Health Impacts of Mercury

Although mercury is a naturally occurring element that can be found in many forms in nature, it proves to be immensely detrimental to human health, even in small amounts.  According to the World Health Organization, mercury is one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern due to its toxic effects on numerous body systems. Since mercury comes in many forms, there are multiple ways that we can be exposed. We are most commonly exposed to the compound methylmercury- what we ingest when eating seafood.

As a result of mercury exposure, fetuses are susceptible to developmental issues, which is why pregnant women are advised against eating fish and other forms of seafood.  If a pregnant woman were to ingest mercury, it could cause negative effects on their child’s neurological development. In addition, people who are regularly exposed to mercury (those who rely on fishing or people who are exposed for work reasons) are very likely to develop health problems as a result.

Mercury exposure can cause detriment to the nervous, immune, and digestive system, as well as kidneys and lungs. All of these health complications can prove to be fatal in the long term. Since mercury bioaccumulates like all other elements and compounds, it stays in our bodies and builds up the more we ingest or are exposed to mercury.  Some symptoms of mercury exposure include, but are not limited to: insomnia, loss of memory, headaches, and cognitive and motor dysfunction. 

Droughts and Global El Nino Events

The University of Montana has been researching global climate change. The research shows that there have been widespread increases in plant growth and evaporation due to recent global climate trends.  El Nino is a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific with important consequences for weather around the globe. The rise in evapotranspiration (the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from plants and soil) is increasing the risk of droughts with rising temperature trends, especially during periodic drought cycles that have been linked with strong El Nino events. The researchers have a long-term global satellite record of land evapotranspiration and use remote sensing satellite data. They predict that if these trends continue, it will likely exacerbate regional drought-induced disturbances, and even intensify it during dry climate phases associated with El Nino events.

Droughts are caused by a decreased amount of precipitation. This extreme lack of rain will cause regions around the world to slowly dry out. There are three different forms of droughts; Meteorological, Agricultural, and Hydrological. Meteorological Droughts refer to the degree of dryness. Agricultural refers to agricultural impacts. Throughout the duration of droughts, the weather is usually extremely hot. Droughts cause many complications varying upon deaths and economic issues.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151102184213.htm

The University of Montana. "Global connections between El Nino events, drought." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 November 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151102184213.htm>.

What is climate change?

Scientists often discuss climate change and its seriousness. However, many people still do not understand its effects and importance on our world and what it exactly means for us. If the average global temperature changes even by 2 degrees fahrenheit it can result in a reduction in crops, an increase of flooding due to an increase in precipitation, a decrease in streamflow in some rivers. It has been mentioned  that average global temperatures have increased more than 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years, and is expected to increase each year.

Many people, and even a small percentage of scientists do not think climate change is occurring. Data shows that there has been an increase of the average global temperature. Other observations include: warmer oceans, melting arctic sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, increasing precipitation, and changing wind patterns, which are contributing factors to the increase of the average global temperature.

It is not too late to make an impact on future climate increase and change. In order for people to help eliminate climate change and make an impact they all need to compromise and make plans together. Government officials, activists, and educators need to find a way to work together to help end this environmental change that with effect the entire world.

 In nature living things have different relationships with each other, these are called species interactions. There are 5 different interactions the first one is predator prey which is when the predator hides and waits for a prey and when its close enough the predator attacks and kills it. The next is competition which is when a organism is eating and another one gets closer to eat until both animals start fighting for the food sources for survival. There is also mutualism which is when different species benefit from each other. There is commensalism which is when a species gets benefit from another without harming the other and the last one is parasitism which is when parasites benefit from other by injecting their eggs.

Conclusion

Though Chinanu and I are done for the summer, there is still much work to be done in regards to our project.  

We are able to make a few loose conclusions based on the relative peak heights from the chromatograms obtained, but are not able to make any quantitative conclusions about the concentrations of compounds found in samples because calibration curves of the standards ran have not been completed.  We are however, able to compare compounds based on the peak area of compounds on the chromatograms.  Using the peak area, we are able to compare the compounds at each site quantitatively.  For the future, we plan to organize all of the peak areas for key compounds of compound groups and compare the sites in this way, and then determine the concentration of the compounds when all calibration curves are completed.  

For now, we have results suggesting that the aromatics found in the I-91 samples are relatively the same concentration as those found in the Medical School samples.     

Outcome of Research

The first week of August brought to Chinanu and I a new objective, to compare concentrations of specific compounds between our two most promising site, the I-91 off ramp and at Yale’s Medical School.  At both sites, we sampled during “rush hour”, for the I-91 ramp we sampled during the morning when workers were coming into New Haven, and during lunch time at the Medical School.

During our meeting with Dr. Gentner, we agreed that we would focus on toluene, xylenes, and compounds with benzenes.  In our analysis, we also found a few alkanes and oxygenated alkanes we decided were significant enough to take note of.  

Surprisingly, both sites had similar compounds.  More alkanes were found from the I-91 site than from the Medical School site which is expected, because alkanes are generally from the gasoline burned in cars.  

Though specific concentration of compounds were not determined because calibration curves from standards have not been completed yet, we are able to look at the relative concentrations of compounds by comparing the relative peak heights seen on the chromatograms produced.  Generally, the concentrations of the compounds that were seen, mainly compounds that contained benzene, in both the I-91 samples and the Medical School samples were generally the same, suggesting that emissions from the tailpipes of cars are similar to that of the food carts that park at the Medical School.

What I Learned

Throughout our stay in the lab, many new ideas, concepts, and technology was introduced to us.  We had the great opportunity to learn more about organic compounds, and how they play a role in our health and in the environment.  We also learned about the different analytical tools used to understand different properties of chemicals, such as the Mass Spectrometer and the Gas Chromatogram we used in the lab.  Most of all, I enjoyed listening to and learning about the projects others in both our lab and in Dr. Plata’s lab were working on.  All of the projects were really advanced, and required Chinanu and I to go back to the office and research terms and technologies that we have not heard of before, opening our eyes to aerogels, SEM ( Scanning Electron Microscope), and Quadrupole Time of Flight to name a few.  

I think I gained the most knowledge about organic compounds this summer, which is very valuable to me because I am looking to go into a chemistry related field in college and after.  In school, we were required to learn organic chemistry, but the information did not truly resonate with me, making it difficult to remember basic concepts such as nomenclature.  I came into the lab knowing a lot about chemistry, but not a lot about organic chemistry.  I feel like I am leaving the summer having a greater understanding of not only the different compounds and how they are classified, but also how they affect our bodies.  I once thought the effect of ozone in the troposphere had a negative impact on human lungs because it forced oxygen out of the troposphere.  This is not the case however, as Dr. Gentner explained to me, but rather ozone is an irritant when in contact with our lungs.  This is just one example of one of the things he taught Chinanu and I personally about organic chemistry.