Chernobyl Health Article

1. When was the article published?
Wednesday, May 10, 2000.

2. Why will some restrictions on food continue in the United Kingdom and former Soviet Union for another 50 years?
They found that the environment is not cleaning itself as fast as previously thought, and that radioactivity can be released to the soil again after it has been absorbed.

3. Where have high levels of radioactive cesium been measured?
In terrestrial vegetation and in lake water.

4. What happened to the levels of radioactive cesium during the first 5 years after the Chernobyl accident?
Levels of radioactivity from the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 remain unexpectedly high in some parts of northern Europe.

5. Describe why the levels of radioactive cesium are not decreasing anymore.
Concentrations of radioactive cesium in most food and water decreased by a factor of 10, but in the last few years they have changed very little.

6. Why is diffusion of radioactive cesium back into the environment occurring? Explain the physical behind the diffusion.
As that balance changes, the gradient levels out, and the difference between take-up and release alters.

7. How long will the United Kingdom have to continue restrictions on sheep from the Cumbria region as a food item for humans?
The restrictions may be needed for another 10 to 15 years which is which is 100 times longer than estimated.


8. How long will forest berries, fungi, and fish from parts of the former Soviet Union remain restricted?
And forest berries, fungi and fish from parts of the former Soviet Union will remain restricted for another half century.

PAGE 2

1. Who are the children that this article is about? To whom were they born?
The children who were mutated. The parents were some of the people who cleaned up the reactor.

2. What are “Liquidators?”
Members of the clean-up teams sent in after the reactor exploded.

3. Why are the scientists studying the children?
For the DNA changes from radiation doses.

4. What are this controls in this study?
The children's siblings who had been conceived before their parents' exposure served as internal controls, in addition to external controls from families who had not been exposed.

5. Describe what scientists discovered about the children’s DNA.
Results indicate that low doses of radiation can induce multiple changes in human germ line DNA.

6. Describe the factors that may be linked to the number of DNA changes observed in children.
They also found several factors linked to decreasing changes: the passage of time between exposure and conception, and also the duration of the liquidators' work in the contaminated area.

PAGE 3

1. Describe what happens to DNA, cells, and organs after low and high doses of radiation.
If the damage to DNA is at a low dose rate, the cell may be able to repair most of the damage. If the damage is irreparable and severe enough to interfere with the cells function, the cell may die immediately or after several divisions.

2. Describe the acute health effects of the Chernobyl disaster.
All the acute deterministic health effects occurred among the personnel of the plant, or in those persons brought in for fire fighting and immediate clean-up operations.

3. Describe the chronic or late health effects of the Chernobyl disaster.
It has given rise to an increase in the incidence of thyroid cancers.

Conservation for the People

Notes
three vultures were placed into the wild and the populations reached 40 million by the 1990’s but then if fell 97%
it fell because of anti-inflammatory drugs
caused renal failure(sharp kidney failure)
people from Conservation International discovered 25 hot spots
Some of the hot spots are
the Brazilian Cerrado
The horn of Africa
the concept of hot spots provided a set of rigorous quantifiable criteria by which to guide conservation investment
for the past 15 years the strategy has been embraced by philanthropic and multi-national organizations alike
one recent survey showed that only 30% of Americans have heard of the term “biodiversity”
biodiversity hot spots clearly are not galvanizing the public to fund or participate in conservation
Neither Louisiana’s marshes or Sri Lanka’s mangroves rank among the world’s biodiversity hot spots because they have virtually no endemic plant species.
Connections between habitat loss and economic loss that are not always as obvious can also be significant.
Without a close connection between conservation and social issues, policies that protect biodiversity are unlikely to find much public support.
The conservation efforts we envision will be assessed not just by the number of species protected, but by improvments to people’s well being.
Services were divided into four categories:
provisioning (supplying products such as food or genetic resources)
regulating (contributing regulatory functions such as flood control)
cultural (supplying non material benefits such as a sense of spiritual well-being)
supporting (providing basic elements of the ecosystem, such as soil formation)
At issue are not just “exotic” diseases, however. By eliminating wolves and mountain lions, people in the eastern U.S. triggered an explosion in the deer and deer tick populations, which has resulted in more than 20,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually
Every animal in the food chain is important
One quarter of a million people join the planet every day. More forests and wet- lands will be cleared for agriculture, and more ocean species will be fished to depletion.
Biodiversity is going to decline
Wilderness separate from human influence no longer exists.
The future of ecosystem services as a conservation strategy may depend on the unlikely collaboration of ecologists and finance experts.

Guppy Simulation

1. I think that guppies are so colorful to attract more mates, because without the color there wouldn't be enough mating so the population would go down.
2. Common name: Guppy or millions fish. Scientific name: Poecilia reticulate. Origin: Venezuela. Size: 1.4 inches.
3. Common name: Blue acara. Scientific name: Aequidens puncher. Origin: Trinidad and Latin America. Size: up to 7 inches.
4. It could affect the predators because they are sometimes dams that are upstream preventing the movement of predators to upper streams and confining them to the lower sections. A guppy population above these dams would most likely have little to no predators.
5. John Endler was a evolutionary biologist. He studied wild guppies in Trinidad.
6. The three areas we chose were,
A. the dam, brightly multicolored with large spots.
B. the Quare river, medium coloration on body and tail, with medium sized spots.
C. a shallow pool, drab coloration, very small spots concentrated near the tail.
7. I think that guppies are different in color depending on where they are in the pool because of predators. If there are more predators the guppies might be a little darker than the ones without many predators in their pools. Although some guppies mightn't care about the predators and have the brightest colors they can to attract a mate.

	% of Brightest Guppies (10 generations)	% of Bright Guppies (10 generations)	% of Drab Guppies (10 generations)	% of DrabbestGuppies (10 generations)
Trial 1 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus
Trial 2 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara
Trial 3 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid
Trial 4 Guppy: Mostly Bright Predators: 30 Rivulus
Trial 5 Guppy: Mostly Drab Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid

8. If the guppies were to bright or to drab they would be eaten and those population would reach zero.
9. Yes and no. I thought that the brightest would die out and get eaten which they did. I also thought the drabbest wouldn't get eaten, but they did. Eventually the drab all were atenolol and there was only brightest left.
10. Male guppies live closely between their predators, and their females that they will mate with.
11. I think the colors all depend on the predators and what type of area they are in.
12. I think that if they were mostly drab with few predators they would start to thrive because of the lack of color and predators. Without to much color the few predators wouldn't really notice them very easily.
13. If there were brightly colored guppies with lots of predators the population would either be in an even balance or go down. It could be even because without he bright colors the guppies would attract more mates. It could go down because of the bright colors they could get eaten easier.

Biodiveristy and our planet

What are ways in which preserving biodiversity locally might have a global effect?

It could have a global effect because without it we would not have medicine that we have today that we get from many different animals around the world such as cone snails, from which we get many of our medicines from.

How do habitat destruction and loss of species effect more than just one area?

The loss would affect more than just one area because they are certain animals that arecalled keystone animals and they basically keepnthe area they arein alive because without them the animals and plants all around them wouldn't be able to survive. Without spcertain animals areas all around would start to fall apart and eventually die.

How do preserving biodiversity enhance the life of people?

If we can preserve the biodiversity of this planet it would enhance peoples lives because we will then be able to study more animals therefor gaining new and more knowledge. By studying different animals we may be able to find some materias that will help us with different things some basic some health related, the possibilities are endless. I think that preserving biodiversity is a key factor in the survival of human life in this planet.

5 Questions for 10 years of Chernobyl

1. If the toxins went all over parts of Eurpore, then why is this only talking about Chernobyl?

2. Was there any other cities that were affected badly by this?

3. If you were in Chernobyl at the time of the explosion what what you sacrifice? for example; pets, clothes, extra food, etc.

4. If you were a parent of a child or children would you risk splitting up or wait until you could all go together?

5. Why do you think hitting the emergency saftey switch triggered the explosion?

5 questions for panel in debate for love canal

1. If someone came up to you today and asked if you wanted to live in Love Canal would you go?

2. Is it possible for chemicals that werenot detected to causefurther damage to the commuinty?

3. Would you take a new born child into Love Canal and live there for a few months knowing that they are very vulnerable to diease?

4. If you lived right next to where the Love Canal was, would you plant a vegetable garden and eat the vegetables it produces?

5. Is it possible that a large storm could cause a lot of rain and flooding to make some possible remaining chemicals to rise up and harm the area again?

Hazards of Oil Dispersants

After watching the video, and reading the article we learned that the dispersants can extremely harm the animals and other vegetation around it. Some of the physical defects of the dispersants and oil are sickness, mutations, internal bleeding, brain damage, skin damage, organ damage, and cancer.

Yes, it does because the oil and the dispersants are much more toxic together than either of them separate.

I think that the dispersants is worse because it's very toxic and it mixes with the oil to make the water more toxic therefore killing sea life.