WEEK 5

Video 1: The microbes that live with us from cradle to grave (3:54 min)

● Bacterial DNA in the placenta and the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus as well as in
meconium
● Babies born by vaginal delivery get a dose of bacteria from their mothers as they pass
through the birth canal
○ Acquires more microbes from the air and from contact with objects and people
● Many factors influence the makeup of microbiota like a diet, antibiotics, how many
people she interacts with and her genetic makeup
● Children brought up in rural areas host different sets of microbes compared to those in
urban environments
● Children who are not exposed to enough microbes develop autoimmune and allergic
conditions like Asthma and eczema (Hygiene hypothesis)
● Microbes protect us from harmful bacteria and help us digest food
○ Breakdown of food produces metabolites which circulate in the bloodstream,
reaching all tissues of the body and affecting our metabolism
● A diverse community of gut microbes contributes to healthy metabolism
● Less diverse microbiota is associated with inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and type
2 diabetes
● In elderly people changes in microbiota contributes to aging related changes to our
immune system and brain functions

Video 2: How We Fight Off Infections | Secrets Of The Human Body | BBC Earth
Science (only first 3 min)

● Lymphatic system is a complex network of vessels and nodes

● When pathogens land on the lung lining their presence attracts the attention of special
white blood cells, dendrocytes
● Take a sample of the pathogen and carry back to the lymph vessels to the lymph node
● Triggers the production of custom made antibodies designed specifically to target the
invader
● Latch on to the invading pathogens effectively smothering it and killing it
● Natural killer cells has spikes that uses it to sense the presence of other cells
● Natural killer fight off colds and flus

Video 3: The Story of Cholera (4:28 min)

● Spread through the river (cannot see)

● Carried cholera home in the water, flies carried cholera on the feet and people spreaded
cholera in their hands and drinking water/food
 ● Had diarrhea
● Made water safe by filtering it and boiling it and then mixed salt and sugar in that water
● Not everyone gets sick but they can spread the disease
● Prevention methods: water treatment plants, chlorine drops on unfiltered water, washing
hands with safe water, digging latrines and peeling food and eating when it's hot

Video 4: Canada's Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk (4:29 min)

● Water on First Nations reserves is contaminated, inadequately treated or hard to access

● 133 advisories warning that the water isn’t safe to drink
● Been on bottled water
● Have eczema and infections
● Water comes directly from the lake…there is no treatment
● The government regulates water quality for the rest of Canada, but has no binding
regulations for water on reserves
● Water ceremonies, fishing, hunting and sharing traditional knowledge are impacted when
water is contaminated

Video 5: Pollution: a global public health crisis (only first 4 min)

● In 2015 pollution related disease accounted 9.6 million deaths

● 92% is from low and middle income countries
● Pollution is a crusher of human capacity
● 50% of researches and policy makers concluded that pollution is the leading cause of
death in the world
● Zeka and dengue get the public attentions
● No communicable chronic diseases (learning disabilities, cancer, lung disease) take
years to figure
● Effects are most seen on the very young and poor
○ Involuntary exposure: where pollution has been caused by other people
○ Voluntary exposure: where pollution is created by themselves
● Arsenic gold miners use mercury in their process and tanners who use chromium,
battery recyclers who are exposed to lead fumes
WEEK 7

Video 1: Toxicology (4:00 min)

● Toxicology is the science of poisons and the harmful effects of substances to living
things
● Paracelsus said only the dose is the poison
● Strychnine from a tree of the same name and botulinum toxin which is deadly in food but
widely used as the cosmetic treatment botox
● Body might react in different ways to excessive chemical exposure: Contact with skin
might cause an allergic reaction but most chemicals affect us when absorbed or injected
○ Ability to pass through the lungs depends on molecular size and water solubility
● Toxicologist identify the harmful effects caused by different chemicals and how much of
the chemical is needed to cause the effect
○ How chemicals move around and leave our bodies and how they impact our
biochemistry
● Genetic toxicology looks at interactions with DNA and reproductive toxicology looks at
the potential impacts on fertility and development of offspring

Video 2: What is mercury poisoning? (1:39 min)

● Mercury is a chemical found on the earth’s crust and it is a neurotoxin
● It damages the central nervous system, kidneys and brain and can lead to brain defects
● Exposure: Fossil fuels that release mercury into the atmosphere, eating contaminated
fish and shellfish, small scale gold mining where miners use mercury to separate gold
from rock and sediment

Video 3: Poison VS venom, what is the difference? (first 2 min)

● Venom travels all around the body and contains neurotoxins
● 20% to 80% of snake bites are dry bites
● Venom takes resources and energy to make so they give a warning shot
● Poison goes deep into the blood and interferes with ur nerves and preventing muscles
from contracting
● Difference between both is in the method of delivery
● Poison has to be inhaled, ingested or absorbed
● Venom has to be injected into a wound
● Tetrodotoxin is poisonous from puffer fish and in the deadly blue octopus it is venom
Video 4: How the US poisoned Navajo Nation (12:32 min)
● The mining industry poisoned Navajo nations water, soil and air and abounded hundreds
of uranium mines
● Started because of WWII
● In the early 1940s, the US developed top secret plans to build an atomic bomb
● They needed a radioactive source, uranium to make nuclear power
● In 1950s, there was a uranium boom in the southwest (navajo nation)
● Vast deposits on Uranium was in the hills
● Economic growth and jobs for residence (frontline)
● In the 1950s, there was 750 mines in the area
● Red water Pond Road had two big mining operations setting up shops (United Nuclear
Corp. and Kerr-McGee Corp.)
● Uranium mining causes lung cancer; asthma
● Not only mine workers but residence in between
● UNC stored its toxic uranium waste in a tailings pond
● It broke and spills waste liquid into Rio Puerco (drinking water and livestock)
● Radioactive levels in puerco 1000 x what's allowed in drinking water
● Cracking identifies by the company in 1978
● Effects on the navajo nations: Higher rates of cancer, kidney and cardiovascular disease
and birth defects, lymphoma
● 1980a mines shut down
● Off grid solar power community
WEEK 8
The Hole - A film on the Montreal Protocol, narrated by Sir David Attenborough

● Chemical chlorofluorocarbon CFC

● Coolants in refrigerators were so toxic that a leak could kill u
● Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina the ozone layer was being eaten by CFCs
● Risk from Lethal levels of UV radiation
● In 1987 more than 30 countries agreed to phase out the production of CFC’s and sign
the montreal protocol
● In 2020 the Kigali amendment to the montreal protocol was ratified by 112 countries
● Will avoid up to 0.4 C of warming over this century

The History of Asbestos in B.C

● Asbestos was used in insulation for piping, boilers industrial machinery, fire proofing for
buildings, sprayed insulation and later drywall floor tile
● U can make any process that was strengthening, water resisting, sound resistant and fire
resisting better by applying asbestos
● Those that mined asbestos had conditions similar to coal miners in black lung
● Cassier
● Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos
● Mid 1970s cuz of asbestos was the peak
● The introduction of regulations in 1978 marked a pivotal change, requiring industry
attention to asbestos management and cleanup.
● Despite regulatory efforts, thousands of buildings still contain asbestos, contributing to
increasing cases of asbestos-related diseases.
WEEK 9

Unsafe water, hygiene and sanitation kills 1000 children under 5 every day | UNICEF

● Diseases like cholera, typhoid and dysentery spread through water and they can kill
children
● Children are 20 times more likely to die due to unsafe water and sanitation than from
violence because wars sipe out water and sanitation infrastructure

Health effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings still carefully tracked

● 94,000 eradicated bomb survivors volunteered to become subjects

● 26,000 who lived in the city but were not exposed were included in the comparison
● Medical tests to see damaged chromosomes
● Frozen many blood and tissue samples
● If one survivor came up with a health effect today they could go back in the freezer and
find what changed in that individual
● Thyroid cancer and leukemia are the first to strike, solid cancers come 10-30 years later
● Young people age 10 are the most susceptible (67%) then mid aged age 30 (47%) then
old people age 50 are the least susceptible (32%)
● Women are more susceptible than men
● A single exposure increases cancer risk for life
● Atomic bomb study has limitations which means the dose was given all at once
● Utility employees at nuclear power plants and medical professionals there radiation
exposure captured by the dosimeter warn the workers over the years and compared with
their health history
● High energy protons at a single cell and not the neighbor cells
● Low dose radiation bill

WEEK 10
Rescue Our Wetlands: Threats

● Biggest threat is the continued unregulated drainage of wetlands on the prairies

○ 70% of prairies have been lost
○ 50% are grass prairies that are left which are critical for nesting habitats
● Additional threats: Tile drainage, wetland corn and soybeans to be grown
● Wetlands and grasslands that sustain North American duck population are by large
conversion to cropland and society needs for fuel and fiber are growing
● Drought is the number one threat in north america (California is hit the hardest)
● We care because we need water for wetlands and it provides annual food resources in
the winter time when waterfowl comes from flooded rice fields
● Southern wetlands there is tremendous loss of coastal wetlands, water supply, declining
rice agriculture, atlantic coast- we need to protect the birds
● Mexico provides home for waterfowl
● Colorado river mexico drying up and being using for other purposes
● West coast of mexico habitats are being lost due to unsustainable shrimp farming
practices
● East coast of mexico habitats are being lost due to logging and tourism
● Central and northern mexico human growth is outpacing the development of
infrastructure

Ontario lakes showing signs of recovery after acid rain regulations

● Lakes in the 1960s were acidic (low PH), extremely clear and colorless, having loss of
species
● Today things are changing meaning more neutral pH, more coloured and cloudy, lots of
species are coming back
● Emissions reduction is the biggest thing helped to recovery and innovative technologies
● Environmental problems facing today are with Co2 emissions

Climate change thawing permafrost in Northern Canada

● Permafrost thawing in Canada's Arctic is impacting infrastructure and communities.

● Inuvik's historic church, built on permafrost, faces foundation threats due to thawing.
● Western Arctic warming at 3.5 degrees over 50 years, causing landslides and
infrastructure challenges
● Dempster Highway, built on permafrost, showing signs of degradation and costly repairs
due to thawing
● Adaptation efforts include above-ground sewer systems, retrofitting, and flexible housing
structures
● Tuktoyaktuk faces coastal erosion, threatening homes and infrastructure
● Climate change adaptation requires rethinking infrastructure and building resilience