Don’t drink warm water in plastic bottles

Plastic water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate. When heated, the material releases the chemicals antimony and bisphenol A, commonly called BPA. Antimony is considered a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization. UF soil and water science professor Lena Ma led a research team that studied chemicals released in 16 brands of bottled water kept at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for four weeks, what researchers deemed a “worst-case scenario” for human consumption. The UF scientist warned against leaving plastic bottled water in a hot garage for weeks in your car all day during the summer. More attention should be given to other drinks packaged with polyethylene terephthalate plastic, such as milk, coffee and acidic juice.

Ref: Ying-Ying Fan, Jian-Lun Zheng, Jing-Hua Ren, Jun Luo, Xin-Yi Cui, Lena Q. Ma. Effects of storage temperature and duration on release of antimony and bisphenol A from polyethylene terephthalate drinking water bottles of China. Environmental Pollution, 2014; 192: 113.

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.05.012

Beating plastic with plastic

The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 50 lakh tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 10 crore tonnes today. According to the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in India every day, out of which 9,000 tonnes is collected and processed, while 6,000 tonnes is not collected. It was this problem faced by ordinary citizens that disturbed Ashwath Hegde, a Mangalore-born but now Qatar-based NRI entrepreneur.

In order to beat the plastic woes plaguing the world, Hegde, through his company EnviGreen, developed a biodegradable plastic bag made out of natural starch and vegetable oil derivatives — products that are non-toxic and can consumed by plants and animals. 

The bags can dissolve in room temperature water in 24 hours and dissolves in 15 seconds if placed in boiling water. The bags also take 180 days to biodegrade, which means people can discard them without worrying about the environment. However, the bags are still not available in India, although they are being distributed in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The price of the bag is Rs 3. In contrast, a plastic bag is Rs 2, while a cloth bag is anything between Rs 20 and Rs 70.

Source: The better India, 5th Dec. 2016

Fastracking the implementation of biofuel program: Blending Ethanol with Diesel

After the success of green and white revolutions leading to self-sufficiency in food grains and milk production, the government is now looking at 'Krishna Kranti' (black revolution) to not only help India become self-sufficient in oil production but also provide a healthy environment to the people. 

Biodiesel can be produced from edible and non-edible oils (Jatropa curcas, mahua, karanjia, sunflower seeds and rapeseeds as a viable alternative to the conventional energy) through trans-esterification using ethanol or methanol. The properties of biodiesel are close to that of diesel fuel and in fact, it offers advantages in terms of emission control from diesel engines. In India the current assessments are based on non-edible oils for biodiesel production.  This green fuel has high octane and lubricity and readily mixes with diesel without any engine modification. And automobile manufacturers like Mahindra and Mahindra and Ashok Leyland have endorsed biodiesel as a fuel for their vehicles.

Source: The minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha.

Antibiotics in most honey brands

Scientists found high levels of six harmful antibiotics in 11 samples including  those made by Indian companies such as Dabur, Himalaya, Patanjali, Baidyanath and Khadi as well as by two foreign companies based in Switzerland and Australia except only the Indian Hitkari brand coming out clean.

The contamination begins when antibiotics are fed to bees to prevent disease which, promote growth and increase honey production to meet commercial targets. These substances could damage the blood, kidneys, liver, bones and teeth. More importantly, they create resistance in the body to prescribed antibiotics when you really do fall ill.

Dabur Honey, which has captured 75 per cent of the Indian market had the antibiotic Oxytetracycline at nine times the level that is permitted for exported honey. It also had significant amounts of two other drugs completely banned for use in honey. If the sample was placed for export to the United States or the European Union, it would have been rejected.

Nectaflor Natural Blossom Honey, made by Narimpex of Switzerland, had the largest number five of the six antibiotics that it was tested for, including the highest levels of ampicillin and erythromycin, both of which are not permitted for beekeeping in any country. It would be illegal to sell it even in Switzerland itself. Similarly, the Australian brand, Capilano Pure & Natural Honey, which is sold in 40 countries, violated standards set in its home country.

It is clear that foreign companies are taking advantage of the lack of regulations in India. After all, if our government does not care about the health of its people, why should these companies care? said CSE director, Sunita Narain.

Source: Sunita Narain, Director, Pollution Monitoring Laboratory, Centre for Science and Environment

'Bionic' spinach plants can detect explosives

By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.

Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT

 

This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call "plant nanobionics." In this case,  Spinach plants were designed to detect chemical compounds known as nitroaromatics, which are often used in landmines and other explosives. When one of these chemicals is present in the groundwater sampled naturally by the plant, carbon nanotubes embedded in the plant leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read with an infrared camera. The camera can be attached to a small computer similar to a smartphone, which then sends an email to the user.

Ref: Min Hao Wong et al., (2016), Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication from wild-type plants using plant nanobionics, Nature materials.

Full Text
DOI: 10.1038/nmat4771

Paddy cum fish culture

Rice and fish culture involves farmers introducing fish into their rice fields. This technique is good for both fish and ice. Safely hidden from birds, the fish thrive in the dense rice plants, while they in turn provide a source of fertilizer with their droppings, eat insect pests and help to circulate oxygen around the rice field. Farmers report that keeping fish in rice fields can increase rice yields up to 10% additionally they have the supplies of fish.

Source: Agricultural Business Innovation-Indonesia.

Plastic decomposing bacteria isolated

Tests revealed that plastic carry bags, blood bags and plastic granules were completely degraded by the bacteria. The six strains namely, Cronobacter muytjensii mbg5, Cronobacter muytjensii mbg6, C. sakazakii mbg1, C. sakazakii mbg3, Enterobacter clocae mbg2 and Ohrobactrum intermedium mgb4 have capable of breaking down plastics into biodegradable polymers. These bacterias were also found to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a class of biodegradable polymers that could substitute synthetic plastics. In the presence high carbon sources or nutritions like nitrogen, phosporous, sulphur, oxygen and magnesium PHAs are synthesized by the bacteria as intracellular carbon and accumulate as granules in the cytoplasm, the jellylike material lining inside of a cell.  Biochemical tests and molecular analysis were used to identify the bacteria and confirm the production of PHA. With properties similar to polyethylene, polypropylene, PHAs emerged as an environmental friendly alternative to petrochemical based plastic. 

Source: R. B. Smitha, Scientist, MBGIPS, Kozhikode.

Biodegradable motorcycle helmet

Throughout the world, biodegradable and recyclable synthetics research is being conducted. Now, a new method has developed to obtain nanofibers of carrot waste from the production of carrot juice, which can be used to strengthen synthetic parts. This might be used for the production of motorcycle helmets, side walls of motorhomes. This fiber production from carrot waste leads many possible applications for the production of other renewable materials.

Source: Fabiano Piccinno, Roland Hischier and Claudia Som, Empa