestation will pave the way to the overhaul of the land law by the senate, a claim of the Brazil's farming lobby. The new law will ease conservation requirements for land owners. Environmentalists say would severely set back conservation efforts. [24]
The International Energy Agency IEA, in a joint statement of 10.03.2010, together with 30 leading global companies called for action to support the
transition to a low-carbon economy.
Waste of biomass may supply 4 per cent of global fuel demand, accounting for
125 billion litres of Biodiesel or 170 billion litres of ethanol per year.
[25] [26]
Ha and colleagues 2010 engineered the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to be able simultaneously ferment cellobiose (a precursor of glucose and xylose) to ethanol, dubling the gains of the process using the synergistic effect of co-fermentation.
Genetic modification of the yeast implied the introduction of a cellobiose transporter, which otherwise had to be splitted in two molecules of glucose before crossing the cell wall. With this artefact cellobiose is fermented inside the cell eliminating the costly step of adding a cellobiose-degrading enzyme step in the precess.
Three genes from Picchia stipitis were introduced in the new GM Saccharomyces cereisiae strain. enabling the yeast to co-ferment xylose.
The accumulation of xylitol, a byproduct in the xylose assimilitary pathway, could be minimized. BP scientist, Xiaomin Yang, was significantly involved in developing the co-fermentation concept. [27]
Fermenting cellulosic plant material may replace the fermentation of food crops such as corn, beets or sugar cane. This technology competes with food crops and is expensive. Hess and colleagues 2011 studied the enzymes which can convert cellulosic biomass in biofuels. The authors defined and sequenced the biomass-degrading genes of bacteria living in the rumen of cows. These bacteria digest cellulose, but are difficult to cultivate. The data provided by the authors increase the understanding of genes engaged in cellulose biomass degradation and may helps to develop strains which produce biofuels from non-food plant material. [28]
Hemme and colleagues 2011 describe the consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of cellulosic biomass for the production of bioethanol. It uses anaerobic bacteria in a single reactor. To turn this system feasible, the authors propose to explore further the data of studies on ruminant fermentation. which produces low ethanol but yields high amount of volatile fatty acids and methane. The authors propose to use these compounds as fuel. [29] Clostridium species may convert biomass conversion into biofuels and industrial products. To increase knowledge of these bacteria Hemme and colleagues 2010 sequenced the genomes of 20 species, the majority of which were of the class III cellulosome-encoding Clostridium and the class V saccharolytic Thermoanaerobacteraceae. Data reported by the authors may be useful for future studies on biofuels, cellulosome composition, and biology of Clostridial spp. Cellulosomes are complexes of cellulolytic enzymes created by bacteria such as Clostridium and Bacteroides. [30]
Jarboe and colleagues 2010 reviewed the traditional metabolic engineering of enzymes generating genes in the production of biofuels from cellulosic materials. The authors stress the importance of synthetic biology in biocatalyst engineering for fuels and chemicals production, such as ethanol, butanol, acetate, lactate, succinate, alanine, and xylitol. [31]
Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant feedstock for biofuels, however enzymes that ferment the cellulose and hemicelluloses to ethanol in one step are needed to reduce the costs of the process which is still being done in various reactors by different organisms. According to la Grange and colleagues 2010, researchers are trying to turn normal bacteria more efficient, or engineer non-cellulolytic bacteria to express cellulolytic enzymes to be integrated in a consolidated bioprocess (CBP).
To produce biofuel cellulose must be pretreated and then hydrolyzed with cellulases. Available pretreatment techniques include acid hydrolysis, steam explosion, ammonia fiber expansion, organosolve, sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocellulose, alkaline wet oxidation and ozone pretreatment. Klinkeinhethyd
Jager et al 2011 assessed the pretreatment of cellulose using swollenin obtained from cultures of the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis. The yield of swollenin naturally produced by the fungus Trichoderma reesei was too low for commercial uses. [32]
Jager reports that pretreatment with swollenin causes deagglomeration of bigger cellulose agglomerates, dispersion of cellulose microfibrils, reduction of particle size of the cellulosic substrates, crystallinity and improved the following cellulase adsorption. The authors concluded that pretreatment with recombinant swollenin from Kluyveromyces lactis improves biofuel production from cellulose.
Swollenin
[33]
Plant cell wall proteins called expansins disrupt hydrogen bonding between cell wall polysaccharides without hydrolyzing them to sugars. Saloheimo et al.2002 describe swollenin as a member of the group of expansins, isolated from the cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma reesei. Swollenin also contains regions similar to mammalian fibronectin type III repeats. The swollenin gene swo1 is regulated in a largely similar manner as the T. reesei cellulase genes. The swollenin gene was expressed in yeast and Aspergillus niger var. awamori. Swollenin disrupted the structure of the cotton fibres and Valonia cell walls without detectable formation of reducing sugars.
Many biofuels are known to reduce cell viability through damage to the cell membrane and interference with essential physiological processes reducing yields. Engineering bacterial strains for biofuel tolerance, such as alcohol may improve production. To increase microbial tolerance to the end-product, Mary and Dunlop 2011 looked at heat shock proteins, membrane modifications, stress responses, multiple tolerance strategies, in situ recovery methods and culture media supplements. [34]
Lignocellulose is the most abundant plant material resource. Unfortunately it presents a solid structure which mis difficult to break down for production of fuels. Organisms which combine separate conversion steps in a consolidated bioprocess (CBP) are described by Ilmen et al 2011. The authors developed Saccharomyces cerevisiae for CBP requires the high level secretion of cellulases, particularly cellobiohydrolases, expressing CBH1 and CBH2 genes at levels which are sufficient for ethanol production from cellulose. [35]
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) cooperates with projects to decrease the cost of enzymes for biomass saccharification of pretreated corn stover. The Department looked at the performance of four pre-commercial cellulase preparations and highlights the need for better consensus methods to quantify enzyme protein. [36] [37]
Mathematical model for fermentative processes using Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus as an industrial hydrogen producer were presented by Ljunggren et al 2011. The model simulates the inhibition of growth by hydrogen and solute concentrations. Using this model, critical values were found for dissolved hydrogen concentration 2.2 mmol/L and an osmolarity of 0.27-0.29 osm/L of 2.2 mmol/L. The inhibition by hydrogen was dependent on the hydrogen productivity and mass-transfer rate. Operating conditions for hydrogen may be optimised using the best concentration and the stripping rate conditions.
Li et al 2011, using metagenomics, identified four new glycoside hydrolases that may be expressed in Escherichia coli. They were derived from microbial biomass decay communities, and can be used to digest biomass pretreated with ionic liquids. [38]
Alber et al 2009 describes the structure of the enzymes of the symbionts of ruminants. [39]
Termite lignocellulose digestion is achieved through a collaboration of host plus. Tartar et al 2009 describe a combined host and symbiont metatranscriptomic investigating the digestion of ligno-cellulose in the gut of termites. The authors identified glycohydrolase gene families which participate in cellulose, hemicellulose, alpha carbohydrate, and chitin degradation. These cellulases were expressed by both, the host and the symbionts, but hemicellulases were only produced by the symbionts The authors developed a host-symbiont transcriptome sequencing database which may be useful for industrial biomass-to-bioethanol applications. [40]
Termites gut symbionts had been supposed to be the sole agent of termite lignocellulose digestion. Scharf et al 2011 demonstrated the synergistic activity of enzymes produced by the gut tissue of the termites in symbiosis with lignocellulose-digesting microbes. [41] [42] Lynd, Wyman and Gerngross 2010 describe "biocommodity engineering" as a new field of biotechnology. It is driven by economic interests, by the availability of feedstocks, by cost reductions, and different applications. Thus it differs from the motivation of biotechnology used to produce health care products. Researcher are trying to reduce the costs biocommodity engineering applying "consolidated bioprocessing" in which cellulase production, cellulose hydrolysis, and fermentation of soluble carbohydrates to desired products are included in a single process step. To achieve this goal, desired pathways are engineered into an organism which already has good industrial properties. Such organism has to be identified and modified accordingly using biocommodity engineering. The future biocomodity engineering will depend on the coproduction of fuels, chemicals, power, and feed in one system. Lifecycle analysis must be applied to turn the process sustainable. The authors suggest to create a biocommodity engineering graduate study based on biotechnology, process engineering, and resource and environmental systems. [43]
Metabolic engineering develop strains which synthesise chemicals and materials from renewable sources using synthetic biology. Such engineering of microorganisms enhances their productivity of normal chemicals or produce new compounds. Na, Kim and Lee 2010 review such new constructed synthetic pathways used to produce non-innate chemicals. [44]
Using advanced metabolic engineering and synthetic biology Escherichia coli is being engineered to produce biofuels from different biomass feedstocks. Clomburg and Gonzales 2010 highlight the capability of this bacterium to utilise a variety of substrates and synthesise various biofuels, such as alcohols and higher carbon biofuels derived from fatty acid and isoprenoid pathways. [45]
Otero and Nielsen 2010 affirm that metabolic engineering may insert new enzymes activities or silence existing enzyme activities. However, this may deregulate important cell regulatory pathways. Careful genetic modification is therefore necessary. To avoid unwanted reactions, tools from systemic biology, such as x-ome technologies (transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and fluxome analysis), and mathematical modeling tools (genome-scale metabolic modeling) are increasingly being used. [46]
Paulot and colleagues 2009 write that trees emit isoprene which represents 40%
of nonmethane hydrocarbon compounds released to the atmosphere. Isoprene
comes only from plants. It is readily oxidized first to hydroxyhydroperoxides,
then to dihydroxyepoxides. Nearly 100 million tons of epoxides carbon are
released to the atmosphere per year. The authors report that epoxides are the
link between the degradation of isoprene to organic aerosols. Epoxides reacts
with acids in the atmosphere to become a glue sticking to particles which make
up the particulate of the air we breath. In crowded areas the OH acidic
radical content of the air is high increasing the particulate formation in
cities.
The authors point out that some trees produce more isoprene than others, while
oaks produce the most of it. South Coast Air Quality Management District in
Southern California regarded the organic carbon compound emission of trees
and published a list of low emission trees. The emission of isoprene should
be considered when planting big monocultures of trees.
A group around Dr. Allan Drew and Dr.Richard Smardon of the State University
of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry performed a study
determining the best tree combination to remove carbon dioxide and reduce the
emission volatile organic compounds which contribute to the formation of
ozone in air. The group recommend trees with denser wood such as hawthorn
trees for best carbon-sequestring ability. Disease susceptible trees such as
the American elm should be avoided. A group of 31 trees were found to provide
best results, including dogwood, red hickory and hawthorn.
[47] [48]
Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources. Human-influenced sources include landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems,agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial process.
Methane is also a primary constituent of natural gas and an important energy source. As a result, efforts to prevent or utilize methane emissions can provide significant energy, economic and environmental benefits. [49]
Graham and colleagues in a study of 1999 report that the Amazonia represents
one of the most important sources of organic atmospheric aerosols, with
organic matter accounting for up to 90% of the total aerosol mass. The
aerosols were vegetation detritus, pollen and the photo-oxidation products of
volatile biogenic organic compounds. Deforestation by slash-and-burn add large
quantities of smoke aerosols into the atmosphere.
The emission of water soluble organic compounds within aerosols may
potentially enhance the ability of aerosols to nucleate cloud droplets, and
influence their chemistry. These changes alter the radiation balance and
hydrological cycle and may influence global climate.
The authors stress that many polar, oxygenated compounds were identified.
Anhydrosugars, produced from the combustion of plant polysaccharides were the
main compounds identified in the dry season samples. Levoglucosan, a cellulose
breakdown product, is found in concentrations as high as 5 microg m-3.
Sugars and sugar alcohols were found by the authors as main aerosol species in
the wet season such as arabitol (6 ng/m3), manitol (5 ng/m3) and alfa
and beta-glucose (2 ng/m3).
Particulate Matter
PM represents a broad class of chemically and physically diverse substances.
Particles can be described by size, formation mechanism, origin, chemical
composition, atmospheric behavior and method of measurement. [50]
PM can be principally characterized as discrete particles spanning several
orders of magnitude in size, with inhalable particles falling into the
following general size fractions:
- PM10 (generally defined as all particles equal to and less than 10
microns in aerodynamic diameter; particles larger than this are not generally
deposited in the lung)
- PM2.5, also known as fine fraction particles (generally defined as those
particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microns or less)
- PM10-2.5, also known as coarse fraction particles (generally defined as
those particles with an aerodynamic diameter greater than 2.5 microns, but
equal to or less than a nominal 10 microns)
- Ultrafine particles generally defined as those less than 0.1 microns.
Fine particles are directly emitted from combustion sources and are also
formed secondarily from gaseous precursors such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, or organic compounds. Fine particles are generally composed of
sulfate, nitrate, chloride and ammonium compounds, organic and elemental
carbon, and metals. Combustion of coal, oil, diesel, gasoline, and wood, as
well as high temperature process sources such as smelters and steel mills,
produce emissions that contribute to fine particle formation.
Fine particles can remain in the atmosphere for days to weeks and travel
through the atmosphere hundreds to thousands of kilometers, while most coarse
particles typically deposit to the earth within minutes to hours and within
tens of kilometers from the emission source. Some scientists have postulated
that ultrafine particles, by virtue of their small size and large surface area
to mass ratio may be especially toxic.
There are studies which suggest that these particles may leave the lung and
travel through the blood to other organs, including the heart. Coarse
particles are typically mechanically generated by crushing or grinding and are
often dominated by resuspended dusts and crustal material from paved or
unpaved roads or from construction, farming, and mining activities.
There is a serious lack of information about the human health and
environmental implications of manufactured nanomaterials, e.g., nanoparticles,
nanotubes, nanowires, fullerene derivatives, and other nanoscale materials. Environmental and other safety concerns about nanotechnology have been raised
(Dagani, 2003; Masciangoli and Zhang, 2003; Service, 2003). [51]
Polluted air, breathed in for weeks, months and sometimes years, can have fatal
consequences, leading to asthma, bronchitis and lung cancer. Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor
and his Ph.D. student Dr. Sandra Chudnovsky, of TAU's Department of Geography
have developed a sensor called "Dust Alert" which contains a spectrophotometer,
monitoring particulates and their chemical composition of air pollution. [52]
Emily Fischer and colleagues 2009 found that dust from the Gobi and Taklimakan
deserts in China and Mongolia is routinely present in the air over the western
United States during spring months, adding to the local air pollution.
Dust, grains of sea salt, soot from fossil fuel combustion and smoke from
forest fires form these aerosols measuring 2.5 microns or less. Calcium
particles are a tracer for desert dust.
[53]
Dr Eric Achterberg studied the Saharan dust storms which is rich in nitrogen,
iron and phosphorus and acts as a fertilizer on the production of plankton in
eastern Atlantic. The author estimates that about 500 million tonnes of this dust
per year alters the climate by partly partly reflecting sunlight, lead to cloud
formation and initiating hurricanes in the Caribbean. The dust fertilizes large
areas of the Atlantic Ocean produces massive plankton blooms. The Saharan dust
may contain soot from fires, varying in chemical and physical properties.
[54]
Brunekreef and colleagues reported in 2002 that traffic-related air pollution,
especially at the local scale, was related to cardiopulmonary mortality. More
data are provided by the authors in the Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS-AIR)
on diet and cancer, providing precise estimates of the effects of
traffic-related air pollution by analysing associations with cause-specific
mortality, as well as lung cancer incidence,
In this study the authors assessed the concentrations of black smoke (a simple
marker for soot) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as indicators of traffic-related
air pollution, as well as nitric oxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and
particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter higher or = 2.5 microm (PM2.5),
as estimated from measurements of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter
higher or = 10 microm (PM10).
The authors concluded that relative risks were generally small, however, long-term average concentrations of black smoke, NO2, and PM2.5 were related to
mortality, and associations of black smoke and NO2 exposure with natural-cause
and respiratory mortality were statistically significant. [55]
Krewski and colleagues 2009 published the results of an extended follow-up and
spatial analysis of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Prevention Study
II (CPS-II) examining the associations between long-term exposure to
particulate air pollution and mortality in large U.S. cities. This study was a
follower of the Particle Epidemiology Reanalysis Project, studying, among
others, the factors affecting health in the Los Angeles and New York City
regions and what exposure time windows may be most critical to the air
pollution-mortality association.
The authors found high exposure contrasts within the Los Angeles region with air pollution-mortality risks nearly 3 times greater than those reported from
earlier analyses.
The Hazard ratios for mortality associated with exposure to SO2 were highest
in the most recent time window (1 to 5 years). Krewski and colleagues stresses
the importance of identifying critical exposure time windows which could also
be relevant to other data sets.
The authors concluded that long-term exposure to PM2.5 increases mortality in
the general population. [56]
Lanone and colleagues 2007 studied the particulate matter for the air in the
subway system of Paris. The authors stress that these particles can deposit in
the lungs and induce recruitment of inflammatory cells, a source of inflammatory
cytokines, oxidants, and matrix metalloproteases.
The authors exposed mice and cultured mice cells to the dust of heavily
traveled subway stations, triggering transient lung inflammation in the mice
cells which produced increased levels of TNFalpha and MIP-2 production that
might cause tissue damage.
The subway system is a potent source of particulate matter emission, including
iron and low levels of endotoxin from bacteria. Such particles were also found
in the air of the subway systems of London and Stockholm.
The authors concluded that dust from the Paris subway system has transient
biological effects, and call for more studies on this matter.
[57]
In 2007 Primbs and colleagues reported their findings of the emissions of
anthropogenic semivolatile organic compounds from East Asia. Air samples analysed
taken in Okinawa in 2004 showed elevated concentrations of hexachlorobenzene
(HCB), hexachlorcyclohexanes (HCHs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), and
particulate-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) attributed to air
masses from China. Particulate-phase PAH concentrations came along with other
incomplete combustion byproduct concentrations, including elemental mercury
(Hg0), CO, NOx, black carbon, submicrometer aerosols, and SO2.
The authors estimated that the emission of six carcinogenic particulate-phase
PAHs were 1518-4179 metric tons/year for Asia and 778-1728 metric tons/year for
China, respectively. The authors point to the significant emission of carcinogen
particulate-phase PAHs East Asian
[58]
The trans-Pacific and regional North American atmospheric transport of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pesticides in biomass burning
emissions was measured 2003 at the U.S. West coast and the East coast.
Forest fires in Siberia during air sampling increased PAH,
alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane, and retene concentrations. Regional fires in Oregon
and Washington State resulted in elevated levoglucosan, dacthal, endosulfan, and
PAH concentrations. The authors comparing burned and unburned forest soils found
that fire caused the soil to loose 34-100% of the pesticide mass. The authors
point to the importance of trans-Pacific and regional atmospheric transport of
biomass burning emissions with elevated PAH and pesticide concentrations in
western North America additionally coming from historical deposition of
pesticides in soil and plants.
The authors stress that most human activities depend on fossile energy and on
agriculture which is heavily mechanised. They propose an upper limit of 350
parts per million by volume of CO2 in the atmosphere, and that radiative forcing
should not exceed 1 watt per square metre above pre-industrial levels(the rate of
energy change per unit area of the globe as measured at the top of the
atmosphere). Transgressing these boundaries will increase the risk of
irreversible climate change. The authors say that the current CO2 concentration
stands at 387 p.p.m.v. and the change in radiative forcing is 1.5 W per square
metre. This requires immediate reduction in fossil fuels.
The manufacture of fertilizer for food production and the cultivation of
leguminous crops convert around 120 million tonnes of nitrogen from the
atmosphere per year into reactive forms, influencing lake systems and marine
ecosystems. The authors propose to reduce new reactive nitrogen to 25current value, or about 35 million tonnes of nitrogen per year, and no more than
11 million tonnes of phosphorus per year should be allowed to flow into the
oceans.
The authors conclude that there are significant uncertainty over how long it
takes to cause dangerous environmental change or to trigger other feedbacks that
drastically reduce the ability of the earth system, or important subsystems, to
return to safe levels. They stress that, as long as the thresholds are not
crossed, humanity has the freedom to pursue long-term social and economic
development. Politicians will appreciate these conclusion giving them the
possibility to shelve the report because of its uncertainties and the lack of any
suggestion how to amend the situation. [59]
A Saudi meteorologist, Mansour Al-Mazrouei of the King Abdulaziz University (KAU), predicts extreme weather conditions in the Kingdom in 2011. The region will be exposed to torrential rains, excessive heat or severe dry winds. Heavy rainfall is expected in Eastern Province, Qatar, Bahrain and Jeddah. Climate change causes serious problems for the region with eleven deaths during the recent heavy rains in Jeddah.
This reports misses to give solutions for climate changer and does not tackle
rising use of chemical fertilisers. It is amazing how the serious scientific
Journal Nature prints such inconsistent article which repeats affirmations
already known long before and which had been repeated over and over.
To overcome the paralyzing passivity of scientists which are advisors of the
political leaders, here are some solution presented. They could be used in
Copenhagen as friendly approach of the global problems. However, those who are
in charge to present suggestions are deeply entangled in lobbying for oil,
natural gas and nuclear power.
El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years. It is characterized by variations in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean-warming or cooling known as El Niño and La Niña respectively - and air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific - the Southern Oscillation. The two variations are coupled: the warm oceanic phase, El Niño, accompanies high air surface pressure in the western Pacific, while the cold phase, La Niña, accompanies low air surface pressure in the western Pacific. [60]
ENSO causes extreme weather (such as floods and droughts) in many regions of the world. Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing, particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean, are the most affected. [61]
To predict large fluctuations in temperature associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) an their relation to emissions of greenhouse gases Scroxton et al 2011 used paleontologic data from deep sea. The researchers included the data of isotopes of planktonic foraminifera from three different species from the Pacific with ENSO coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model.
They report that swings between the two climatic extremes between El Niño and La Niña, have occurred in the ancient past and will increase in frequency and intensity causing extreme events and may affect fishery industry. [62]
The Pliocene (which lasted from 5 to 3 million years ago) had carbon dioxide levels similar to the present day, with global mean temperatures about 2-3° higher and can be used to predict effects of rising temperatures. The collected data lead to predict that rising temperature of the Pacific will increase the weather extremes eventsof El Niño, similar to the conditions at the Pliocene.
According to Cook and Schaefer, a meteorologist at the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, during an El Niño event, the sea surface temperatures are warmer,. During a La Niña event, the temperatures are cooler than normal. El Niño events increase tornado activity in the Gulf Coast states and Central Florida. La Niña events increase tornado outbreaks in southeastern Texas heading northeast into Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. The authors hope to addresses tornado patterns during El Niño or La Niña events, but prediction is difficult. [63] Fossil fuel dependence should be
drastically, if not completely zeroed using solar electricity and hydrogen as
fuel for transportation. A global grid according to Fuller may supply all
nations [64]. Electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen
may stabilise the grid, using peak energy from wind turbines. Global
greenhouse gases emission reduced near zero. [65] Activities of giant
agriculture corporations should be limited by international laws. This
includes the US corn belt of the Mississipi region where most of the runoff of
nitrogen and phosphor occur. Dr. Vandana Shiva Navdanya developed such a
system for small agricultural systems which are based on sustainable
agriculture. [66]
Changing the energy economy from fossil origin to solar energy and hydrogen and
changing the demographic structure of our society means that scientists should
stand for their ideal to work for the development of our culture. Powerless and
helpless activities such as shown by Dr. Steven Chu, as energy advisor of the
USA, is disappointing. All scientists are hereby urged to present solutions and
not disagreements. The previous cited hydrogen economy and the agricultural
system of Dr. Vandana Shiva Navdanya are robust foudations for a global
agreement in Copenhagen. [67]
According to Professor Beddington at a conference on sustainability in London
in 06.03.08 cautioned that shoppers in the United Kingdom will have to faced
big price rises because of the soaring cost of feeding livestock resulting from
the rush towards biofuels. Other speakers said at the conference that it will
not be possible to grow enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the
same time meet the enormous demand for food. [68] According to Jean Ziegler the conversion of arable land for plants used for biofuel had led to an
explosion of agricultural prices which was punishing poor countries forced to
import their food at a greater cost. He says that biofuel from food is a human
rights infraction.
He stresses that 232kg of corn is needed to make 50 litres of bioethanol. A
child could live on that amount of corn for a year.
Ziegler proposes a five-year moratorium, to be submitted to the UN General
Assembly on October 25. The moratorium bans the conversion of land for the
production of biofuels.
The author says that in five years science may create a"second generation"
biofuels, made from agricultural waste or from non-agricultural plants such as
jatropha, which grows naturally on arid ground. Solar energy from the deserts
may produce sufficient hydrogen for transportation. Biofuel may then not be
needed any more.
In Brazil moncultures of sugar cane, castor-oil plant and soy spreading at the
expense of food-producing land and harming the environment. In Borneo and
indonesia palmoil plantations have a deep impact on nature. While ten hectares
(316 to 316 metres) of food-producing land may sustain seven to ten farmers, the same area can only produce enough sugar cane for one farmer.
[69] According to a report of the World
Bank, released in advance the G-8 Summit in Japan, biofuels have driven up
global food prices by 75 percent, accounting for more than half of the 140
percent jump in price since 2002. The report says that a US analyses claiming
that just 3 percent of the food price increases could be attributed to
biofuels is not true.
Robert Zoellick, president of the world Bank blames the European Union and the
United States for increasing biofuel production which is the major factor for
food scarcity and rising prices.
To cut CO2 emission the European Union plan to admixture 10 percent of biofuel
to petrol by 2020. The US heavily backs bio-ethanol to reduce America's
dependence on foreign oil.
Cutting down Rain forest and draining peat bogs, natural CO2 sequestration of
developing regions will be reduced. Fertilizers used in the biofuel production
release nitrous oxide which is up to 300 times more harmful than CO2. Biofuels
are therefore not seen as carbon neutral any more.
The European Parliament is aware of the need of an urgent global response to
rising food costs caused by climate change, a lack of supply, higher demand
and consumption and record oil prices, however the most damaging factor is
that investors have moved from oil to commodities, artificially inflating
prices in order to make bigger profits.
Global food prices rise 45 per cent in nine months. A UN intervention on global
trade of rice, wheat maize, soy palmoil, and canola is necessary to counter
artificial inflation of food prices at the stock market.
[70]
Rice is a staple food for three billion people, many are undernourished. A
study predicts that the net impact of rising global temperatures will cause a
net reduction of the production of rice in Asia. Yield growth rate already
sunk by 10-20 percent in several locations during the last 25 years, according
to a study of Welch and colleagues. In this study, published in 2010, a
multiple regression model was used to monitor temperature and radiation
during both the vegetative and ripening phases.
The authors report that if the minimum temperature rises and nights get
hotter, yield will fall, whereas higher maximum temperature will raise it,
however, yield also falls if maximum temperatures rises further. Overall, a
net negative impact on yield from moderate warming in coming decades is to be
expected. This scenario will worsen as temperatures rise further towards the
middle of the century.
Energy strategies based on carbon fuels should be avoided. Biofuels produced
by plantations of palm oil, soy, canola, sugar cane should not be developed
any further as they compete with food plantations. Safety of food supply is
being questioned. Alternative energies, such as solar energy, wind turbines
and the production of hydrogen as energy storage and as clean fuel should
become a global strategy to avoid further increase of temperatures, and to
secure arable fields for the production of food. [71]
According to the National Chicken Council NCC, the Environmental Protection
Agency's rejected a request submitted in April by the Governor of Texas, Rick
Perry to grant a waiver of the ethanol mandate that is diverting corn from
livestock and poultry feed into motor fuel. The NCC says that it is outrageous
that the federal government continues to require and even to subsidize the
diversion of corn from the food supply into the fuel supply, The Council stresses
that food-to-fuel policy rises food prices and chicken companies are loosing
money, amounting up to. [72]
Tyner, Hurt and Abbott, 2008, in the study, What's Driving Food Prices?,
written for the Farm Foundation, identified three broad sets of forces driving
food price increases: global changes in production and consumption of key
commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.
The authors say that food price levels are the result of complex interactions
among multiple factors. However, one simple fact stands out: economic growth
and rising human aspirations are putting greater pressure on the global resource base.
The study stresses that policies, including subsidies and mandates, in the
United States and European Union led to the development of the biofuels
industry and its growing demand for corn and vegetable oils. In the last four
years, most of the growing global demand for corn has come from its increased
use for ethanol production. The ethanol blender credit, tariff and Renewable
Fuel Standard are factors causing increased corn price, but quantitatively
most of the increase has been driven by higher oil prices.
The report said that quantitatively, most of the corn price increase is driven by
high crude oil prices. Corn price has increased by $4 a bushel in four years,
and only $1 resulted from the ethanol subsidy, meanwhile the increase of the
crude oil price mounted up to $80 a barrel. [73]
The National Corn Growers Association hailed the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's decision today to deny a request to reduce the renewable fuels standard.
Ron Litterer, president of the association says: "We hope that those who have
been critical of corn ethanol because of its perceived connection to higher
retail food prices will work with us to help achieve a diversified and
comprehensive solution to high energy prices and our reliance on foreign oil." The World Bank Report says
that bioalcohol from sugarcane have not had such a dramatic impact on world
food prices, however environment damage, loss of biodiversity and impact on
rural population is a catastrophe. [74] The World Bank report concludes that biofuels
production rises food prices by driving grain away from food production,
accounting for a third of US corn for ethanol production and half of
vegetable oils in the EU used as biodiesel; farmers set aside land for
biofuels crops; and grain speculation on the financial markets is being triggered. The report recommends that the G-8 "agree on
action in the US and Europe to ease subsidies, mandates and tariffs on
biofuels that are derived from maize and oilseeds." [75]
Joachim von Braun, director of the International Food Policy Research
Institute warns that increased bioenergy costs are affecting food prices and
predicts a 20-40 per cent increase in food prices between now and 2020.
Higher feedstock prices would benefit energy crop producers. They would, however,
adversely affect poor consumers, as well as small farmers who buy more food than
they grow. For countries with a limited natural resource base, biofuels could
divert land and water away from the production of food and feed. [76] Arnd von Wissel, Head of the German
Biofuel Association denies stoutly the moratorium initiated by Ziegler and
argues that producing less biofuel in Europe would not solve the hunger in
developing countries. He argues that demand for biofuel creates jobs. These
arguments reflect the interests of the Biofuel Association which is focused on
the revenues of their members. [77]
China and India change the world food markets increasing food imports. Both
countries are not self-sufficient. Meanwhile the Amazon region is under heavy
environment pressure caused by the US company Cargill which has made Santarém
located at the Tapajós River as his terminal for soybeans. China is the major
customer for soybeans from the Amazon region. In one decade enormous areas were
clearcut by André Maggi Group, one of the world's largest soybean producers.
Soybean farms are swallowing up the traditional pastures of cattle farmers which
are forced to burn other areas to transform them to pastures. More than half of
all soybean production in the world now ends up in China. This increases meat
prices for the Brazilian population. Hundreds of small farmers became unemployed
when they sold their fields to soybean farmers are a consequence of changes in
eating habits. China and India will invest in Southeast Asia and Africa
establishing grain farms in Zambia and Uganda. [78]
The German environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel on a trip to Brazil says that
soybeans used as feed for meat farming endangers the rain forest of the Amazon
more than bioalcohol and biodiesel does. He says that it is easier for the
population to label cars as evil than to go to a vegan restaurant. Minister
Gabriel during hios visit to Brazil was lobbied by his Brazilian environment
minister Marina da Silva which presented the strategy to avoid further
ecological disasters.
The minister Gabriel says that Germany will increase its import and
subventions of biofuel from Brazil as he sees no harm to Brazilian
environment and food supply for the population of the region. Brazil will
force palm oil plantation which destroyed great part of the rainforest on Indonesia.
Sugar cane in Brazil already covers 70.000 square kilometres and is planed to
be increased to 120.000 square kilometres in four years to feed the export of
alcohol to Germany. In the year 2025 the area covered by sugar cane are planed
to increase up to 210.000 square kilometres, which is the area of Great Britain.
The environment strategy Germany recently moved to an industry friendly course.
Environment researchers, such as Mojib Latif from the Leibniz-Institute for
Marine Sciences in Kiel, the United Nations and NGO's say relying on biofuel,
coal and fossil energy will lead to a disaster. [79]
An alternative to old fashioned strategies is the use of solar energy from
the desert where it does not compete with food crops. [80]
Gibson country music guitars from Nashville destroy the rainforest of Madagascar [81]
Gibson guitars made of tropical hardwoods were confiscated by government officials.Gibson is accused of having twelve deliveries of ebony and rosewood illegally imported from India in the course of two years. The Gibson group manufactures guitars in China and in two factories in USA, bypassing the Lacey act which forbids the use of illegal wood .
It is the mentality of the system which tries to divert culprit to developing countries. The big corporations and the power of big brands, in this case Gibson guitars, do everything for money and power. They disregard the price humanity has to pay for it.
According to Rainforest Rescue, the forests of Madagascar are being looted by an unscrupulous timber mafia, including the Sociétéé Thunam Roger. Endangered and rare ebony and rosewood are shipped abroad. The timber merchant Theodor Nagel from Hamburg (Germany) is part of the game. Gibson purchased tons of Malagasy ebony wood from Nagel who shipped the stolen timber to the United States.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC),with seat in Bonn (Germany), affixes its label to timber coming from "responsible forest management". But in fact, the FSC is dominated by the timber industry which results in lax standards, regular cases of fraud and scandalous certifications.
The Gibson Group tries to topple the Lacey Act which prohibits to import timber of illegal sources. USA is the biggest international market of wood. Since the Lacey Act became in force illegal deforestation decreased globally. In order to water down the Lacey Act the Gibson guitar builder and the Indonesian Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) corporation, formed a lobby joining the Tea Party-movement. A petition to change the act has already been submitted to the US Kongress.
The Lacey act [81]
The Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3371-3378, protects both plants and wildlife by creating civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations. The Act prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. The Lacey Act was first introduced by Iowa Congressman John Lacey in the House of Representatives in the spring of 1900. The Lacey Act violator can face civil fines, forfeiture of wildlife and equipment, and criminal penalties, including fines and incarceration. [82]
Yugen Zhang and colleagues 2009 describe a method to transform carbon dioxide
into methanol which can be used as fuel.
The authors use N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), an organocatalyst which
contains no toxic heavy metal and is stable under oxygen, in contrast to heavy
metal catalysts. Carbon dioxide is activated by the NHC catalyst and reacts
with Hydrosilane, a combination of silica and hydrogen. Water is added and
methanol is the endproduct.
The authors stress thatNHCs had been found to act as antioxidants to fight
degenerative diseases, and catalysts to transform sugars into an alternative
energy source. [83]
Fuel energy efficiency and pollution analysis of different ratios of
ethanol-gasoline blended fuels (E3, E6, and E9) under different loadings were
compared with gasoline and Diesel. Lin, Chang and Hsieh 2010 found ethanol blends
to have better thermal efficiency and emitted less polutants (particulate
matter, the carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons (HCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). The
authors stress that the E6 fuel gave the best results of the exhaust emissions,
and the E9 fuel gave the best results of the particle emissions and engine
performance, when compared with not ethanol-blended gasoline or diesel.
[84]
Pollutant emission of ethanol-gasoline blended fuels (3, 10, 15, and 20% v/v) in
a four-stroke motorcycle was compared with commercial gasoline by Yao, Tsai and
Chiang 2009. The authors report that the 15% ethanol blend had the highest
emission reductions, however, total hydrocarbons (THCs) were not reduced relative
gasoline. [85]
Matsuo and Kawaguchi 2006 propose a mixture of a zirconium benzyl phenoxide
complex and tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane catalyse the reaction of carbon dioxide
with hydrogen to generate methane via a bis(silyl)acetal intermediate.
[86]
Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance composed of water and methane. It is
stable under high pressure and low temperature.
Westbrook and colleagues 2009 found that methane hydrate is being broken down
and methane rises as bubble plumes. Warming of the northward-flowing West
Spitsbergen current by 1° over the last thirty years causes the break
down of the methane hydrate.
Methan released from the seabed is seen as an agent of climate change. The
authors stress that if this process continues, enormous amounts of methane may
come free.
The attempt to reduce CO2 back to fuel is a desperate attempt to stick to the
carbon economy. The input energy getting the combustion product back to an
organic fuel will always be higher than what is achieved later on while burning
it again. [87]
Instead of burning carbon fuel and trying to transform a bit of the emission back
to a reusable fuel, any emission of carbon dioxide should be avoided. The Global
Energy Initiative of the Desert Energy Project presents a carbon-free energy
economy. Politicians, energy corporations and car makers have to get together to
embrace this promising energy field which is particulate emission free. The
emerging financial centres like China, India and the Arabian countries,
replacing US and Europe, will have the political and the financial strength to
implement the solar/hydrogen economy. [88]
Mary Silver and colleagues warn that the addition of iron to sea waters can
stimulate rapid growth of diatoms in the genus Pseudo-nitschia. This alga produces domoic acid, a neurotoxin which can enter the food chain leading to
closure of fisheries. domoic acid poisons marine mammals and birds that feed
on contaminated fish.
Iron fertilization of the oceans has been suggested as way to reduce atmospheric
concentrations of carbon dioxide and thereby combat global warming. The authors
stress that the findings urge to redouble the efforts to reduce carbon emissions
instead of changing the biology of the sea.
Other scientists involved in foregoing studies were Ken Bruland and Coale.
They analysed old samples collected during iron-enrichment experiments
conducted in 1995 and 2002, noting that domoic acid was not broken down in
samples stored for years.
Natural iron input due to dust brought in by sandstorms, or melting glacier
ice bearing trapped iron are short timed events limited to restricted areas.
Now the idea of ocean fertilisation is being locked by a UN moratorium on the
practice stating that the potential dangers outweigh the benefits.
In 1958, domoic acid was originally isolated from the red alga called "doumoi"
(Chondria armata) in Japan. "Doumoi" is used as an anthelmintic in Tokunoshima,
Kagoshima.[citation needed] Domoic acid is also produced by diatoms of the genus
Pseudo-nitzschia and the species Nitzschia navis-varingica [89]. [89]
Ironex II, 1995
SOIREE (Southern Ocean Iron Release Experiment), 1999
EisenEx (Iron Experiment), 2000
SEEDS (Subarctic Pacific Iron Experiment for Ecosystem Dynamics Study), 2001
SOFeX (Southern Ocean Iron Experiments - North & South), 2002
SERIES (Subarctic Ecosystem Response to Iron Enrichment Study), 2002
SEEDS-II, 2004
EIFEX (European Iron Fertilization Experiment), 2004
CROZEX (CROZet natural iron bloom and Export experiment), 2005
LOHAFEX (Indian and German Iron Fertilization Experiment), 2009
A number of scientists published a statement in Science in 2008 maintaining
that it would be "premature to sell carbon offsets from the first generation
of commercial-scale OIF experiments unless there is better demonstration that
OIF effectively removes CO2, retains that carbon in the ocean for a
quantifiable amount of time, and has acceptable and predictable environmental
impacts." [90]
Street and Paytan 2007 were concerned about the efficacy and advisability of iron
fertilization of the sea. They write that foregoing experiments resulted in only
small carbon export fluxes to the depths necessary for long-term sequestration.
Engineering the complex ocean system may also result in unpredictable response,
the authors warn [91]. [92]
US companies, such as Climos and Planktos were hoping to profit by selling the
carbon credits they would earn by triggering algal blooms but are having hard
times to collect funds for their activities [93]
A full-scale international plankton restoration program could regenerate
approximately 3-5 billion tons of carbon sequestration capacity worth 75
billion Euro or more in carbon offset value.
The domoic acid of Pseudo-nitzschia is a "chelator", binding to iron to make
more of it available to the algae. Easy access to this nutrient would allow algae
to out-compete other species, says Silver. The findings raise serious concern
over the net benefit and sustainability of large-scale iron fertilizations
concerning the coastal food webs. [94] [95]
Artificially fertilized with several million tons of iron oxide, the ocean
could remove three and a half gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This amounts to an eighth of the yearly emissions created by burning oil, gas
and coal. This strategy is controversial since environmentalists fear such
geo-engineering could knock the ecosystem out of balance. For this reason, the
UN Convention on Biological Diversity in May 2008 called for a moratorium on
such plans, at least until further scientific results are available.
The researchers of India’s National Institute of Oceanography and the Alfred
Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany on the Polarstern
ship tried to stimulate a giant bloom of phytoplankton fertilising the
Antarctic sea with10 tons of iron sulphate spread over 300 square kilometres.
Tiny algae were to absorb carbon dioxide when they grow and sink to the bottom
of the sea when dead.
The research, led by Wajih Naqvi and Victor Smetacek in 2009, created a bloom of
phytoplankton but crustaceans called copepods gobbled the phytoplankton up so
quickly that only a small amount of CO2 was dispatched to the ocean floor. The
researchers say their experiment failed because foregoing natural blooms had
depleted the area of silicic acid which is needed for shellmaking of diatoms
protecting them from copepodes which feed on microalgae. Diatoms may, therefore,
created great algal blooms and trap much CO2 from the atmosphere. During the
experiment, however, the low of silicic acid and high of iron environment
Phaeocystis, algae without an silica shell, developed. Copepodes could feed on
this group of algae and thze bloom was timely limited. As a result iron
fertilisation removed less CO2 from the atmosphere than initially calculated by
the expedition. [96]
Solar energy, wind turbines geothermal power stations, tidal and wave energy,
together with hydrogen technology can provide 100% of energy and fuel which
is almost free of CO2 emission. It is the responsibility of governments and of
the scientists which work as advisor, to work toward a global strategy for a
sustainable carbon-free energies. Read more at www.desertenergyproject.net [97]
According to the study removing CO2 from the atmosphere would reduce global
temperature less than half of CO2-induced warming. The researchers explain
that the enormous amount of CO2 which has been absorbed in the oceans will
partially return to the atmosphere. A similar effect will take place on land,
where a drop of atmospheric CO2 alters the balance of the land carbon cycle,
causing the emission of carbon dioxide from the soil to exceed its uptake by
plants.
The study co-author Ken Caldeira recommend to prevent carbon dioxide emissions
now rather than trying to clean up the atmosphere later which may be extremely
inefficient.
[98]
In a study of 2002 Atul Jain and Long Cao developed an atmosphere-ocean,
climate-carbon cycle model to study the effectiveness of oceanic carbon
sequestration by the direct injection of carbon dioxide at different locations
and ocean depths. They found that injecting carbon dioxide into the Atlantic
Ocean would be more effective than injecting it at the same depth in either
the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean.
The researchers warn, however, that future climate change could affect both
the uptake of carbon dioxide in the ocean basins and the ocean circulation
patterns themselves. The problems of storing CO2 are similar to long-term
storage of nuclear waste, no safe place was found yet. The authors stress that
carbon dioxide dumped in the oceans will not stay there forever and will
return to the atmosphere. [99]
The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) considered the cumulative impact of multiple stressors on the ocean, including warming, acidification, and overfishing. The report concluded that the world's ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species if the current trajectory of damage continues. It calls for urgent and unequivocal action to halt further declines in ocean health. [100]
According to the Report, climate change results in two main threats to the ocean: Rising temperatures and acidification.
It is imperious to reduce emission of carbon dioxide as proposed in the 4th Report of the IPCC. This must be flanked by developing carbon sinks to reduce current CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The target of 450ppm CO2 in the atmosphere and/or 2 degrees temperature will not guarantee the viability of some marine ecosystems. If both cannot be addressed on, the IPSO report suggests to concentrate efforts on other stressors.
Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute reports a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, causes mass extinctions of marine species. Carbon dioxide of fossil fuels heats the planet and acidifies the ocean. Run-off of fertilizers and pollution creates anoxia.
The management of fisheries must be improved to support global food security in the future, reduce the impact on the Ocean and avoid overfishing. Applying precautionary management practices, fisheries can be sustainable and provide food for future generations in a way that is profitable.
Seabed communities such as coral reefs are destroyed through the practice of bottom trawling, and by change water quality, making it unsuitable for many marine animals. Such habitat destruction can be reduced introducing marine reserves. Marine reserves, similar to national parks, are non-take areas to protect them from overexploitation and allow them to recover from stressors.
Extraction of oil and minerals are activities which produce harmful pollution, such as toxic drilling mud. Acoustic methods to explore the seabed produce a sound impact on mammals and fish. Pollution by industry, agriculture and sewage develop dead zones resulting from algal bloom. Heavy metals, POPs, plastics, petroleum and pesticides threaten health of marine food. Dumping ballast water of freighters alien species are introduced in sensible ecosystems.
The report stresses that fish are the main source of protein for a fifth of the world's population and the seas cycle oxygen and help absorb carbon dioxide. Marine species and entire ecosystems, such as coral reefs, are lost in one generation unless action is taken now to reduce the combined effects of climate change, over-exploitation, pollution and habitat loss.
[101]
Dr.Jawhar reports that no signs of biological presence can be detected in sea
waters in the proximity of power plants of Kuwait up to two kilometres into
the sea, due to the high temperature of waters dumped into the sea, reaching
44 degrees, while the maximum limit is 28 degrees.
Jawhar did not call for the closing of the current power stations but
presented examples of environmentally friendly ways to generate electricity
used in the United Arab Emirates.
Environmental pollution may cause miscarriages amongst pregnant women, cause
sterility, brain cancer and several other diseases, said Dr. Jawhar. [102] Drill campaigns have delivered an inferred resource of 35.9 million pounds of U3O8 at 409 ppm.
Uranium has three natural occurring isotopes of which each are emitting gamma, beta and alpha rays. Canada is the leading country in the world for production of Uranium. In Africa the leading states in the production of Uranium includes: Namibia, South Africa and Niger. Tanzania is going to join the train soon due to its high deposit of this metal in many places.
Mkuju Uranium Project: is located within the national park. Villagers were once forced to quit the place so as it can be used for national- park purposes. Now the area was opened for Uranium exploration.
UNESCO prohibits carrying out any activity which could cause harmful effects to the living organisms located in the Heritage site. This project is estimated to contain 82.3 tones of Uranium Deposit in an area of 3225 Kilometres. [103]
About 80% of the Mkuju River project is located inside the Selous game reserve. The Mantra (MRU) has been granted permission by the relevant government authority to undertake uranium drilling all year round. The current President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete understands and supports the mining industry, having served as the Minister for Energy and Minerals under a previous government. Yellow Cake production will use the water of the Mkuju River. See production flow sheet [103]. [104]
Selous became a hunting reserve in 1905 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.
The most significant threats are related to exploration and extraction of minerals, oil and gas, and large infrastructure plans; environmental impact assessments need to be conducted for all development activities in the vicinity of the property that are likely to have an impact of the property's Outstanding Universal Value.
The uranium mine will embrace adjacent wetland Bahi which is used for farming. Each ton of uranium leaves 99 tons of radioactive sludge which have to be stored indefinitely in open trough. Mining and ore processing will contaminate soil and water of the Mkuju river. Wide area of the Selous Game Reserve will be contaminated by these spills.[105] [106]
According to Lidia Morawska and colleagues 2009 urban motor vehicle fleets are
a major source of particulate matter pollution, especially of ultrafine
particles less than 0.1 microm. Exposure to these particulate matter have
serious health effects. The authors compiled a set of tailpipe particle
emission factors presented for different vehicle and road type combinations.
These emission factors may be used to derive emission factors for other regions.
The authors stress the high emission of particulate matter and ultrafine
particles by urban vehicles, and the necessity to assess the health impact of
special areas.
[107]
The The Obama /Steven Chu administration plan to use Carbon Capture and
Storage (CCS) and nuclear power to tackle the climate change. Following the
data of the Nordell and Gervet this may be a wrong decision.
According to Nordell 2003 the earth experienced thermal equilibrium over
longer time-scales. Net incoming solar energy and geothermal heat flow were
counterbalanced by a net heat outflow emitted to outer space until 1880.
Beginning with the industrial revolution heat dissipation from the global use
of non-renewable energy sources has resulted in additional net heating. The
resulting thermal pollution contributes to global warming until the global
temperature has reached a level where this heat is also emitted to space. The
author says that the additional heat from the use of fossil fuels and nuclear
power is the main source of thermal pollution.
There are no consistent facts which back the assumption that greenhouse gases
are responsible for rising temperatures, it is based only on the observation
that global warming coincides with increasing emissions of carbon dioxide,
and other greenhouse gases from about 275 ppm in 1880 to 370 ppm today. This,
however does not include the fact that the heat flow from nuclear power does
not depend on CO2 emission and is thus forgotten in global net heat flow.
Nordel stresses that 98% of the greenhouse effect is caused by water vapour
and clouds which absorb infrared sunlight in the atmosphere and only 2% by
CO2 and others.
The authors conclude that efforts to reduce the CO2 emissions do not reduce the
global net heat generation. Nuclear power harms the climate at most because of
the large amounts of heat generated by nuclear power production. Therefore
renewable earthbound energy and solar energy should be used to avoid to disturb
the energy balance of Earth. [108]
According to Commerce and Industry Minister Abdullah Zainal Alireza Saudi Arabia invests more than USD100 billion for 16 nuclear energy plants to be build in their country within the next few years, to reduce crude oil consume.
This move has quick money as target, because crude oil brings more money at the stock market. The Saudi minister, speaking at the business forum in Atlanta, cited the nuclear strategy of his country as an effort to reduce dependence on oil and gas. This includes also to develop solar and other renewable energy technologies, for instance, investing USD 3 billion in production of solar energy panels in Jubail and Yanbu.
Saudi Arabia does not consider the decommissioning costs, the costs of storage of nuclear waste. Germany is having enormous costs with the repository "Asse II" no final safe repository has been found in Germany. All this is of no importance in USA. The nuclear waste is stored at their power stations of just littered in the environment.
The Japan's Meiji Holdings recalls their infant milk which is tainted up to 30.8 becquerels of caesium-137 and caesium-134. The limit set by Japan's health ministry is 200 becquerels per kilogram for powdered milk. Prolonged exposure to radiation in the air, ground and food can damage DNA, causing leukemia and other cancers. Infants are especially susceptible. High radiation in vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water are still being detected all over the country.
The earthquake and tsunami in March 11, 2011 destroyed several blocks of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and spread radiation over the country. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) is still struggling to bringing the facility under control, reducing the amount of radiation emitted from its reactors and reducing temperatures of the water, cooling them to levels considered stable.
About 45 tons of contaminated water had leaked at the early December 2011, and 300 litres escaped to the environment. The company still targets a cold shut down, but temperatures of the reactors are still too high for this procedure.
The government of Japan reports that the shut down of the reactor has been achieved and temperatures are below100°. Tepco, the owner of the power station, says it will take at least 10 years to remove the fuel rods, only then decommissioning can be started which will take another 20 years. There are 30 years ahead to solve the problem.
According to Reinhard Uhrig, a nuclear expert at Gobal 2000, it is much worse than that. The fuel rods melted, burned through the pressure compartment and lie as a clot on the bottom of the outer encasement, developing there temperatures up to 3000°. The reactor is far from being stable.
Uranium mining, spills of radioactive material, disaster at nuclear power stations, decommissioning of power stations and unsolved handling of nuclear waste are environmental burden and costs to which the nuclear lobby remain resolutely silent.
The lobby of the nuclear energy is part of the easy money system which disregards safety and interests of the global population
Tokelau, a small Pacific country, made an announcement which puts the big world leaders to shame. Tokelau will switch entirely to renewable energy. They will use solar power, wind turbines and, if necessary operate their diesel aggregates with local cocoa oil.
This is a signal of the people to those who have been in charge and are still in the responsibility to act. It is a direct accusation of failure of world leaders to cope with a sustainable financial system which broke down, beginning in 2008 in New York. These leaders also fail to follow the call for a sustainable energy politics, which is not based on best profit and quick money such as nuclear power.
The global movement which started al Wall Street aim to correct the ongoing mismanagement in financial activities, has widened their roots in all aspects of the global society. We have only one world. We cannot destroy it for profit sake or just to win the next election.
Sadi Arabia should reconsider the contract of the 16 nuclear power plants and change this investment to solar power, wind turbines and the hydrogen technology. This would bring the Kingdom out of the dependence of uranium producing countries. It also would free itself of the dominance of the US lobby influencing state affairs.
According to Mohammed al-Sabban, the envoy of Saudi Arabia to the climate negotiations at Durban, his country must ensure that these talks won't unfairly limit the exporter group's income. He stressed at a conference at Riyadh on Nov 21 "Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners are being asked to bear too much of the burden of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions because their economies depend on oil and natural-gas revenue."
Al-Sabban added that Saudi Arabia does not ask for compensation for the loss of income from oil sales due to the change to renewables. However, the kingdom does seek technological assistance from developed countries and investments to diversify its economy.
Exploring the wealth of the kingdom on solar and on wind energy and producing hydrogen as clean fuel for transportation, could leave crude oil for valuable chemical products, such as carbon fibre to build aircraft and cars. There is a lot that the Kingdom can achieve in this business. Nuclear power is certainly not the right decision.
[113]
Bo Nordell and Bruno Gervet 2009 found that heat accumulating since 1880 in
air, ground, and water causes climate change. To explain this phenomena the
net heat emissions on Earth must be considered.
The authors stress that global air temperature increase is an inadequate
measure of global warming and suggest to use the global net energy. The heat
accumulated in the atmosphere corresponds to a mere 6.6% of global warming,
while the remaining heat is stored in the ground (31.5%), melting ice
(33.4%) and sea water (28.5%).
The global use of fossil fuel and nuclear power was found to contribute to global
warming. The authors recommend to reduce our reliance on burning fossil fuels and
switch to renewables like wind power and solar energy are the main strategies to
avoid climate change. Recommendations not to rely on carbon dioxide
sequestration and nuclear energy are reiterated. [114]
Matthevs and colleagues 2009 link carbon-climate response (CCR) allows
CO(2)-induced global mean temperature change.
Matthevs and colleagues define the carbon-climate response (CCR) as the ratio
of temperature change to cumulative carbon emissions. The stress that CCR is
approximately independent of both the atmospheric CO(2) concentration and its
rate of change on these timescales.
The proportionality of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions is estimated
by the authors to be in the range 1.0-2.1 degrees C per trillion tonnes of
carbon. The authors point out that, following the data of their study, one
tonne of carbon dioxide leads to 0.0000000000015 degrees of global temperature
change. They conclude further that to restrict global warming to no more than 2
degrees total carbon emissions must be restricted, from now until forever to
little more than half a trillion tonnes of carbon, or about as much again which
has been emitted since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
[115] Reading the study of Matthevs may lead to the erroneous assumptions that CO2 is
the main cause of global warming. As explained by Nordell and Gervet 2009
[113] the CO2 concentration is only an indicator of
the amount of carbon being released in the atmosphere. The so called "greenhouse
gases" are responsible only for 2% of trapping heat. The huge 98% greenhouse
effect comes from water vapour and clouds. Nordell says that input of
non-renewable energy and nuclear energy are causing climate change. The authors
calls to abandon plans on Carbon Capture and Store on non-renewable energy and
avoid nuclear energy because both add external energy to the thermodynamic of the
global system. Solar energy is being recommended by Nordell. [116]
The journal Nature published a report of Johan Rockström and colleagues 2009
setting ten boundaries which should not be exceeded to avoid crossing dangerous
tipping points. These include atmospheric CO2 levels, the rate of species
extinction, the over-use of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilisers, use of fresh
water, the clearing of land, ozone depletion, ocean acidification,aerosol
pollution of the atmosphere and chemical contamination. The authors add that if
one boundary is transgressed, then safe levels for other boundaries are
endangered, so the land use changes in the Amazon may cause water scarcity in
Tibet. [117]
According to Knibbs and colleagues 2009 road tunnels provide high exposure passengers to particulate matters, including ultrafine particles. The data of
this study were among the highest recorded concentrations. The authors stress,
therefore, the importance of road tunnels in the ultrafine particle exposure
of humans.
[118]
According to Gertler and colleagues 2002 the mobile sources are a major source
of particulate matter of fine particles or PM2.5 which are smaller than 2.5
pm. Diesel engines are the main source of ultrafine particles smaller than 0.1
microm. Further emission of particulates originate from brake and tire wear
and by resuspension of particles from pavement.
The authors found that emissions of C8 to C20 hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide,
and carbon dioxide from heavy duty diesel decreased over a seven-year period.
Particulate mass emissions of PM2.5 also decreased from approximately 1,100
mg/km to 132 mg/km over a period of 25 years.
The study reports that low duty particle emission factor was considerably less
than the heavy duty value, but the high number of low duty vehicles augment
their importance. Ultrafine particles of 17 to 13 nm are the most abundant in
particulate emission and are composed of sulphur. A 48 per cent rise in the
NOx/CO2 emissions ratio in a seven years period is an indicative of NOx emission
increase in the new-technology diesel engines. [119]
Mazaheri and colleagues 2009 assessing aircraft emission during landing and
takeoff found that particle number, and NOx emission factors are dependent on
aircraft engine thrust level. Emitted particles in each mode of landing and
takeoff cycle ranged from 4 to 100 nm in diameter.
The authors urge the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to take
into account that aircraft thrust level is considerably higher during taxiing
than idling. ICAO standards consider 7% of total thrust for both of them alike
in its publication "Environmental Protection, Annex 16, Vol. II, Aircraft Engine
Emissions, 1993". [120]
The exhaust emissions from compressed natural gas (CNG) and ultralow sulphur
diesel in-service transport buses were assessed by Javaratne and colleagues
2009. The authors found that all emission factors increased with load.
The CNG buses emitted mainly particles in nano size range and were formed of
volatile organic compounds, with a median particle mass being less than 1 per
cent of that of the diesel counterpart, but the particle number emission were
alike between both types of buses. The CO2 emission factors of CNG were one
third greater than the emission of the diesel buses. NOx factors did not
differ between the two types of buses.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a combination of ailments. Symptoms include cough, irritation of the nose or throat, headache, fatigue, and trouble concentrating. A 1984 World Health Organization report into the syndrome suggested up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be linked to symptoms of SBS. Most of the sick building syndrome is related to poor indoor air quality. [121]
Indoor air quality guidelines were developed in accordance to construction of sealed buildings (without natural ventilation). Lower levels of air exchange in these environments was the main culprit for the increase in concentration of indoor air pollutants. poor indoor air quality is associated with some diseases (cough, rhinitis, allergy, etc.) and with Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). A healthy building must provide a good ventilation through an efficient technical system, and its continuous monitoring.
A building is considered to present Sick Building Syndrome when at least 20% of its occupants present specific symptoms, which disappear when these persons are out of the building.
Air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in developed and developing countries alike. The 2005 WHO Air quality guidelines (AQGs) are designed to offer global guidance on reducing the health impacts of air pollution. The guidelines first produced in 1987 had a European scope. The new (2005) guidelines apply worldwide and are based on expert evaluation of current scientific evidence.
There are serious risks to health from exposure to PM and O3 in many cities of developed and developing countries. Even relatively low concentrations of air pollutants have been related to a range of adverse health effects.
Significant reduction of air pollution can be achieved through lowering the pollutants emission of combustion of fossil fuels. In homes where biomass fuels and coal are used for cooking and heating, PM levels may be 10–50 times higher than the guideline values.
Guideline values
Particulate matter
PM2,5
10 µg/m³annual mean
25 µg/m³ 24-hour mean
PM10
20 µg/m³ annual mean
50 µg/m³ 24-hour mean
Ozone (O3) = 100 µg/m³ 8-hour mean
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
40 µg/m³ annual mean
200 µg/m³ 1-hour mean
Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
20 µg/m³ 24-hour mean
500 µg/m³ 10-minute mean
A database of indoor air concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, and ammonia in office environments was analysed by Salonen et al 2009.
The most common volatile organic compounds VOCs found in indoor samples include toluene, xylene, 1-butanol, nonanal, benzene, 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)ethanol, acetic acid, 1,2-propanediol, and toluene. Usual concentration of the pollutant in office building were found to be 0,07 microg mol for total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), 0,007 microg mol for most individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 0,01 microg mol for formaldehyde, and 0,012 microg mol for ammonia. The guidance value suggested for TVOC is 0,250 microg mpl, for formaldehyde 0,015 microg mol, and for ammonia 0,025 microg mol.
If the guidance value is exceeded an exceptional source and the need for additional environmental investigations are imperious. The levels should not be used for the evaluation of health risks, say the authors.
Indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have posed significant risks to human health in residences, hospitals or workplaces. These compounds are produced by construction materials of buildings, furnishings or closed farm buildings for raising livestock. Their originate from phenolic and benzene-like compounds in materials or from moulds growing inside improperly ventilated or sealed buildings. The authors suggest the use of volcanic materials, clays and minerals (volcanic tuff, modified clay montmorillonite and mineral clinoptilolite), to filtering VOCs in buildings.
It is the obligation of legislators to issue limits of emissions of materials and control their compliance. All efforts should be directed to avoid the causes and not to remediate the effects of such causes.
Gibson and Lindberg 2011 cite that multiple chemical sensitivity include overlapping conditions such as asthma, Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome (RADS), Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), Chronic Fatigues Syndrome (CFS), and Fibromyalgia. The authors alerts physicians to considered chemicals as a cause of illness in such patients and use interviews, blood work, immune profiles, and allergy testing for the diagnosis. Suspected chemical should be avoided, home environment should be corrected, diet restrictions, and the use of air filters are recommended by the authors.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) is associated with ocular, nasal, throat, and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue.
Zhang et al 2011 studied selected microbial components, fungal DNA, furry pet allergens incidence associated in schools in Taiwan, China. The authors found that mucosal symptoms was negatively associated with concentration of muramic acid, total lipopolysaccharides, and shorter lengths of 3-hydroxy fatty acids from lipopolysaccharides, C14, C16, and C18. General symptoms were negatively associated with C18 LPS, however, positively associated with total fungal DNA.
The authors concluded that bacterial compounds (LPS and MuA) seem to protect against the development of mucosal and general symptoms, but fungal exposure measured as fungal DNA could increase the incidence of school-related symptoms.
Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), also known as lipoglycans, are large molecules consisting of a lipid and a polysaccharide joined by a covalent bond; they are found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, act as endotoxins and elicit strong immune responses in animals.
Muramic acid (MuA) is a form of sugar acid. Chemically it is the ether between lactic acid and glucosamine. It occurs naturally as an N-acetyl derivative in peptidoglycan which has many biological functions such as a component in many typical bacterial cell walls.
Zhang et al 2011 assessed sick building syndrome related to parental asthma/allergy (heredity), own atopy, classroom temperature, relative humidity, absolute humidity, crowdedness, CO2, NO2 and SO2. The authors report a prevalence of mucosal symptoms of 33³ %, and 28 % of general symptoms in Chinese pupils. Improvement of at least one symptom was found in 27% when away from school.
High levels of C02 indicated inadequate ventilation. High levels of SO2 and NO2, indoors and outdoors were also found. Increased ventilation, relying on window opening as a tool for ventilation in China may decrease the level of CO2, but increase the level of NO2 and SO2 indoors. The authors suggest to include location far away of heavily trafficked roads in planing of new schools and include mechanical air filtration. Actual data were not conclusive for causal relationships for sick building syndrome, and more longitudinal studies on SBS are needed.
Asthma is on the rise in developing countries. Cai et al 2011 assessed selected fungal DNA, furry pet allergens and mycotoxins in dust samples from schools in Malaysia and their associations with pupils' respiratory allergies. The pupils reported daytime breathlessness 41%, parental asthma or allergy 22%, pollen or pet allergy 21% and asthma 13% but rarely reported night-time breathlessness. Aspergillus versicolor DNA was directly related to wheeze and daytime breathlessness and Streptomyces DNA to asthma. Stachybotrys chartarum DNA was inversly related to daytime breathlessness and verrucarol to daytime breathlessness.
The authors stress that fungal DNA and cat allergen contamination were common in schools from Malaysia resulting in high prevalence of respiratory symptoms among pupils. [131]
Carpenter et al. 20011 found that statistic models used to assess catastrophic changes in economic and medical systems can also predict ecosystem collapses. The authors write that early signals of an ecological catastrophe are the slowing return rates from perturbation and rising variance in an aquatic food web. The authors added top predators to a lake to destabilize its food web. Small fish sensed the danger and fled to hides near the shores. The population of water flea at open water increased and their food, phytoplancton, decreased. These warning signals could be detected more than a year before the change of the food web broke down.
Examples of such measurable increase in variance are fluctuations in brain waves, the Dow Jones index, or chlorophyll of algae as noted in the food web of the lake described in this study. Similar symptoms occur in many systems like. Such signals can be identified, early enough to interfere, before they reach a critical state of transition known as "tipping point". [132]
William A. Brock and colleagues identified such generic early-warning signals that may indicate for a wide class of systems if a critical threshold is approaching. The researchers developed the mathematical bifurcation theory and its branch, the catastrophe theory, to enable researchers to identify unusual changes in the system's natural patterns of variability as warning of an ecological catastrophe. The researchers defined "catastrophic bifurcations," as diverging of the ways, which propel a system toward a new state once a certain threshold is exceeded. [133] [134] Most commonly applied to the mathematical study of dynamical systems, a bifurcation occurs when a small smooth change made to the parameter values (the bifurcation parameters) of a system causes a sudden 'qualitative' or topological change in its behaviour.
Catastrophe theory: is a branch of bifurcation theory in the study of dynamical systems.
Small changes in certain parameters of a nonlinear system can cause equilibria to appear or disappear, or to change from attracting to repelling and vice versa, leading to large and sudden changes of the behaviour of the system. However, examined in a larger parameter space, catastrophe theory reveals that such bifurcation points tend to occur as part of well-defined qualitative geometrical structures. [135]
Carpenter and colleagues stress, however, that intense and continuous monitoring of an ecosystem's chemistry, physical properties and biota are required to have such warning system functioning. This is difficult to implement for every threatened ecosystem, but costs to reverse changes of an ecosystem are much higher. [136]
The aim of this community project is to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. The Transition Towns movement is an example of socioeconomic localisation.
The main aim of the project is to raise awareness of sustainable living and build local ecological resilience in the near future. Communities are encouraged to seek out methods for reducing energy usage as well as reducing their reliance on long supply chains that are totally dependent on fossil fuels for essential items. Initiatives created community gardens to grow food; business waste exchange, which seeks to match the waste of one industry with another industry that uses this waste; and even simply repairing old items rather than throwing them away.
Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. He teaches natural buildings and permaculture. Permaculture is the design of human settlements and agricultural systems that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Hopkins organised the first 2 year full-time permaculture course in the world, at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. He also developed the first eco-village in Ireland. [137] [138]
A key concept within transition is to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon footprint, moving away from fossil fuels. Key players of the plans are local people, local institutions, local agencies and the local council.
Energy Descent Action Plan An Energy Descent Action Plan is a guide to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and carbon footprint over the next 20 years. Waiting for governments to do this, it will be too late. Individual actions will not be enough to avoid serious If we try and do it all on our own, it will be too little. But by organising with friends, neighbours and our community, it may just be enough, and it may just be in time.
Resilience of Totnes is focused on the economy that cycles more money locally, creates more local jobs, is less at the mercy of major employers. It is more diverse, in terms of skills, livelihoods, land use, businesses, housing provision and so on. Totnes uses local currencies and local investment mechanisms to enable more money to be invested in the immediate area. See pictures on change of Totnes to resilience. [139]
These plans are good activities for specific communities living embedded in a global industrialised economy. Such community needs inputs from an established economy to satisfy the high demands and lifestyle of modern society in high demographic regions. Nobody will accept to return to an alternative lifestyle of Vincent van Gock's "The Potato Eaters". [140]
The "Transition" is an excellent tool to introduce the idea of sustainability, however, it needs further solutions for the global energy demands of United States, China and the developing countries. Additional to wind energy, solar energy may become carbon-free energy producing electricity and hydrogen as fuel for transportation and as energy storage. [141]
The United Arab Emirates aim to reintroduce indigenous grasses on farms. The programme would reduce water waste and combat the transformation of habitable land into desert.
The UAE Ministry of Environment and Water, and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Icarda) are trying to reintroduce Buffel grass which uses only a fifth of water needed for Rhodes grass and has similar nutritional content. Six hours a day watering of grass could thus be reduced to 20 minutes. Icarda is planning to develop seed facilities in the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia to check seed health to avoid anyspread of disease. Rhodes grass had been imported from Africa and became the leading grass as feed. Rhodes grass needs high amounts of water Most farmers in the UAE plant Rhodes grass as livestock forage. [142] [143]
Buffel Grass or African Foxtail Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is a species of grass native to most of Africa, southern Asia (east to India), Southern Iran, Middle East, Indonesia and the extreme south of Europe (Sicily). Introduced to Australia and the New World such as the Sonoran Desert Region and southern Arizona, it became invasive. Easy to ignite it became a fire hazzard, regrowing where other plants were ultimately destroyed by fire. In some US regions buffel grass is being controlled by manual pulling and herbicides.
Buffel grass is still valued as livestock forage, however it is not nearly as economically viable as first thought, because of its limited life of pastures. Buffel grass impoverishes the soil and evenually dies, leaving behind a sterile wasteland. [144]
Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) was imported from Africa and became the leading grass as feed. Rhodes grass needs high amounts of water. It has a vigourous root system, capable of extracting water from more than 4m deep which delivers some degree of drought tolerance, but it grows best in 600-1000mm rainfall regions and is highly salt tolerant. It contains low oxalate levels making it safe for horses to graze.
Urmia is a salt lake in northwestern Iran. It is the largest lake in the Middle East, and the third largest salt water lake on earth. The lake is divided into north and south parts separated by a causeway in which a 1500m gap provides little exchange of water between the two parts. Drought and increased demands for agricultural water in the lake's basin made the salinity of the lake rise to more than 300 g/L, which is four times that of natural seawater.
Large areas of the lake bed desiccate and storms spread the salt to the surroundings, displacing the local population. Fishery has been degraded as no fish species survives such high salt concentration.
Brine shrimp Artemia urmiana is the last species to live in the hipersaline Urmia lake. Artimia serve as food source for migratory birds such as flamingos.
In 2010 and August 2011 protests demanded that the government take action to save Lake Urmia. Despite these protests and environmental rallies the Iranian parliament dropped two emergency cases for reviving the lake. A peacefull protest in front of the Iranian Emassy in Ankara (Turkey) called for the preservation of saltwater Lake Urmia. [145] Artemia are brine shrimps which live in water with salt content as high as 25%. In such environment predators and competitors are few. Microalgae grow well under such conditions and provide abundant food for Artemia, Artemia, belongs to the phylum Arthropoda (joint-legged invertebrates), class Crustacea (shrimp, crab, lobster).
There are several species of Artemia worldwide; Artemia franciscana is the species living in Great Salt Lake (and also in San Francisco Bay), Artemia monica (Mono Lake, California), Artemia persimilis (saline lakes of Argentina), Artemia salina (British lake Livington, now extint), Artemeia sinica (Central Asia, China), Artemia tibetiana, Artemia urmiana (Lake Urmia).
The brine shrimp is food for migrant birds. They also help to eliminate contaminants such as phosphorous, nitrogen and other waste products.
Artemia served as human food. American Indians living near Utah's Salt Lake found these crayfish to be quite delicious. Arabs migrating westward from the Nil riverbed collected Artemia in salt lakes and prepared paste that, according to the German geographer August Peterman (1822–78), reminded them of salted herring and ate Artemia instead of meat. However, Artemia presently is exclusively used as fish fodder [147]. Artemia prefere the green alga Dunaliella as food.because of their small size.
Nunes et al. 2006 reviewed the information related to Artemia used in ecotoxicity testing. The authors present suggestions to improve toxicity assessments using Artemia as test organism for estuarine, marine and hypersaline environments.
Accordinng to Grammou et al. 2011 the expression of the alkaline isoenzyme decreased, while that of the neutral isoenzyme and the major isoenzyme of the acidic area increased when Artemia was incubated for 48 h in municipal wastewater effluent, compared with a culture in filtered tap water. Observing the profile of Glutathione S-transferase in Artemia may be used to detect environmental pollution of municipal wastewater. [149]
Zhang et al 2011 described an improved brine shrimp larvae lethality microwell test method using Artemia parthenogenetica nauplii. [150] The brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA) may be used for rapid and non-specific detection of biological and chemical warfare agents, such as T-2 toxin, trimethylsilyl cyanide, and commercially available pesticides such as dichlorvos, diazinon, dursban, malathion, and parathion, say Lumor et al. 2011.
According to the authors the presence of such toxins in milk, orange juice or other liquid food can be tested using the brine shrimp lethality assay at any point during food production and distribution to prescreen for possible sabotage by an employee or an intentional bioterrorist act. Tests are performed at 28° with incubation for 24 h for milk, and 6 hours when testing orange juice.
Dai et al.2011 showed that SGEG2 presumably requires post-translational proteolysis in order to be processed into two mature peptides (SGEG2a and 2b). The three matrix peptides, SGEG1, 2a, and 2b, are required for cyst shell formation and are involved in protecting the encysted embryos from environmental stress, such as extreme salinity, UV radiation, large temperature fluctuations and dry environments. The authors highlight the high potential of the cyst shell material to be used as new biomaterial for different uses.
Wu et al 2011 studied LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) and LEA-like genes found that these gene groups were linked to resistance to hipersaline stress of Artemia franciscana. [153]
Using clone libraries as a culture-independent method, Tkavc et al. 2011 studied the bacteria associated with Artemia.under different salt concentrations and in different development stages of Artemia. Bacteria found were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria. Halomonas spp. and Salinivibrio spp. dominated all conditions which were tested. [155]
The Coral Watch is a non-profit organization that aims to collect information provided by volunteering divers from around the world, who documented observations and uploaded them online to be used in scientific research. Nearly 1,000 volunteers participated in the project and provided documentation for 590 coral sites around the world, with 38,045 corals surveyed. The Kuwait Diving Team(KDT) has conducted 400 observation missions to coral reefs in Kuwaiti waters since 2009. [156] [157]
Coral Watch developed the Coral Health Chart to monitor coral bleaching, and assessment of coral health. It is a colour chart representing different stages of bleaching/recovery. It is base on a project of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. This tool can increase awareness about global warming by demonstrating one of its devastating effects on coral reefs and consequently on marine environment.
New research indicates that more than half of the world’s coral reefs could die in less than 25 years. Human activities and climate change have contributed to the loss of 30 percent of the worlds reefs to date; another 30 percent are severely damaged. Scientists at Coral Watch will use the data collected to help answer questions about coral bleaching, recovery patterns and how long bleaching events last. [158] Local emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus related to rainbow trout aquaculture in Finland is growing and contribute to local eutrophication. Asmala and Saikku 2010 write that during 2004-2007, the input of nutrients to the system in the form of fish feed was 829 t Nitrogen/year(-1) and 115 t phosphorous/year(-1). Around 20% of these nutrients ended up as food for human consumption, and 70% ended up in the Baltic Sea, directly from aquaculture and indirectly through waste management.
Trout feeds contain herring and anchovy meal of Atlantic origin. The authors suggest that local reductions in eutrophication could be achieved by replacing externally-sourced fishmeal used in diets by fishmeal produced by harvesting fish (non commercial catch species) locally around the aquaculture discharge. This would contribute to close the nutrient cycle.
The change to local caught fish could increase fish meal prices by 15%. Fish meal processes exist which reduce the higher levels of PCB and dioxin compounds of Baltic local fish compared with Atlantic fish. [159]
Eutrophication of the central areas of the Sea being generally attributed to nitrogen and coastal areas to phosphorus. Approximately half of total nutrient loads to the Baltic come from agriculture, the remainder from wastewaters, atmospheric deposition and other sources. Nitrogen and phosphorus are among the main growth limiting nutrients and as such do not pose any direct hazards to marine organisms. Eutrophication, however, is a condition in an aquatic ecosystem where high nutrient concentrations stimulate growth of algae which leads to imbalanced functioning of the system.
The HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan aims to restore the good ecological status of the Baltic marine environment by 2021. HELCOM combats the continuing deterioration of the marine environment resulting from human activities. The HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan is committed to reducing total nitrogen inputs by 8% and phosphorus inputs by 42% by 2016 (from 1997 – 2003 levels). Cullis and colleagues reports that the environment changes organisms as they grow and these changes are passed on. The authors published a study in 2009 in the International Journal of Genetics and Molecular Biology [160] and in 2011 in the Journal of Visualized Experiments [161]. However, Cullis theory is based on findings which say that mutations involve the appearance of a small sequence of DNA known as LIS-1, which is affected by environmental changes. This theory is being challenge, because DNA is believed to be inherited through gamete or sex cells, which are not affected by the environment.
Short variety of flax were grown for several generations under low-nutrition conditions, and a tall variety of flax had been bred over multiple generations under high-nutrient conditions. Best growth was than attained with the different strands under each specific environmental conditions to which the varieties were adapted through several generations.
A specific DNA sequence, LIS-1, was found by the authors to appear when the plant is grown under low-nutrient conditions. The LIS-1 gene persists for the next generations. This may explain how organisms may mutate to survive environmental changes and keep helpful mutations within one generation.
According to the authors environmental caused changes in redwood can so be explained. This tree differs genetically between the top and the bottom of the plant, varying accordingly of the different ecological conditions the tree is exposed over a long period. The insertion element LIS-1 may be used to identify the plant were mutation took place. The authors try to identify the specific gene sequence which enables flax to survive at different ecological conditions. The aim is to transfer this gene to other crop plants.
The term "nanofood" describes food which has been
cultivated, produced, processed or packaged using nanotechnology techniques or
tools, or to which manufactured nanomaterials have been added (Joseph and
Morrison 2006). Examples of nano-ingredients and manufactured nanomaterial
additives include nanoparticles of iron or zinc, and nanocapsules containing
ingredients like Omega 3, or producing stronger flavours and colourings. In food packaging, nanoparticles are used to
detect bacterial contamination, absorb oxygen or release preservatives to food,
surface coating of bottles for Ketchup or dressings and more. [162]
The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, (ETC Group), in its
document "Down on the Farm " in November 2004 call on governments to keep the
Precautionary Principle, all food, feed and beverage products (including
nutritional supplements) incorporating manufactured nano particles to remove
from the shelves until such time as regulatory regimes are in place that take
into account the special characteristics of these materials, and until the
products have been shown to be safe. [163]
According to Craig Poland and colleagues 2008 carbon nanotubes are found to
have needle-like fibre shape, similar to asbestos. Researchers fear that
carbon nanotubes may increase the risk of mesothelioma, a lung cancer which
was found after exposure to asbestos. In a mice study, long multiwalled
carbon nanotubes resulted in asbestos-like pathogenic reactions known as granulomas.
The authors stress that carbon nanotubes, like those used for the study, are
widely used in many products alleging that they are no mare hazardous than
graphite. The autors call for further research great caution before marketing
those products to avoid long-term harm.
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, the protective tissue that covers most
of the body's
internal organs. It can involve lining of lungs, heart, gut. Mesothelioma is
associated with exposure to asbestos. It is not caused by cigarette smokin. It
is fatal, and average survival is about 18 months.
Many naturally occurring and man-made fibers can induce mesothelioma, lung cancer
and/or pulmonary fibrosis. According to Rick Kelly factors of toxicity are the
diameter below 1000 nm, length over 5000 nm, biopersistance by low solubility
and a poor pulmonary clearence. [164] [165]
Friends of the Earth in Europe, the US and Australia made a similar call for
a temporary halt on using nanotechnology in the food chain The authors say that nanotechnology poses a number of unexamined risks to human health.
The large surface area of nano particles alter their bioavailability and may
be readily absorbed into cells, tissues and organs where they may trigger
toxic effects. Nanofoods are not labelled as such. Consumers who wish to avoid
these food products are not being given this option.
Friends of the Earth also stresses that nanotechnology as a global,
mono-cultural system of agriculture may potentially destroy biological
diversity and various food systems across the world.
Report co-author Georgia Miller, Friends of the Earth Australia
Nanotechnology Project Coordinator, said many of the world's largest food
companies, including Heinz, Nestlé, Unilever and Kraft are currently using and
testing nanotechnology for food processing and packaging. Without increased
federal oversight, these companies could begin sale of these products whenever
they choose.
"There is no legal requirement for manufacturers to label their products that
contain nanomaterials, or to conduct new safety tests," said Miller. "This gives
manufacturers the ability to force-feed untested technology to consumers without
their consent." According to the Report all nanomaterials must therefore be
subject to rigorous nano-specific health and environmental impact assessment and
demonstrated to be safe prior to approval for commercial use in foods,
food-packaging, food contact materials or agricultural applications.
[166]
The European Commission released on 17.02.08 a voluntary code of conduct for
nanotechnology, stressing that there is a deficit of knowledge of the
environmental and health impacts of nano-objects. According to the code of
conduct the precautionary principle should be applied in order to protect not
only researchers, who will be the first to be in contact with nano-objects, but
also professionals, consumers, citizens and the environment in the course of
nanosciences and nanotechnologies research activities. [167]
EFSA is launching a public consultation on its draft scientific opinion on the
Potential Risks Arising from Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies on Food and Feed
safety and the Environment. Deadline is 01/12/2008. EFSA's opinion will help
inform consideration of any future EU measures in relation to nanotechnologies
in the food and feed area.
[168]
Current legislation covers in principle the potential health, safety and
environmental risks in relation to nanomaterials. The protection of health,
safety and the environment needs mostly to be enhanced by improving
implementation of current legislation. The Commission and EU Agencies will
therefore in the first place review current documents that support implementation, such as implementing legislation, standards and technical
guidance with regard to their applicability and appropriateness to nanomaterials.
Commission's Joint Research Centre. Activities are coordinated with
international partners and stakeholders in the appropriate fora, such as the
OECD and ISO.
Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)[169]
There are no provisions in REACH referring explicitly to nanomaterials. However,
nanomaterials are covered by the "substance" definition in REACH. Under REACH,
manufacturers and importers will have to submit a registration dossier for
substances that they manufacture or import at or above 1 tonne per year. At or
above 10 tonnes/year, the registrant will be obliged to produce a chemical safety
report. Furthermore, if deemed necessary for the evaluation of the substance the
European Chemicals Agency can require any information on the substance,
independent of the minimum information requirements of REACH When an existing
chemical substance, already placed on the market as bulk substance, is introduced
on the market in a nanomaterial form (nanoform), the registration dossier will
have to be updated to include specific properties of the nanoform of that
substance. The additional information, including different classification and
labelling of the nanoform and additional risk management measures, will need to
be included in the registration dossier. The risk
management measures and operational conditions will have to be communicated to
the supply chain.
In order to address the specific properties, hazards and risks associated with
nanomaterials, additional testing or information may be required. To determine
specific hazards associated with nanomaterials, current test guidelines may need
to be modified. Until specific test guidelines for nanomaterials exist, testing
will have to be carried out according to already existing guidelines. The
Commission will carefully monitor the implementation of REACH with respect to
nanomaterials. [167]
[170]
Calls for tighter regulation of nanotechnology
have occurred alongside a growing debate related to the human health and
safety risks associated with nanotechnology. Further, there is significant
debate about who is responsible for the regulation of nanotechnology.
Bowman and Hodge 2006 point to the fact that there are gaps between different
the work of different regulatory agencies. The authors stress that unlike
earlier technologies, the impacts of nanotechnology should to be analysed
before it spreads on market. [171]
[172]
The CEF Panel evaluates substances intended for use in materials in contact
with food according to Articles 8 and 9 of the Regulation (EC) No.1935/2004 on
materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs.
Engineered nanomaterials (ENM) that are deliberately introduced into the food
chain, including ingredients and additives, fertilizers and pesticides were
discussed by the Panel of the European Food Safety Agency.
In a publication
of 16 December 2008 the use of titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles Cas Nr.
25583-20-4 in a material used to make polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic
drinks bottles no toxicological concern was found, and the way is open for its
allowance in the European Union. Imposed restriction: Only to be used in PET
bottles up to 20 mg/kg.
This opens the door for a flood of approval of nanomaterials in foodstuffs.
Titanium nitride (TiN), nanoparticles, is intended to be used as an additive in
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles up to 20 mg/kg. The final product is
intended to come into contact with all types of liquid foodstuffs for typical
hot fill/pasteurization and/or long time storage at room temperature.
The three mentioned substances groups were included in the SCF List 3 which
contain substances for which an ADI or a TDI could not be established, but
where the present use could be accepted.
The Panel classifies substances according to the "SCF list" since in the past
the evaluation of substances used in food contact materials was undertaken by the
Scientific Committee on Food (SCF). The definitions of the various SCF lists
and the abbreviations used are given in the appendix.
See: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/Scientific_Opinion/cef_op_ej888-890_21stlist_en.pdf?ssbinary=true [173]
In a co-operation with the OECD the Allianz report notes that in respect to
hazards, there is enough evidence to suggest that exposure to nanoparticles,
particularly to those insoluble in water, should be minimised as a precaution. [172]
These substances are members of a group of substances used as polymer
production aids in emulsion polymerisation, in a wide range of polymers and
copolymers (mainly poly(vinyl chloride) PVC, polystyrene, polyacrylates and
poly(vinyl acetate), at concentrations of 1-4%.
Sulphosuccinic acid, alkyl (C4-C20) or cyclohexyl diesters, sodium salts were
considered as safe under the restriction of 5 mg/kg food.
Finished materials are intended to come into contact with all types of food
under room temperature conditions. Evaluation:A significant part of the emulsifier (∼70%) will remain in the final polymer and may migrate into
food in contact with the plastic material. Sulphosuccinic
acid monoalkyl (C10-C16) polyethyleneglycol esters, sodium salts are stable under
the intended processing conditions (up to 200°). These substances are
soluble in water and are partly eliminated during the process. However, as shown
in experiments for determination of residual content in PVC materials, a
significant part of the emulsifier (∼20%) remains in the final polymer and
may migrate into food in contact with the plastic material. These substances are
considered as safe under the restriction of 2 mg/kg food. [174]
The Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards of the Michigan State
University proposed international standards for nanotechnology. They also propose
that NGOs and other citizen groups should participate in the development of these
standards. The international commitment to nanotechnology makes the creation of
international standardisation of the matter imperious. [175]
King Abdullah received an honorary doctorate degree from King Saud University
(KSU) in Riyadh in 21.10.08, and emphasized his support for nano technology. The
King wants to hear daily news on the developments in the field of
nanotechnology. King Abdullah had approved the establishment of an institute for
nano technology at KSU. According to the report nano technology sales in the
world are expected to reach USD 3 trillion by 2015.
[176] The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)
provides a multi-agency framework to ensure U.S. Leadrership in nanotechnology that will be essential to improve human
health, economic well being and national security. The initiative offers wide
spread informations about the nanomaterials. http//:www.nano.gov.
Nanoparticles structure
Nanostructures, their size, and material into which they may be formed,
indicating the type of application in which they may be used [177] [176]
- Clusters, nanocrystals, quantum dots (Radius: 1-10 nm. Used in
insulators, semiconductors, metals, magnetic materials)
- Other nanoparticles (Radius: 1-100 nm. Used as ceramic oxides)
- Nanowires( Diameter: 1-100 nm. Used as metals, semiconductors, oxides, sulfides, nitrides)
- Nanotubes (Diameter: 1-100 nm. Used as Carbon, including fullerenes, layered chalcogenides)
Adapted from J.Jortner and C.N.R.Rao, Pure Appl Chem 74(9), 1491-1506, 2002. [177]
Barbara Karn leads researches of the US EPA which address implications
including studies on the potential toxicity of quantum dots, carbon
nanotubes, iron oxide nanoparticles; research on the environmental fate and
transport of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes; and studies on how
nanotechnology affects material flows. [178]
Potentially harmful effects of nanotechnology might arise as a result of the
nature of the nanoparticles themselves, the characteristics of the products
made from them, or aspects of the manufacturing process involved.
The large surface area, crystalline structure, and reactivity of some
nanoparticles may facilitate transport in the environment or lead to harm
because of their interactions with cellular material. In the case of
nanomaterials, size matters, and could facilitate and exacerbate any harmful
effects caused by the composition of the material.
Some research has been done on inhalation exposure to nanoparticles. A related
research area that EPA research is addressing deals with the health effects of
ultrafine (less than 100 nm) particles on lungs.
However, the current research on ultrafine particles may not be applicable to
manufactured nanoparticles because the ultrafine materials studied are neither
a consistent size nor pure in chemical or structural composition. Exposure may
occur via the dermal and ingestion, as well as inhalation routes. It is
unknown whether nanomaterials bioaccumulate and,thereby, pose human health and
environmental risks because of this potential property.
[179] Kerstin Hund-Rinke and Markus Simon from the
Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology stress the
potential impacts on the environment as large amounts of nanoparticles may
reach the environment. According to Hund-Rinke it is unknown if size,
crystalline form, porosity or the combination of all these structures may be
responsible for the toxicity. For instance, nanoparticles of titanium dioxide
with 25 nanometres presented inhibition of the growth of algae, particles
with greater size then that does not present such toxicity.
The researchers studied the ecotoxic effect of photocatalytic active
nanoparticles (TiO2) on algae and Daphnids (8 pp), concluding that it is
principally possible to determine the ecotoxicity of (photocatalytic)
nanoparticles using methods comparable to the procedures applied for assessing
soluble chemicals. The ecotoxicity depends on the test organisms and their
physiology. The photocatalytic activity of nanoparticles lasts for a relevant
period of time. Therefore, pre-illumination may be sufficient to detect a
photocatalytic activity even by using test organisms which are not suitable
for application in the pre-illumination-phase.
Hund-Rinke also stresses the problem of platinum being released as nano
particulates from tree-way catalysts using platinum palladium and rhodium
alloys, and its possible toxic reactions in the ecosystem. [180]
Nanoscience and nanotechnology are generally concerned with materials that are
10 - 100 nm in size or less (molecular or atomic level). A nanometre (nm) is
one-billionth of a metre. At this size range, the behaviour of materials
begins to change, particles are so small, they disperse evenly in products.
Nanoparticles are already on sale for use in food packaging and the
manufacture of plastic food containers. Synthetic nanoparticles of lycopene are
an example of nanoparticles that have been developed and tested, and are
accepted as GRAS-affirmed by the FDA for use in food in the USA. [180]
Embedding vitamin C, vitamin E or Q10 in nano micelles, hydrophilic and
lipophilic substances can be integrated in the same system. It opens the way
for some new functional foods like water and other beverages containing CoQ10
with appealing appearance to address fat reduction and alpha-lipoic acid for
satiety targeting visceral fat. [181]
The study was made by Dr Ute Gola of the Institute for Nutrition and
Prevention in Berlin, Germany, and Prof Dr Biesalski, head of the department
of biological chemistry and nutrition in Hohnheim, Germany. Christine from
Foresight, however, calls to the attention that there are no claims for weight reduction for CoQ10 been related. [182]
Aquanova presents antioxidant nano structured micelles for vitamin C and
vitamin E, introduce antioxidants into food and beverage products easily and
effectively.Antioxidant system for essential oils and flavours are already
presented. [183] [184]
The paper begins describes what nanotechnology is, what opportunities and
challenges exist regarding nanotechnology and the environment, potential
environmental benefits of nanotechnology. The paper provides an extensive
review of research needs for both environmental applications and implications
of nanotechnology.
Some regulations concerning nano products in food products are contained in
European Regulation (EC ) No.178/2002 [185] The Institute of Food
Science and Technology (IFST) calls for labelling requirements and a separate
evaluetion as novel food.
Should nanoforms of materials such as TiO2 or SiO2 be employed in
edible coatings on foods, then there may be additional risk factors triggered
by their ingestion.
According to IFS additives such as SiO2 and TIO2 and nano-sized
clay particles are also available for use in food packaging material and food
containers. A variety of other nanoparticles are being considered for use in
surface coatings. The bioavailability is likely to be enhanced, and the
toxicological data for the macroscopic form may no longer be valid, because
the small size of these particles may allow them to reach regions within cells
or tissue that normal macroscopic particles of the same composition could not
reach. An appropriate pre-market safety evaluation of nano products should be
required even if the compound is already food-use approved. [180] [186]
Nanomaterials will have an important impact on different sectors and is already being used in: Food and animal feed, medical and pharmaceutical sector, energy sector, including fuel cells, batteries and photovoltaics, environment sector including water remediation, automotive sector, aeronautics sector, construction sector, electronics and optoelectronics, photonics. Contact with nanomaterials is therefore unavoidable. At present, there is inadequate information on the risks associated with nanomaterials.
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a report on the definition of nanomaterial for regulatory purposes.
The JRC clarifies that the term "nanomaterial" usually refers to materials with external dimensions, or an internal structure, measured in nanometres that exhibit additional or different properties and behaviour as compared to coarser materials with similar chemical composition. It notes, that "[a] definition aimed for regulatory purposes should target a class of material which requires specific attention. Hence, the more specific term "particulate nanomaterial"is considered to be more appropriate since macroscopic materials with internal structures at the nanoscale, also often denoted as nanomaterials, are not of concern in this context.
True nano-anbeld effects are addressed by citing that "there are intrinsic nanoscale properties which result from the confinement of atoms and electrons within boundaries of a few nanometres. These effects are most dominant at sizes below a few tens of nanometres (less than about 30 nm). They can considerably change fundamental physical material characteristics like the optical, electrical, and magnetic properties of the nanomaterial.
The European Commission and other countries try to rule this emerging field.
[187]
The new Cosmetic Products Regulation includes a labelling obligation for ingredients present in
the form of nanomaterials, i.e. in the list of ingredients the names of such substances shall be followed by the word "nano"in brackets. The legislators stress that is not meant to be a hazard labelling, but is only for information and will allow consumers to make a choice. The Definition of nanomaterial in the Cosmetic Regulation "Nanomaterial means an insoluble or biopersistant and intentionally manufactured material with one or more external dimensions, or an internal structure, on the scale from 1 to 100 nm"
The European Commission considers a single definition desirable to be applied in all relevant policies, such as chemicals legislation, worker protection legislation, and legislation on air and water quality or waste.
[188]
A new proposal of the revised Novel Food Regulation (EC) No 258/97 includes an updated definition of a novel food to clarify that new technologies not currently being used in the food chain, such as nanotechnology and animal cloning, will require a pre-market safety assessment. The Proposal calls for nanomaterials to be labelled on food packaging. The proposal presents a definition of nanomaterial based on "intentionally-produced materials in the order of 100-nanometres or less".
Food manufacturers and retailers are concerned that too broad a definition could prompt widespread 'nano"labelling and alarm consumers unnecessarily. [189]
The Institute is concerned over the selection of the single upper size boundary of 100 nanometre range of the definition of nanomaterial. The Institute argues that the size at which the properties of a material could abruptly change varied widely according to the material and the properties in question, also "natural"food molecules such as proteins, carbohydrates and lipids, should be excluded in any new labelling regime.
[190]
Auffan and colleagues 2009 write that definition of nanoparticles should be based on size-dependent properties, rather than particle size. The authors argue that particles larger than about 30 nm do not in general show nanoproperties that require different regulations as used for their bulk counterparts. [191] Card and colleagues 2010 evaluated the published literature pertaining to the safety of oral exposure to food-related nanomaterials. They found that available data for a clear assessment of the safety of oral exposure to food-related nanomaterials are insufficient. The authors call for increased efforts in field of studies with increased quality and duration to avoid studies unsuitable for risk characterization.
According to Dudo, Choi and Scheufeld 2010 there are only few discussions on food nanotechnology in newspapers and other media, lacking thematic diversity, and the level of journalistic expertise of its content. The authors stress the importance of media to shape awareness and mental associations of the consumer toward nanotechnology. [192] [193]
Nanomaterials are incorporated in paints, cosmetics, medicines, food and suntan lotions, ending in the environment through waste water and atmosphere. Gaiser and colleagues 2009 cite as examples the zerovalent iron nanoparticles which are known to remove oxygen from and alter pH ground-waters, Silver nanoparticles used in wound dressings and medical equipment for their antimicrobial activity are also used in clothing and food processing work surfaces, being highly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms. CeO2developed as a fuel additiv presents low levels of toxicity in vitro. The authors concluded that ingestion is a viable route of uptake, and the presented models could be used to enable a reduction of the requirements for toxicity tests. And generate more comprehensive hazard data. [194] Quadros and Marr 2010 stress the toxicity of silver nanomaterials by inhalation exposure. About 14% of silver nanotechnology products may release silver particles into the air during production or their use. The authors call for research on how silver nanomaterial from these products become airborne. [195]
Kim and colleagues 2010 reprt that carbon nanotubes present adverse effects on lung and development of diseases, such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. Data indicate that multiwall carbon nanotubes inhibited cell proliferation and triggered cell death, and these nanotubes fiber characteristics, and not iron impurities are responsible for the toxicity of these cells. [196]
According to Pacurari and colleagues 2010 report that the fibrous-like shape and durability suggest toxic properties which are similar to other fibrous particles, such as asbestos. The authors focus on published findings on multi-wall carbon nanotubes activating signaling pathways modulating transcription factor, cell death, DNA damage and biological responses. The authors call for analysis of human risks and exposure controls before carbon nanotube-based products are introduced in the market. [197] Deckers and colleagues 2010 describe the risk assessment process of specific nanomaterial used in foods. The authors assessed food products with added silica (E551) considering the particle size and concentration of nanosilica particles. The authors found no risk of averse effect if the nanosilica is absorbed as dissolved silica, however, there are too many uncertainties to allow proper risk assessment. Researches are urgently needed on how nanosilica is being absorbed. [198]
Nanoparticles, ranging from 2 - 10 atoms, less than 100 nanometres, can potentially invade body systems. Studies to date show that the human body's normal defence mechanisms treat nanoparticles like micro-organisms but nanoparticles could link together to form fibres that are too large to be engulfed by macrophages.
Developments in gene therapies, targeted drug-delivery systems, microencapsulation in food technology and other science fields rely on techniques that manipulate nanoparticles so that they can bypass the human body's defence mechanisms, but also unwanted nanoparticles could also penetrate into cells or cross natural barriers.
The UK's Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency MRHA stoped its participation in the British Standards Institute's Nanotechnology Standardisation Committee arguing that existing regulatory frameworks and trial safety procedures were sufficient to cover the use of nanotechnologies in medicines and medical devices.
MRHA says that one of the conclusions of the many nanotoxicology reviews, is that there isn't yet enough data to derive systematic rules that govern toxicological characterisation of the nanotechnology products. Another is that there might be new hazards associated with loose nanoparticles. The main conclusion that MHRA has come to after reviewing this enormous amount of data was: there is currently no evidence for the actual existence of any such new hazard. [199]
The MHRA members agree that the mechanisms of toxicity seen with healthcare nanoparticles are not unique. The review on The Toxicology of Nanoparticles Used in Healthcare Products does not currently indicate the need for nanotechnology specific regulations. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has also concluded that the current requirements for safety testing of medicinal products is sufficiently rigorous and are currently believed to be adequate. MHRA concludes, however, if research identifies toxicological risks that are unique to nanomaterials, additional testing requirements may be necessary. [200] [201] According to a report summarising
the workshop discussions, held in October 2006, among international nanotech
and LCA experts the impact on environment and human health can be accessed using Life Cycle Assessment.
Life Cycle Assessment is a method for estimating and
assessing the resource usage and environmental impacts attributable to the entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction and acquisition, through energy and material production and manufacturing, to use and end-of-life treatment and final disposal (ISO 14040:2006). The environmental and resource impacts include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources, water use and many others. The report points out, that confidentiality is also referred to as a major problem, as existing Life Cycle Assessment data is often proprietary data of companies and even the exact composition of nanomaterials is strictly confidential. [202]
The German Ministry released a press statement on the 22.10.2009 calling on the
population to avoid products containing nanotechnology. The statement cites a new
report from Becker and Dubbert 2009 [203] which
says that it is unknown how many products there are on the market that contain
nano-particles. Consumers can't avoid them because the products are not labeled.
Nanoparticles are increasingly entering into the environmental media, including
the soil, water and air. The lungs are at highest risk because the particles can
pass the cell walls and alter the DNA. [204]
Chengyu Jiang, a molecular biologist at the Chinese Academy of Medical
Sciences in Beijing, together with colleagues in 2009 reported concerns about
the toxicity of nanomaterials. Studies found lung injuries caused by
nanoparticle exposure. The authors looked at the toxicity of a class of
nanomaterials Starburst ployamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAMs) widely used in
clinical applications. The authors found that PAMAMs can cause acute lung
injuries, triggering autophagic cell death by deregulating the Akt-TSC2-mTOR
signaling pathway.
jiang looking for a protection of workers and consumers from toxic effects of
nanoparticles, found that the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine reduced lung
injury in mice. Our data provide a molecular explanation for nanoparticle-induced
lung injury, and suggest potential remedies to address the growing concerns of
nanotechnology safety. [205]
Liu, Zhang and Slutsky 2009 comment the article of Chengyu Jiang 2009 related to
PAMAs. The authors write that the use of nanoparticles in medicine should not be
discouraged by these risks, but these findings should be seen as a warning that
care has to be taken.
[206]
Buzea, Pachoco and Robbie 2007 calls on the awareness of the public,
scientists and manufacturers, in relation to nanomaterials toxicity. The
authors stress that nanoparticles from natural sources such as dust and
particles of exhaust fumes were already present in the environment before
industrial production increased the exposure. The authors cite the lung
diseases associated with nanoparticles. Other diseases are included, such as
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, Crohn's disease, colon cancer increase
the risk of arteriosclerosis, and blood clots, arrhythmia, heart diseases,
and cardiac death.
The authors call for laws and policies for safely manufacturing, industrial and
commercial use, and recycling of nanomaterial. [207]
According to Sara Pacheco the aqueous colloidal silica and C60 fullerene, most
common used nanoparticle, induces dose-dependent and time-dependent increases
in DNA damage. This may increase the risk of cancer. The researchers are
clearing whether the nanoparticles are entering the cell and causing DNA
damage directly or if they are acting on the membrane and inducing a cascade
of events resulting in DNA damage.
The authors stress that nanoparticles are widely used such as in food, cosmetics,
paintings. They are so tiny that it is impossible to remove them from the
environment using conventional filtering techniques.
[208]
Food containing high amounts of fullerene C60, carbon black, or single-walled or
multiwalled nanotubes had no detectable effect on egg and larval survival of
Drosophila melanogaster. However, these nanocarbons adhered extensively to fly
surfaces impairing locomotor function and died. Different nanomaterial
superstructure, or aggregation state may cause that some types of nanoparticles
may be transported by insects. [209]
Zhiqiang Hu and colleagues 2008 of the University of Missouri are concerned
with the increasing use of silver nanoparticles in consumer products- The
researchers fear that this material, which is extremely toxic, will be
released into sewage lines, wastewater treatment facilities, and, eventually,
to rivers, streams and lakes where it destroys benign species of bacteria such
as those used for wastewater treatment.
According to the authors silver nanoparticles generate more highly reactive
oxygen species, than do larger forms of silver, inhibiting bacterial growth. The
sludge from wastewater treatment could be affected and soils could be harmed if
they are fertilised with sludge high in silver particles.
[210] Singh and colleagues 2009 write that nanomaterals, such as metal nanoparticles,
metal-oxide nanoparticles, quantum dots, fullerenes, and fibrous nanomaterials,
damage or interact with DNA, such as chromosomal fragmentation, DNA strand
breakages, point mutations, oxidative DNA adducts and alterations in gene
expression profiles. However, the actual literature is inconclusive on
physico-chemical features of nanomaterials that cause the genotoxicity. More
studies in this fiel are recommended by the authors. [211]
Anduja and colleagues 2990 are concerned with the toxicity, long-term side
effects, and the biodegradability of nanomaterials. They highlight the
nanoparticles penetration in lung, the deposition, translocation and
elimination. Also of concern are the effects on the lungs caused by metallic
nanoparticles, titanium dioxide nanoparticles in particular, and carbon nanotubes.
According to the authors nanoparticles generate oxidative stress,
pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic effects and the possible development of
fibrosis and pulmonary emphysema or DNA damage. The authors stress the need of
preventive measures in the workplace and/or in the general population to avoid
the risks imposed by nanomaterials. [212]
Helland and colleagues 2008 assessed the voluntary industrial risk assessment
initiatives related to engineered nanomaterial surveying 40 companies working
with nanomaterials in Germany and Switzerland. In this survey 65% did not
perform any risk assessment, and 32,% performed risk assessments sometimes or
always. Use and disposal and unintentional release of nanomaterials were not
controlled. The authors call for risk and safety decision frameworks for the
industry engaged in nanotechnology. Schwab et al. 2011 report that oxidized carbon nanotubes inhibited the growth of algae Chlorella vulgaris and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. However, the photosynthetic activity was not affected, even in presence of high concentration of nanotubes. Adding nanotubes to a alga suspension the colour darkens and the algae form clumps with the nanotubes, but nanotubes are not absorbed by algae.
The authors suggest that the growth inhibition may result by reduced availability of light and crowded growth conditions inside the nanomaterial agglomerates. The authors concluded that carbon nanotube are not directly toxic to algae, but nanotube interfere in the growth conditions of algae, notably clumping and shadowing effects at elevated acarbon nanotube concentrations of more than one milligram per litre. Such high concentrations nanomaterial in waterways and lakes are not expected, however release of nanomaterial in the environment should be avoided until more data on their effect in nature are available and analytik methodes to measure nano material contamination of the environment.
The toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) to algae in the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Suwannee river fulvic acid (SRFA), a type of DOM, was assessed by Wang et al. 2011. The authors found that dissolved organic matter increase the toxicity of CuO nanoparticles to Microcystis aeruginosa alga. Internalization of CuO NPs was observed for the first time in the intact algal cells. The increase of CuO nanotoxicity by SRFA is based on a lesser degree of aggregation, higher Cu2+ release, and enhanced internalization of CuO nanoparticles, say the authors. [215]
According to Murphy and colleagues 2010 the stability of nanoparticles may be
affected by changes of the pH of the cell environment altering their potential
for uptake into organisms. The pH in cells varies within the different
compartments such as the cytosol or intracellular fluid which is slightly
basic with a pH of 7.2. The interior of lysosomes is acidic at a pH is about
4.5. The efficacy of the anti-clumping coating often depends on the pH of such
environment.
The technology developed by the authors can study the behaviour and
aggregation of nanoparticles in the variable environment found in biological
systems. The authors used dynamic light scattering to measure the aggregation
of nanoparticles after pH jumps in aqueous solutions of photoacid generator
and ultraviolet light. This avoids the delays from mixing or stirring of the
solution.
The authors stress that such studies may improve the design of nanoparticles
for tumour treatment where acidity conditions different from normal cells.
Also a better understand the environmental, health and safety implications of
nanoparticles are expected as outcome of the studies.
[216]
Zambrano-Zaragoza and colleagues 2010 described the production of polymeric
nanocapsules by the emulsification-diffusion method. These nano-capsules may
become useful in food formulation. Using the Response Surface Methodology the
authors found that these nanocapsules were produced at a shear rate of 10,917
s(-1), with a polymer-wall concentration of 256 mg poly-epsilon-caprolactone and
a stabilizer concentration of 0.5 g/L of polyvinyl alcohol. These nano-capsules
have an oil core whith superior functionalities over other nano-particulate
systems. The oil core may be used as a protective barrier to transport food
additives and dietary supplements requiring encapsulation, preserving their
functionality and bioavailability, or prevent incompatibilities. [217]
Li and colleagues 2011 report the development of nanoparticles prepared from hydrophobic alginate derivative obtained by acid chloride reaction using oleoyl chloride without organic solvents used in other configurations. These nanoparticles maintained their structural in gastric fluid and intestinal fluid conditions and could transport vitamin D(3) as a model for other lipidic nutraceuticals in solutions based on water. The nanostructures released release vitamin D(3) at a appropriate rate under sustained gastrointestinal conditions. These nanoparticle system may thus be used as oral transporter of vitamin D(3).
Cullis and colleagues reports that the environment changes organisms as they grow and these changes are passed on. The authors published a study in 2009 in the International Journal of Genetics and Molecular Biology [218], and in 2011 in the Journal of Visualized Experiments [219]. However, Cullis theory is based on findings which say that mutations involve the appearance of a small sequence of DNA known as LIS-1, which is affected by environmental changes. This theory is being challenge, because DNA is believed to be inherited through gamete or sex cells, which are not affected by the environment.
Short variety of flax were grown for several generations under low-nutrition conditions, and a tall variety of flax had been bred over multiple generations under high-nutrient conditions. Best growth was than attained with the different strands under each specific environmental conditions to which the varieties were adapted through several generations.
A specific DNA sequence, LIS-1, was found by the authors to appear when the plant is grown under low-nutrient conditions. The LIS-1 gene persists for the next generations. This may explain how organisms may mutate to survive environmental changes and keep helpful mutations within one generation.
According to the authors environmental caused changes in redwood can so be explained. This tree differs genetically between the top and the bottom of the plant, varying accordingly of the different ecological conditions the tree is exposed over a long period. The insertion element LIS-1 may be used to identify the plant were mutation took place. The authors try to identify the specific gene sequence which enables flax to survive at different ecological conditions. The aim is to transfer this gene to other crop plants.
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