Chemical Spill in West Virginia

So I thought this was pretty big news.

People in West Virginia's drinking water was affected recently by a chemical spill from a nearby industrial chemical plant. The chemical 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol is used in the coal industry for cleaning coal and was accidentally released into the Elk River near West Virginia's capital, and is harmful if swallowed and can cause eye and skin irritation. The company responsible for the spill is Freedom Industries, an industrial chemical supplier. Reports had been received at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection about a strange odor around the Freedom Industries site, where investigators eventually found a leaking storage unit.

Honestly, I first read about this story on Cracked, and the author of that article, David Christopher Bell, does a very good job of gathering together all the important pieces of information relating to the story. For instance, how the chemical in question, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (or MCHM for short) is basically a mystery chemical, with no information available on its health effects, or how the site of the spill hasn't been inspected since 1991, which is a longer time than I've been alive. The reason why basically boils down to how MCHM is classified; since there is no existing information on it's effects, it isn't classifies as a hazardous substance, which means that regular inspections are not required. If this were Europe, MCHM wouldn't even be stored due to the cautionary principle; nobody knows anything about it, so we should be extra careful with how we handle it.


Goal update:
-I've been very successful with switching my power strip on and off, and I've been keeping my heat off a lot as well. I feel like these behaviors are starting to become more of a habit, and less of an obligation that I need to remind myself to do. I've also begun to talk with my roommates about ways we can reduce our energy bill by keeping heat low and turning off power strips.

Swiss Research

Switzerland has got the right idea. National Research Programmes are a part of the Swiss National Science Foundation and are funded by government money to do research into and solve current issues. What's the latest? NRP 69. Recently given 11 million in Swiss francs (a little over $12 million US) to conduct 21 different research projects covering how to positively impact consumer consumption patterns and ways to improve the sustainability of food production. They have three questions on their website that drives their goals:

• How can the people of Switzerland be encouraged to eat healthily?
• How can products that are healthy and fit for consumption be made available at affordable prices?
• How can the production, processing and distribution of food be managed effectively with the least possible impact on the environment?

It'll be interesting to see what results they come to in their research. It's inspiring though to be aware that there are some heavily-backed sustainability-focused scientific work being done. A lot of the time, it seems like we're entrenched in reactionary mode, finding out that there is a problem and then trying to fix the direct symptoms of that problem. The Swiss model, I believe, is less reactionary in that it's recognized the problem facing their public and they are now trying to find the root of it to fix it there.

They're also going at it from a great marketing perspective by figuring out consumer's consumption patterns and figuring out ways to influence behavior positively. 

Redefined Goals

Goal 1: Make our next Energy Bill below $200 at most
As I've said in an earlier post, my November power bill came to $277. Having just gotten December's bill, we've already done a better job at energy conservation by reducing the bill to $235. But that's still not enough. I want to make sure our next bill, and all subsequent bills, will be below $200. Luckily, PSE offers us online service to keep track of our energy usage. There are other things I've been doing around the house as well to help conserve energy such as making sure unused lights are turned off, unused electronics and appliances are unplugged, and keeping my power strip turned off when not in use. We'll see how I'm doing on energy conservation come the next bill, and depending on how much I'm able to save, I'll shoot for perhaps an even lower bill afterwards.

Goal 2: Make sustainable purchase decisions
One way I've already began doing so is by buying organic produce. I've been getting organic apples every time I go to the store. But I think more importantly, I'm trying to focus on purchasing less when I go to store. I'm going to budget myself $30 weekly grocery, that way I'll only buy the stuff I'll eat. Also, the next time I go shopping for clothes, I'm going to go to a second-hand store first to see what I can find. Honestly, thrift stores have a more diverse range of styles for a cheaper price, so I don't really know why I haven't done more shopping there before.

Goal 3: Reduce my water consumption
This one I feel could be the biggest change. I like to take nice, relaxing showers that can end up around 20 minutes at their longest. I'm going to keep a timer in the bathroom to make sure my shower time is down to 5 minutes, allowing 10 at most.

Footprint revisited

I think this one deserves a bigger oops than last time.

Working with the proper calculator, I've found my footprint to be 5.21 Earths

Of course, this has some implications towards my three goals for the quarter, which shall be refined and posted here in the near future.

Product Check

The personal care product that I decided to research was my Old Spice Smooth Blast Deodorant. Basically, it's ingredient list on the package was a jumble of chemicals (and water):

• Dipropylene Glycol
• Water
• Propylene Glycol
• Sodium Stearate
• Fragrance
• PPG - 3 Myristyl Ether
• Tetrasodium EDTA
• Violet 2
• Green 6 

Looking up the product on EWG's database though only produced ingredients that were not found on my list. The Highest Concerns EWG listed were irritation, organ system toxicity, and persistence and bioaccumulation; the only moderate concern was that of contamination; there was low concern for cancer implications, ecotoxicology, endocrine disruption, and neurotoxicity. Overall, the deodorant has a Low-Moderate hazard potential, scoring a 3.

It doesn't seem like there are any chemicals in the deodorant that Okala mentions in Ch. 15.

I decided to research Violet 2 further, as I've always found the naming of dyes interesting (Red 40? Why 40?) On EWG, Violet 2 has a score ranging from 2-5 (depending on usage). Violet 2 is an FDA-approved synthetic dye made from petroleum sources and used in cosmetic products. There is Moderate concern for its use because of possible organ system toxicity and limited evidence linking it to cancer. The dye is only approved for external application to the body, with the exception being lip and eye care products due to the risk of the dye entering the body. That's probably one of the reasons why my deodorant warns me "Do not apply to broken skin" on the back of the label.

Honestly, I'll probably still keep using this deodorant, at least as long as I still have some of it left. The next time I go shopping for deodorant though, I probably will at least take a peek at the labels of a few of my options and keep a little of what I've learned about chemical toxicity in mind when making my choice.

Oops

So I guess I'm not very sustainable. Apparently, my lifestyle would lead to the usage of 4.4 planets worth of resources if everyone lived like me.

Energy usage seems to be the biggest contributor to my footprint, that and food and services usage. 

Because of these results, I have three goals to work on reducing my footprint this quarter:

1. Reduce my energy consumption.

    -My power bill last month was $277. That to me was my first sign that maybe my household should try using less electricity. I'll work on keeping my appliances unplugged when not in use to prevent "ghost power" and I'll also talk with my roommates about their energy consumption habits as well. A big change to make would be turning our heaters on for less time in the day.

2. Buy in a more sustainable manner

    -I buy a lot of processed foods and new products and goods. A significant change I can make to my behavior is to start buying more locally-sourced/organic products and foods, as well as choosing to go to second-hand shops to look for used clothing and such. Also, when it comes to food, I will try to buy more produce compared to meat products

3. Becoming a more proactive recycler

    -I typically recycle as much as I can, but I definitely let it slide once in a while when I'm not at home, so I can focus more on being aware of my recycling options when I'm not home with the convenient recycling basket. I'm also going to be emphasizing more recycling in my house because my roommates are as on top of it as I am.

According to the KQED survey, I am concerned about the environment. I don't think I really needed a survey to tell me that, but it was interesting nonetheless.