Using manure is so much cooler...

What are biosolids and why are they relevant to my life?

Biosolids are is basically treated sewage water that is converted to fertilizer for agricultural use. Most of the food we eat probably has been treated with biosolids. Whether you like it or not biosolids are apart of our daily lives and we should have more knowledge about what goes on with our food.

How are biosolids produced and are they safe to use?

As briefly discussed in the previous paragraph biosolids is basically treated sludge from the municipal sewage system. Once the waste water reaches the sewage plant the sludge is left to settle to the bottom of a tank. When most or all of the sludge has settled, a process of disinfection and treatment begins to convert sludge into biosolids. There are several process that sludge has to go through to make sure that harmful organic materials are eliminated and that they do not pose a threat to agriculture when being used. If you think about the big picture, the waste that is created from the food we eat, actually goes back into the food that we're about to eat. Therefore if it wasn't safe, biosolids wouldn't play such a huge roll in our food chain.

What are the major benefits and drawbacks of biosolids?

There are many environmental and economical benefits of using biosolids instead of of fertilizers. Let's talk about the environmental benefits of biosolids, bioslolids are much more environmentally friendly than fertilizers. These fertilizers that are used in mass quantities are made of harmful chemicals that may seep into the drinking water supply. The point of fertilizers is to provide the soil with nitrogen so that agriculture is able to grow quickly. But biosolids do the same thing without the harmful chemicals, just like fertilizer biosolids have nitrogen to. Also biosolids are more natural and easier for plants to absorb since its usually just manure. Like fertilizers if biosolids are not treated or used properly it can seep into the drinking supply, especially if residents take water from a well. As for the economical benefits, fertilizers cost much more to produce than biosolids. Not to mention producing biosolids are a form of recycling which creates job in the environmental sector. Also Ontario farmers do not have to pay for biosolids because they are provided by the municipal sewage plant. This can save $67 an acre if a farmer uses commercial nitrogen fertilzers and $100 of commercial phosphorus is used. With all the environmental and economical benefits there is no reason why not to use biosolids.

Are biosolids a nuisance when it comes to smell?

After biosolids have been processed and treated it does not smell. From past experience of using manure I found that it didn’t smell and it was just like normal soil. It looks and feels like top soil that you would use. Biosolids are an amazing alternative to top soil because manure is much more nutritious for plants to grow off of.

I think that biosolids are great alternatives to fertilizers and i think everyone should use them because they don't smell and its cheap! Not to mention they are perfectly safe for use and with the strict regulations in North America biosolids concerns should not be raised. Biosolids are in our food and there have never been reported incidents in Canada where biosolids have been directly involved with cases of contamination.

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Natasha Richichi-Fried

Sources:

"Biosolids - Agricultural Land Application - Ministry of the Environment." Ministry of the Environment / Ministère De L'Environnement. Web. 09 June 2011. .

"City of Hamilton." Hamilton. Web. 9 June 2011. .

"City of Toronto: Biosolids." City of Toronto. Web. 9 June 2011. .

"CWWA - FAQ - Biosolids." CWWA/ACEPU. Web. 09 June 2011. .

"Sludge, Sludge Treatment, Sludge Disposal, Sewage, Australian New Zealand Biosolids." Australian and New Zealand Biosolids Partnership. Web. 09 June 2011. .

Cut me open and call me THIN!!

With the increasing demand to become more healthy and active people are turning to all sorts of ways to get fit. Living in such an appearance based society there is more and more pressure to look good and lose weight. With the increase of weight loss remedies people have resorted to taking medication instead of hitting the treadmill. Not only is it medication but many are turning to surgery as well. In the recent years gastric bypass has become very popular.

Gastric surgery is basically the process of decreasing the size of the stomach. This causes the individual to eat less and therefore weight is lost. This method is traditionally used for morbidly obese individuals who posses medical conditions which cause obesity, but now overweight individuals are taking advantage of this technology as well. These overweight individuals could simply have gone through proper dieting and exercise but rather they turn to the easier method, which is surgery. People who are overweight do not need gastric surgery because their weight does not effect their short term health, but rather their long term health. Morbidly obese individuals have very high risks of heart attacks, strokes, and aneurysms therefore immediate surgery is needed.

Gastric surgery does carry its own risks and shouldn't be used just because someone is too lazy to hit the gym. This procedure is still very invasive and may have side effects. Though infections and complications are not common this surgery should still only be used as a final resort to lose weight. Instead everyone could just eat healthier instead of having doctors develop new treatments to weight.

Little more information on Gastric surgery

Gastric bypass is considered quite a new technology, even though research for it started in the late 1990s. It was only in the 2000s that it started to gain momentum in popularity when global obesity became a problem. Scientists also knew that there had to be a more effective ways of controlling obesity because medication didn't always work. Gastric bypass is a very simple procedure and usually has very minimal side effects on the individual. There are several ways of performing gastric surgery but the most common is decreasing the size of the stomach and the food is routed to the small intestine. The food avoids most of the stomach because if food stores in the high capacity stomach then the individual will just consume more food. This in turn keeps the appetite of the individual within what is needed and thus over eating is avoided. Other methods of gastric surgery include the lap banding. Which is tying a band around the stomach to reduce its size. This method is much less invasive and the effects are reversible. The lap band can easily be reduced or increased in size. Though it sounds less invasive the effects are not as effective as gastric bypass.

With more and more societal needs to look thin scientists are always coming up with the next easiest thing to lose weight. This is due to the fact that humans are not willing to work for their results and would rather turn to less intensive methods of weight loss.

Works Cited

"Gastric Bypass Surgeries | Procedures." Breast Augmentation, Otoplasty, Face Lift, Cosmetic Surgeon – Blue Water Surgery | Main. Web. 13 May 2011. .

"Gastric Bypass Surgery." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 May 2011. .

Heron, Robin. "Discover If Gastric Bypass Surgery Is Right for You - Health & Wellness Club - Canadian Living." Canadian Living: Recipes, Health, and Relationship Advice. Web. 13 May 2011. .

News, Cbc. "Bariatric Surgery: No Cosmetic Procedure - Health - CBC News." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. Web. 13 May 2011. .

Welcome to Obesity Canada. Web. 12 May 2011. .

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Leaching and Ethics of Water Bottles

Image from:

http://www.bottledwaterstore.com/swlineup.JPG

Why Tap Water and not Bottled Water?

Everyone uses it and we're all guilty of buying water 2000 times more expensive than tap. Bottled water has been a trend and people are used to the convenience of just being able to open a bottle of pristine

"clean" water. But the reality of bottled water is that its dirty and expensive. Most brands of bottled water is from municipal tap water, for example Evian is from Guelph tap water. The ironic thing about Evian bottled water is that, its naive spelt backwards. These companies are trying to fool consumers into thinking that bottled water is the way to go, they also tell people that tap water is dirty and polluted. The posters and ads that they have is basically consumer propaganda.

What are the effects of Bottled Water?

Bottled water is way dirtier than tap water because it isn't regulated and the plastic bottle leaches harmful chemicals into the water. When the water is left in the bottle to sit for months and months, it can leach PET or polyethylene terephthalate, terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glyc

ol (MEG) . These harmful chemicals are linked to cancer and birth defects. Not only are chemicals leached, but most often chemicals are added.

Not only is bottled water not good for our bodies, it also wreaks havoc on our ecosystem. The pollution that is created from bottled water factories is astonishing, it takes one liter of water just to produce a 500ml bottled of water. It also takes a lot of petroleum oil to produce these water bottles because it is the main ingredient of plastic water bottles. Many think that the bottles are recycled but the fact is that many are shipped off to developing nations and are being "down cycled." Meaning, the bottles are just left in landfills or in people's backyard. Imagine people in developing nations having thousands of used bottles in their backyard. You wouldn't want that in your backyard so why sh

ould someone else have your trash? The recycling system is just not equipped to handle this much recycling and much of it has to be put else where.

How dirty is bottled water?

Well according to the CBC more than 70% of bottled water in Canada contains bacteria levels 100 times more than allowed level. This report was published in May 2010 therefore it is quite recent. "The U.S. bacterial limit is no more than 500 colony-forming units of bacteria per milliliter of water. Health Canada does not have an equivalent standard for bacteria in bottled water. Canadian test samples showed results of

more than 80,000 heterotrophic units." (CBC). The reason for the high levels of bacteria is that bottled water companies are not mandated as to when they have to test their water quality. These companies can test water as frequent as they want, and the tests are not conducted by the government. Water companies can test their water up to every 4 years. Also the bottled water companies self check their water, which isn't very reliable because they can lie about their water quality. Not to mention that bottled water sits for a long time before it is drank, therefore existing bacteria can even increase.

Image from: http://www.justtrashit.com/Portals/54802/images/landfill.jpeg

"Development and Peace | New DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE Campaign - Water Should Not Be Privatized." Development and Peace | Développement Et Paix. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .

"The Effects of Bottled Water on the Environment." All About Water - Read, Learn, and Know about Water. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. .

Press, The Canadian. "CBC News - Consumer Life - Plastic Bottles Leach Chemicals into Water: Study." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. .

News, Cbc. "CBC News - Consumer Life - High Bacterial Rates Found in Bottled Water." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .

Serebrin, Jacob. "Why Ban Bottled Water? – - Macleans OnCampus." Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .

Commented on Natasha http://natashasbioblog.blogspot.com/ and Debbie http://debsbioblog.blogspot.com/