Wonderful World of Water

Water is essential for survival on Earth. It makes up almost two-thirds of our body weight and covers a little over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface. Since almost all of the water is in salty oceans, we can’t use it for drinking. In fact, only about 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh, and most of that fresh water is frozen. That means only about 1% of the water on Earth is available for people to use. The chemical formula “H20” shows the basic units of a water molecule: two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. We describe water as a colorless liquid that you can’t smell or taste. Water also comes in the form of ice in the polar ice caps and water vapor (gas) that rises into the air from the surface of our planet. To learn more about water click here….http://water.org/

  It might surprise you to learn that chemicals from products we use every day can eventually end up in our water. Just look around your home. Do you see any batteries, paint, or medicines? If you don’t get rid of these products correctly, they can cause chemicals to end up in the water supply. In fact, your water can be affected by chemicals and pollutants close by and far away from your home. Would you want to go swimming in a pool of bugs, worms, and chemicals? In some natural water sources, you actually would be! You just wouldn’t be able to see them. Tiny organisms like bacteria, viruses, and parasites may live in our water supplies. Chemicals and heavy metals can get into our water, too. If you drink that water, wash your food with it, or swim or bathe in it, it might make you sick. We take baths with clean water. We drink clean water. We wash our clothes and food with clean water. To learn more about water born pollutants. Click here…..http://www.us-environ.info/Other/Waterborne-Pollutant---Other---Environment-.html
Water we use every day comes from streams, ponds, rivers, and other natural sources. These water sources can become polluted. Mother Nature does her part to clean the water through the water cycle. But the water cycle can’t keep up with the pollution that people and animals create.

FAT TOM

 FAT TOM is a mnemonic device that is used in the food service industry to describe the six favorable conditions required for the growth of foodborne pathogens. It is an acronym for food, acidity, time, temperature, oxygen and moisture.

Each of the six conditions that foster the growth foodborne pathogens are defined in a set ranges

F	Food	There are sufficient nutrients available that promote the growth of microorganisms. Protein-rich foods, such as meat, milk, eggs and fish are most susceptible.
A	Acidity	Foodborne pathogens require a slightly acidic pH level of 4.6-7.5, while they thrive in conditions with a pH of 6.6-7.5. The United States Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulations for acid/acidified foods require that the food be brought to pH 4.5 or below.
T	Time	Food should be removed from "the danger zone" (see below) within two-four hours, either by cooling or heating. While most guidelines state two hours, a few indicate four hours is still safe.
T	Temperature	Food-borne pathogens grow best in temperatures between 41 to 140 °F (5 to 60 °C), a range referred to as the temperature danger zone (TDZ). They thrive in temperatures that are between 70 to 104 °F (21 to 40 °C).[3]
O	Oxygen	Almost all foodborne pathogens are aerobic, that is requiring oxygen to grow. Some pathogens, such asClostridium botulinum, the source of botulism, are anaerobic and do not require oxygen to grow.
M	Moisture	Water is essential for the growth of foodborne pathogens, water activity (aw) is a measure of the water available for use and is measured on a scale of 0 to 1.0. Foodborne pathogens grow best in foods that have aw between 0.95 and 1.0. FDA regulations for canned foods require aw of 0.85 or below.

You can learn all about FAT TOM here…http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/L4.1

If you want more information click here…http://restaurantmgmt101.com/2011/05/fattom-and-foodborne-illness/

GLyophosphate

Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe. It was discovered to be a herbicide byMonsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970. Monsanto brought it to market in the 1970s under the trade name Roundup and Monsanto's last commercially relevant United States patent expired in 2000.

Glyphosate was quickly adopted by farmers, even more so when Monsanto introduced glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready crops, enabling farmers to kill weeds without killing their crops. In 2007, glyphosate was the most used herbicide in the United States agricultural sector, with 180 to 185 million pounds (82,000 to 84,000 tonnes) applied, the second-most used in home and garden with 5 to 8 million pounds (2,300 to 3,600 tonnes) and government applied 13 to 15 million pounds (5,900 to 6,800 tonnes) in industry and commerce.

 Many regulatory and scholarly reviews have evaluated the relative toxicity of glyphosate as an herbicide. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment toxicology review in 2013, found that "the available data is contradictory and far from being convincing" with regard to correlations between exposure to glyphosate formulations and risk of various cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)  A meta-analysis published in 2014 identified an increased risk of NHL in workers exposed to glyphosate formulations. In March 2015 the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer published a summary of its forthcoming monograph on glyphosate, and classified it as "probably carcinogenic in humans" (category 2A) based on epidemiological studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization, in March said that glyphosate is a “probable” cancer-causing substance, or carcinogen. You can read more about that here…http://www.businessinsider.com/does-monsantos-pesticide-glyphosphate-cause-cancer-2015-3

Body burden means the total amount of a particular agent or chemical in the body. For some chemicals, the body burden is high, because the agent is stored in fat or bone is eliminated very slowly. You can read more about Body Burden here…http://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns

Thanks for reading!

Zoonotic Diseases

            Zoonotic Diseases, also known as “Zoonoses” are infectious diseases of animals (usually vertebrates), that can naturally be transmitted to humans. Major modern diseases such as Ebola virus disease and influenza are zoonoses. Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic. Most human diseases originated in animals; however, only diseases that routinely involve animal to human transmission, like rabies, are considered as zoonoses. Zoonoses have different modes of transmission. In direct zoonosis the disease is directly transmitted from animals to humans through media such as air (influenza) or through bites and saliva (Rabies). In contrast, transmission can also occur via an intermediate species (referred to as a vector), which carry the disease pathogen without getting infected. When humans infect other animals; it is called reverse zoonosis.
            There are five zoonoses I want to talk about today, and these five are normally passed from animals to people rather than the reverse. These five diseases are relatively common and can be acquired from your puppy or kitten, or adult dog or cat. The primary means of contamination for these diseases is understood to be fecal-oral, but this obviously applies to the way in which your pet acquires the infection rather than the manner in which the disease is transmitted from your pet, to you. People pick up these infections in a variety of other ways.

1)      Hookworm: Hookworms are primarily transmitted fecal-orally to animals. Your pet may eat contaminated feces or dirt, or he might run through contaminated soil, then lick his paws and ingest the eggs in that manner.

2)      Roundworm: Roundworms are large, and spaghetti-like in appearance. And they can create a full-blown infestation in your pet before you know they’re there. Because humans are not the perfect host for roundworms, they tend to travel through the body and create problems like organ inflammation.

3)      Toxoplasmosis: Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease any warm-blooded vertebrate can acquire, however, infections are most common in cats and humans.

4)       Cryptosporidiosis: or crypto for short, is a protozoan parasite. This parasite loves water. Infected animals can transmit crypto by defecating in ponds, lakes and other bodies of water.

5)      Lyme Disease: Lyme disease is a vector-borne illness. The vector is the vehicle of transmission, in this case it is the Ixodes tick, also known as the deer tick or black-legged tick.

You can learn all about other common Zoonotic diseases here… http://wildliferehabinfo.org/Zoonoses_MnPg.htm

            There are many ways to prevent zoonotic diseases. Ask your veterinarian for information, and about local risk factors from pets and wildlife. Be sure that your pets, especially young puppies, are properly treated for worm infections (they can get infected by their mothers and should be treated from an early age), and that all your pets are receiving a recognized preventive medicine. Clean your hands after contact with animals. This is especially important for young children, who must be taught proper pet-handling technique Keep your pet's environment (bedding, etc.) clean and disinfected. Pick up after your pets, as feces is a primary source of contamination with parasite eggs of the environment. Keep animals away from children's playgrounds, and cover all sand play areas to avoid contamination. Footwear is recommended in public playgrounds (long pants and gloves are also recommended for gardening, crawling under buildings, in dense vegetation, etc.). Support local leash laws and no-dog park zones for children. You can find many other ways to prevent zoonotic diseases here…http://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/zoonotic-diseases.html

Thanks for reading!  I'll be back next Sunday!