environment

What are GMOs? Are GMOs Safe? Can GMOs Be Useful?

November 11, 2019 by Katherine Baker 2 Comments

Hi friends! Today on the blog, we are talking about GMOs. GMOs (or genetically modified organisms), have gathered quite a clout of controversy in recent years. Depending on who you ask, GMOs are either horrific, potentially useful, unnatural, necessary, toxic, harmful, helpful, and everything in between. With all the noise surrounding GMOs, it can be hard to decipher the truth. So what are GMOs? Are GMOs bad for you? Or are GMOs safe? Are GMOs bad for the environment? And Can GMOs be useful? Read on for all the details.

What are GMOs?

There is actually no universally agreed-upon scientific definition for the phrase “GMO,” nor is there any regulation around its use for labeling in the US.

That means things that are labeled “non-GMO,” have not had to meet any specific standards or regulations. The FDA has released voluntary guidelines, but there is no formal inspection or enforcement of the phrase “Non-GMO” on food labels.

The FDA doesn’t even use the phrase “GMO,” as most crops we eat today are genetically modified in some way. The FDA does recognize some foods as “genetically engineered” (GE), which it states is a “more precise term.”

Genetic engineering refers to genetic modification practices that utilize modern biotechnology to target a plant’s genetic makeup to give the plant a desirable trait.

This brings up an important point: there are actually very few genetically modified/engineered crops allowed.

In the US, the list includes things like alfalfa, canola, cotton, maize, papaya, rice, soybeans, roses, sugarcane, wheat and a few varieties of “Arctic” potatoes and apples, as well as FLAVRSVR tomatoes, which are rarely grown these days. Besides the major crops (rice, wheat, soy, etc), it’s actually very unlikely the produce you buy at the grocery store is a ‘GMO.’

Yup, that’s right. A vast majority of what you find in the produce section of US grocery stores is not genetically modified (the exception being papayas, which are always genetically modified in the US, read on for details).

The process for a crop to get “GM” approved costs millions to billions of dollars, and the import/export taxes upon them are also steep. Thus, even if the technology exists, very few GM crops are approved to be grown, unless they are going to be utilized widely, because of the high cost barrier for approval.

Many crops may have been selectively bred to foster certain flavors or growth characteristics, but this is not the same as genetic modification. Humans have used selective breeding techniques for thousands of years to develop crops with a range of desirable features, including various sizes, shapes, and colors of crop foods.

Perhaps you did experiments with pea plants growing up that required you to cross pollinate different pea plants to get different color flowers, etc. This is sort of like what plant breeders do to create different varieties of produce.

For example: say you see an apple in the store that’s new-to-you. You read the description. It says it’s a mix of honeycrisp and another variety (Hi, Snapdragon apples!). This is not a genetically modified apple. It’s a result of plant breeding.

Are GMOs Safe?

To date, existing evidence suggests that genetically engineered crops are safe for human consumption.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, WHO, National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and FDA have all stated that genetically modified crops are safe for consumption, based on the plethora of available data.

In the US, the FDA holds foods from GE plants to the same food safety standards and requirements as foods derived from traditionally bred plants.

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Air Pollution and Human Health: How Poor Air Quality Leads to Chronic Illness and Death

November 7, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

The current air quality emergency in Delhi, where the AQI has reached 999 (which is well above the “safe” level of 100 set in the US by the EPA), has raised recent awareness about air pollution and human health.

I recently shared some articles on the #DehliAirEmergency on my social feeds, adding a comment about how air pollution caused over 8 million deaths per year. Several people reached out to me, surprised that air pollution could cause death or chronic illness, and so I thought I’d devote a post to address the health impacts of air pollution.

I must say I myself was shocked to learn about the serious and sweeping dangers of air pollution. I always assumed it could cause some respiratory distress, but didn’t think it could do much more than that.

Then, I took a job where I spent a semester researching air pollution as a justice issue for a lawyer at Mailman (she’s a legend and I learned so much…but that’s another story for another time) and I was surprised to learn it caused not only respiratory illness, but also cardiovascular diseases, cancer, neurological illnesses, and even death.

What’s alarming about air pollution, and many other environmental health exposures, is that they are, for many, unavoidable. While we can choose whether or not we smoke, do drugs, or engage in other risky health behaviors, we must all breathe air, we do not have the luxury of choosing how clean or dirty that air is.

Obviously, air pollution levels vary by geographical location, and there are luxuries afforded to privileged individuals to reduce their risks. However, air pollution, like climate change, is a threat to us all.

I hope by spreading awareness about these topics I can help others understand how and why we need to take action. I don’t think anyone wants their family, friends, and pets breathing in toxic air, because as you will learn in the text that proceeds this, air pollution can do a lot of damage to health.

So with all that said, here’s a post about how air pollution can impact human health. I hope you enjoy it As always, please feel free to leave questions or comments below, and/or reach out to me on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube!

What is air pollution?

Air pollution is a mixture of natural and human-created substances in the air. According to the WHO, the 6 major air pollutants include ground-level ozone, particle pollution (read all about PM 2.5 here), carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxides and lead.

Air pollutants are typically divided into two main categories: outdoor air pollution, and indoor (ambient) air pollution.

Outdoor air pollution is, as the name suggests, pollution you would be exposed to the outside of the built environment, and includes things like fine particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels, ground-level ozone (which is produced from the reaction of oxygen and urban smog), tobacco smoke, and noxious gasses such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and chemical vapors.

Indoor air pollution (also known as ambient or household air pollution) is found within buildings and homes and is considered one of the most important environmental health risks worldwide.

Indoor air pollution involves exposure to household particles like building materials such as asbestos, formaldehyde, and lead, allergens from pests like cockroaches and mice, tobacco smoke, mold, and pollen. Indoor air pollution may also contain carbon monoxide, radon, and household products and chemicals found from cleaning, building, or pest control products.

In developing countries, indoor air pollution is often generated by incomplete combustion of fuels for cooking, heat, and lighting, without ventilation. Coal, charcoal, wood, kerosene, and dung are commonly burned using ‘dirty’ technologies, which do not completely burn these fuels, and emit air pollution into the home. People who spend more time around the source of the air pollution, like women and children, are at highest risk for adverse health effects.

Both forms of air pollution are important to address and both can contribute to each other.

Air Pollution and Human Health: How many people die each year from air pollution?

Air pollution is responsible for an estimated 8 million deaths each year (some estimates go up to 8.8 million deaths per year), with about 4 million of those deaths coming from indoor air pollution.

Yes, you read that correctly – over 8 million people die from air pollution each year.

To put that in perspective, the WHO estimates 7 million smokers die each year from cigarettes (and an additional 1.2 million die from secondhand smoke), meaning deaths from air pollution are roughly on par with deaths from smoking. Except individuals have the choice to smoke. AIr pollution is something people can’t escape.

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What are VOCs? How can VOCs impact health?

October 20, 2019 by Katherine Baker 1 Comment

Hello! Welcome to this post about VOCs. You may be wondering, “What are VOCs? And how can I reduce my exposure to them?”

Or, you may be like I was before I got my MPH in environmental health science and be like “All that stuff is whatever; I’m sure it’s fine. People live with chemicals and stuff all the time.”

Ahh, sweet ignorance. Seriously though – getting my MPH in environmental health science really opened my eyes to a variety of topics I feel like more people should be educated about. It’s easy to be told and to believe that chemicals and pollutant exposure are just a part of life, and that everything is fine, but the truth is, many produce real and serious risks!

Please know that I am not an alarmist, nor do I want to ignite fear into you about any specific food or chemical. My goal is always to provide information about nutrition and environmental health science to equip people to make choices for a healthy life.

Random story…What Inspired this post

VOCs have been on my mind a lot lately, due to some 4-day-turned-4-week contract work that I was told was “low-VOC.”

Obviously, me being me, I had the urge to look up the chemical being used and to do my own risk assessment, and can say, that although it is not a known carcinogen to humans, I wouldn’t consider the work being done to carry zero risk.

I also have hypersomnia and am super sensitive to chemicals, so let’s just say…the last four weeks have been trying me. Of course, my concerns were washed over, and I was told repeatedly that “VOCs are fine!”

Sometimes it’s frustrating to have authority but not be respected. Sigh. I have legitimate training in this area, and literally was stared at like I was an alarmist idiot.

So it goes with choosing to study environmental health science and nutrition and looking young and having others make assumptions about my qualifications and level of competence. Just over here dealing with daily headaches and worried about people (and pets!) in this building! Sigh. In an attempt to turn my frustration into something positive, here is an informative post on VOCs to help you live your best life!

Anyways, let’s chat VOCs!

What are VOCs?

Volatile Organic Compounds (also known as VOCs) are compounds that are easily vaporized and turn to gases. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, emitted by a by a wide range of products, and inhaling VOCs can lead to both short and long-term health effects.

VOCs are most often found in higher concentrations indoors than outdoors. Many chemicals found in common building materials, home goods, and household cleaning products contain VOCs.

Sources of VOCs include paints, paint strippers and other solvents, wood preservatives, aerosol sprays, air fresheners, pesticides, dry-cleaned clothing, moth repellents, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as printers, copiers, and graphic and craft materials like glues, adhesives, permanent markers and photographic solutions.

VOCs are also found in cigarettes, secondhand smoke, and vehicle exhaust.

The most common ways people are exposed to VOCs is through inhalation. Skin contact is another route of exposure.

What are the Health Effects of VOCs?

VOCs can cause a variety of short and longer-term health effects.

Early symptoms of VOC exposure include ear and respiratory irritation, headache, dizziness, and visual disorders or impairments.

More generally, VOCs can cause ear, throat, nose and eye irritation and discomfort, difficulty breathing, as well as allergic skin reaction and rash. Epistaxis, or nosebleeds, may also occur from VOC exposure.

VOCs can also cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, and loss of coordination.

Longer-term VOC exposure can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. Some VOCs, including benzene (found in tobacco smoke, paint supplies, and automobile emissions) and methylene chloride (found in paint thinners and adhesive removers) are known carcinogens in human studies.

Others, like perchlorethylene (emitted during the dry-cleaning process) are known carcinogens in animals, and suspected carcinogens in humans.

Formaldehyde, a well-known VOC, is known to impair lung function at high levels, and sensory irritation and asthma development at lower levels.

As with all chemical exposures, health effects vary based on exposure level, time period of exposure, and individual susceptibility (some people are more susceptible than others).

VOC exposure in office spaces are sometimes responsible or contributory for a phenomenon known as “sick building syndrome,” or SBS. SBS describes a medical condition where people in a building have symptoms of illness of feel nondescript “unwell” for no obvious reason.

Elderly individuals and those with asthma may be more susceptible to the impacts of VOCs. Young children, who have an increased frequency of respiration compared to adults, are also more vulnerable.

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What is Chlorpyrifos? Is Chlorpyrifos dangerous? Here’s what you need to know about the most widely-used insecticide in the US

September 12, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello friends! Today I’m combining my environmental health science and nutrition backgrounds to chat about pesticides – specifically chlorpyrifos. You may have heard of chlorpyrifos. It’s been the news cycle a lot the past couple of years. Long story short, it was supposed to be banned, and then the ban got delayed, and now we’re still waiting for the ban to go through. But let’s back up – what is chlorpyrifos? Is it dangerous?

What is chlorpyrifos?

Chlorpyrifos is a broad-spectrum, chlorinated organophosphate pesticide (aka a chemical compound) commonly used for pest control on crops, animals, and in buildings. Chlorpyrifos was first introduced by DowDuPoint Chemical Company in 1965, and has a variety of registered food and non-food applications.

Chlorpyrifos is considered the most widely used insecticide in the United States.

Notably, chlorpyrifos is used as a pesticide on a variety of food crops, including many fruits, vegetables, grains, and nut trees.

It also has plenty of non-food uses, such as application to golf course turf, industrial sites, greenhouse production, farms, woods, and is often used in residential pest-control (it’s common in roach and ant bait products). It’s also been used as a public health-based application for mosquito-controls (most often in situations where the benefits of broad application outweigh the risks).

Is Chlopyrifos Dangerous?

Yes, chlorpyrifos can be harmful to human health. How exactly? Bare with me through some long scientific lingo and we’ll get to the facts soon, I promise.

Chlorpyrifos is classified as an organophosphate pesticide. Organophosphates inactivate the enzyme cholinesterase, which is responsible for deactivation of the nerve signaling protein acetylcholine, which leads to a buildup of acetylcholine, which over time causes overactivation of nerve targets, including those of the heart, brain, and digestive system, among others.

Overstimulation of these nerve targets is associated with nausea, dizziness, confusion, loss of muscle control, and death. It’s similar in chemical structure as some of the nerve agents used in WWII. It is considered a neurotoxicant.

Within the past decade, concern has risen about adverse health outcomes associated with chlorpyrifos from not only shorter, higher levels of exposure, but also longer-term lower levels of exposure.

In the early 2000s, scientific evidence began to suggest a link between chlorpyrifos use and a variety of adverse developmental outcomes. Perhaps most famously, researchers from th Child Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (HUGE shout out to the alma matar!) found prenatal exposure (from residential environments – ie, spraying for bugs and pests) to chlorpyrifos causes structural changes in brain development.

The researchers at Mailman continued to study the chemical at levels of what wound be considered typical to high exposure, and found that prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos is associated with deficits in working memory and lower IQ at age 7. Yes, that’s right. This chemical can have long-term cognitive impacts.

CCEH scientists have also shown that exposure to chlorpyrifos is also linked to lower psychomotor developmental index scores, and lower mental development index scores in children, and their research suggests boys may be more vulnerable than girls.

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Climate Change and Wildfires: How are they connected?

August 28, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello! Given that wildfires have been all over the news lately, I thought they would make a good topic for a blog post. Specifically, we are going to discuss what ingredients are necessary for wildfires to start, and how climate change and wildfires are connected.

Wildfires have been increasing in the Western US since the 1980s. While there are normal fluctuations in wildfires cycles and climate patterns like El Nino which may impact wildfire frequency and intensity, it is clear that they are increasing.

Projections suggest that climate change will increase wildfire frequency and areas burned moving forward.

Ingredients for a Wildfire:

Before we dive more into wildfires and how climate change exacerbates conditions for wildfires to ignite or spread, it’s first important to understand the ingredients for wildfires.

The main ingredients needed for a wildfires include:

Availability of dry vegetation (“dry fuel”)
Hot and dry wind
And human or natural fire ignition

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What Is PM 2.5?

June 21, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

If you read or watch any news about pollution, you have probably seen or heard the phrase “PM 2.5.” But what is PM2.5? And how does it impact human health?

In today’s post, I’m going to feature some more environmental health-focused writing. I do a fair share of environmental health writing, but don’t do it very often on this platform. But I want to give it a whirl! So today, right here right now on my blog, we’re going to take a look at what PM stands for, what it is exactly, and why it’s relevant to human health. Get excited!

PM, Defined:

First, let’s start off by defining “PM,” which stands for Particulate Matter. Particulate matter is an air pollution term for a mixture of extremely small solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air, made up of a variety of compounds including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), metals, organic chemicals, dust, and soil.

Where does PM come from?

PM and PM precursors (which later form PM) come from a variety of human-caused sources, including motor vehicles, power plants, factories, dry cleaners, gas stations. There are also a couple natural sources of PM, including PM emitted from volcanoes and wildfires.

Size Matters:

The size of PM is directly linked to the potential for PM to cause health impacts. Generally speaking, the smaller the particle, the deeper it can penetrate into your lungs, and thus, the more likely it is to do damage. Particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter are focused upon, due to their potential to be inhaled and cause detrimental health impacts.

PM 2.5 versus PM 10:

‘PM 10’ refers to dust particles 2.5-10 micrometers in diameter. These particles are smaller than the width of a human hair and can be inhaled.

Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are known as “PM 2.5,” and are too small to see with the naked eye. PM 2.5 can penetrate deeper into the lungs than PM 10, and thus is more likely to get into the blood supply and be carried throughout the body. Likely due to their high potential to cause negative health impacts, they are the most talked about in popular media.

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