Pollution

"Mad as a hatter" (Pepper et al. 2006, 284)


I never really understood what they meant by that term, but now I can see that it pertains to pollution. Not that they were mad because they were polluting but maybe because of all they had to mix and use to make the hats. I guess I can say that if my father lived during that era he was really contributing to the pollution of our country. Why you may ask? He was a fanatic when it came to hats. He owned all kinds made from all kinds of materials. As consumers we really don't pay attention into what it takes to make a product much less see if it is polluting our world. We just assume that the manufacturer is making the products the correct way but I guess we are wrong. If really thinking about it the manufacturers just care about their bottom line and not about us the consumers. 

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"Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation. (Schweitzer, pp. 154)

We seem to be blinded by what we are creating. We believe that it's all good because in some way it's helping our people, but what about the bad that we can't see? I think that what  Schweitzer is trying to say is that we walk around with blinders on because we don't want to see the wrongs that we are creating to our environment. We don't recognize it because we only look at the positives and not the negatives. Even us people who don't really know much about the pollution we just go with the flow because we are only presented with the good things. Unfortunately as time goes by we are noticing the wrongs of what we have created. But are we willing to really see it or turn our face to the clearer picture? 

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PFOA

Perfluorooctanoic acid is the former name and it is used to make teflon. It has also been detected in industrial waste, stain-resistant carpets, carpet-cleaning liquids, house dust, microwave popcorn bags, water, food, and some cookware. PFOA is believed to be a carcinogenic which causes cancer. Studies have concluded that there may be an association between PFOA exposure and six health outcomes: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and pregnancy-induced hypertension. PFOA is also found in the top layer of our oceans, contaminating our marine life. It may not be as toxic to animals as it is to humans. There are no formal regulations to elimante PFOA but there are some to limit the amount we are being exposed to. The federal government has been working since the year 2000 to find concrete connections between PFOA and cancer. Dupont company is the biggest manufacturer of goods made with PFOA and they have promised to phaseout the chemical. On May 19, 2016, EPA lowered the drinking water health advisory level to 0.07 ppb for PFOA and PFOS.

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Sources:

 

"Drinking Water Health Advisories for PFOA and PFOS". EPA. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.

Lee, Jennifer 8. (15 April 2003). "E.P.A. Orders Companies to Examine Effects of Chemicals". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 May 2009.

Nicole, W. (2013). "PFOA and Cancer in a Highly Exposed Community: New Findings from the C8 Science Panel". Environmental Health Perspectives. 121 (11–12): A340. doi:10.1289/ehp.121-A340. PMC 3855507 Freely accessible. PMID 24284021.

Renner, Rebecca (June 2008). "Aerosols complicate PFOA picture". Environ. Sci. Technol. 42 (11): 3908. doi:10.1021/es087117o. PMID 18589941

Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

University Colloquium Reader. (2011)