48

=Boricua Science Class Student Work Space=

Student Name:
Melissa Gonzalez

Body Burden
In the space between the lines, you will present your research in the form of a pamphlet that anyone could read to learn more about toxic products in the home and office. If you create a Word document, let me know, and we can upload it to this page.

At home people store products that helps them keep their bodies and objects clean. Many times people use them believing that they can live a healthier life this way. Many products don’t indicate all the chemicals it has. This is why it is important to research about it. While researching the products it is important to view the “ ** HMIS rating”, ** because it indicates which are “health hazard, slightly dangerous, moderate, serious or severe”. Clorox Regular is a great product to take out stains around the house especially the tuff ones in the bathroom area. The Clorox Company, Okland, CA, makes it. The smell is strong. In fact just three fourth of Clorox is good enough to remove white clothes stains. Too much amount of Clorox can result a whole in the clothing or material. It is recommended to use Clorox Regular with gloves when cleaning around the house. The product can irritate the skin, cause rashes or make the skin peal off depending on the persons skin sensibility. On the bottle the “hazards to humans and domestic animals” are listed. The bottle also includes the ingredients that are sodium hypochlorite 6 %, 5.7 % chlorine, the rest of the ingredients aren’t mentioned. I wonder why the Clorox Company doesn’t reveal the rest of the ingredients that are stored in my Clorox bottle? The website even the bottle comments that it kills 99.9% of the house hold germs. Our bodies are made out of germs actually everything that surround us have germs. It feels good to know that this same company has developed a “Green Works” project, which will help maintain a better living. While reading the purpose of changes in the Clorox product I learned that it was screened by the “DFE”. The DFE is in charge of assuring that the product is not too harmful for humans. The DFE assures that “the product contains only those ingredients that pose the least concern among chemicals in their class. The product contains one to three percent of Ethenol/SD Alcohol 40, and 2-5 percent D-Glucopyranose, olymeric,decyl octyl glycosides. However the health effect that D-Glucopyranose, olymeric,decyl octyl glycosides have in human bodies is inrelevant. As a first aid remedy if the products are drank from is of course all the poison control or doctor but also to drink one glass of water. The Clorox bottle Regular has the first aid directions more in detail than the Green Works Clorox bottle. This makes the buyer feel more secure about the Green Works product. The same Company produces both chemicals and it doesn’t provide the ratings for health, flammability nor reactivity. This leaves the consumer believing that it is a dangerous toxic product. However the people that have tryednboth products have noticed a stronger odor from the Clorox Regular bottle than the green works bottle. They are aware that the products “Green Works” are intended to help live a healthier life because it contains more natural ingredients, however not all of the chemical and natural ingredients are revealed. Although the full chemical data isn’t provided the advertisements state that the product is one hundred percent natural. This means that it has less pollution for our bodies to breath, or touch. Our bodies have lots of pathogens. Chemicals can be transmitted to us through our five senses. Our eyes, mouth, nose, skin and ears help us develop our senses. Our skin is the part in the body that is in the most contact with chemicals. If our skin contains rupture (cut, scrape, etc), that area must be immediately covered before dealing with any cleaning product. It is recommended to use this product in a well-ventilated area, because if it is breathed into I it can trigger the lungs and cause bronchopneumonia. Because bleach is a strong detergent to use I decided to use a product that assures me safe guard against bleach. He name of the product is Purex Ultra Laundry Detergent (with color safe bleach). It is found in powder. While researching this product I read that the dust causes health effects that may be related to the reason why my three-year-old daughter gets asthma. “ Inhalation: Dust may cause mucous membrane irritation with coughing and shortness of breath”. Eye contact with this product is fatal “possibly corneal injury”. It there’s skin contact the best thing to do is to wash it out immediately because it can irritate the skin and it may damage the skin. To avoid asthma in my family I can switch to a liquid product or use the product when she is not present. I observed the periodic table to compare the strength of the chemicals that contain the product. The none-metal elements are stronger than the metal elements. There fore the none-metal elements can be hazardous for humans to utilize. However when the elements are mixed with a less concentrated element I can loose its power. Product: Purex Ultra Laundry Detergent with Clorox Safe Bleach Percent: name Chemical type chemical  type


 * 10-30 Sodium Carbonate || Sodium || Metal || Carbon || Metal ||
 * 30-60 SodiumChloride || Sodium || Metal || Chloride || None-metal ||
 * 10-30 Sodium Silicate || Sodium || Metal || Silicone || Nonmetal ||
 * 1-5 Sodium percarbonate || Sodium || Metal || Carbonate || Metal ||
 * 5-10 Alkyl (c10-c16) benznenesulfonic ||

||

|| Sulfur || None-metal ||
 * 1-5 Alcohols,(12-16) ethoxlated (Isureth-4) ||

||

||

||

|| When there is a recall on a product it means that it should be avoided. Sometimes when shopping people choose cheap products that are imported from other countries. The consumers that shop with the security that these products have been examined will be more aware of the importance with the FDA approval. It’s not until a few years after when they discover that the products are harmful when the FDA set a recall on it. Yet it is still sold in many cheap stores. A perfect example is the imported toothpaste from China. Between so many different types of toothpaste was that of Crest Cavity Fighter. It contains diethylene glycol (DEG), which is poisonous. It can cause severe damages to the part of he body that it travels including “hemorrhages into GI Tract, stomach, kidneys and intestines, throat Make up is a product that I rarely use, because it makes my face break out with pimples. Over the years this observation made me wonder if too much exposure to makeup causes tumors or sis that can lead into cancer, wrinkles, and other facial changes that many people obtain. Many people say that my skin is too sensitive to use makeup. When I use make-up I use “Cover Girl Clean Fragrance Free Pressed Powder”. While researching the chemicals in this product I learned that it includes Kaolin clay. This chemical is used to make paint, rubber, and glue… Further more I learned that it affects the process of the lungs. Usually smokers give lung disease complaints. The smoke inhalated through travels through the mouth or nose and settles into the lungs. Research has determined that being in contact with kaolin has the same effect. According to the Columbia encyclopedia kaolin is a type of dust found in talk, rust, rocks… The lungs tissues of the people that that smell this dust will become darker. Long-term contact with this chemical can produce pneumoconiosis. Pneumoconiosis is incurable. This leads to black lung (lung disease), pulmonary emphysema. Sometimes experiments are done on animals to determine the possible effects that the chemicals will have in human beings. The experiments testing kaolin gave a positive result for bacterial infection on rats and the guinea pig’s lungs collapse.

Citation [] [] for chemical inf http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@rn+1332-58-7 ormation The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-08 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/prodtree?prodcat=Personal+Care

End of Term Reflection
Here are some of the activities we did in class this term: Harper's Magazine ("Boots on the Ice"), Hurricane Evacuation Plan, Designer Babies (GATACA), Genetic Diseases, Evolution Movies/Research, NYT Science Reviews, Punnett Squares, Chemical Bond Diagrams, The Periodic Table, The Birth and Death of Stars

At first Global Warming was difficult, however professor Lewis was able to explain these topics in detail and he wouldn't stop explaining until every one got the point. Computer Class = just right Videos = [just right Student Group Activities = [More] Evaluations = [More] I enjoyed this class because there were alot of communication beween the students and Professor. I don't findmyself strugguling in the topics maybe in the research a bit. However everything that I learned makes me proud tounderstand the planet which I live in.
 * What 2-3 activities did you enjoy/learn the most? I enjoyed the periodic table puzzle it gave the peridic table a moe extensive value. he topic of Global Warming helped me understand that natural forces, such as hurricanes, tornadoes etc can be controlled by Gobal warming. Global warmng is effected by our use of gases. The genetic topic, when connected with the global warming, helped me understan that living things are change because they have to adopt to the enviornment.
 * What 2-3 activities topic did you find the most difficult to understand?
 * Describe how could we improve this course in the future
 * Explain why you enjoyed, or why you struggled through, this class, offering whatever insights you may feel are valuable:

Name of Disease
Arininosuccinic aciduria

Symptoms

 * 1) [Child loosesenergy and apitite. Hair and skin damage.]
 * 2) [Disruction of the liver.]
 * 3) [Poor breathing and body temperature causing seisures that leads infants into coma and learning disabilities.]

Genes
to the urea cyle, which]
 * 1) [Argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) triggers the arginosuccinate to make animo acid and protein, which moves the nitrogen
 * 1) [Type here]
 * 2) [Type here]

Cytogenetic Location
[9 cen-911.2]

Base Pair Sites
[65,178,210 to 65,195,764]

Community
[Bushwick and Irving

Evacuation Center
=== Go Bag a. My go bag consist is a waterproof bag full of important documents and money. 3 flash lights and a few batteries. A small AM/FM radio. A first-aid kit including pain and fever relief medication, iron pills. Can foods and water bottles and three outfits. b. I don’t have any pets. However if in the future I have a pet animal. My pet would be left behind they have good instinct. I went through a hurricane in Puerto Rico. The dog was collecting newspaper, and other soft objects a two days before the hurricane. My parent thought that she was pregnant. When the hurricane came, we packed up food next to the shelter she had prepared, under our house, and left her behind. When the hurricane was over, we got back and the dog was sleeping under the rags that she collected. c. Our family will meet only 1 block away from our home, at the corner of Irving and Palmetto, close to Bushwick Campus. === 
 * 1) Location –  The map shows that I am on the no zone area. The people that live in the No Zone area are told to stay in their homes because the hurricane wouldn’t cause a lot of disaster.  The nearest evacuation center is Bushwick Campus. It is only to blocks away from my home. [Type here]
 * 2) Implemented Plan – I called Bushwick Campus and was connected with the school safety office. My question for hem was how would they deal with the people incase of a hurricane. Their answer was that they would follow the Principals instructions. I asked the director for which I work. Her answer was that all widows and doors would be covered with strong panels, and the amount of people that entered the school would be limited to two hundred people need room to walk and sleep. Further more, she would reach out for the Red Cross Association help to provide us with the proper equipment to keep hydrated, and safe.
 * 3)  Your Evacuation Plan

#1
Melissa Gonzalez First Science Times Review January 23, 2009 Prof. Lewis Boricua College Natural Science Survey
 * 1) Summary –

__“The Evolutionary Search Of Our Perfect Past”__ is a news article that tries to persuade the reader in believing that our health problems are not only due to unbalance nutrition but also to our genes. Genes are the biological hereditary traits in a persons’ DNA. Science has advanced so much that before a child is born the doctors can determine, through the DNA, the illness that the child will have or develop throughout the years. The DNA testing has proven to discover the past of a persons’ family. If someone has doubt about the biological parent, through the DNA test he/ she will discover who is the biological parent. In fact, science has advanced so much that; a sonogram can be viewed, with such magnitude, that a person can observe the physical appearance of an unborn child, and compare the nine-month old child with another family member.

The genetic inheritance of a living thing doesn’t necessarily have to be traits of the biological parent; it can be from an ancestor. I’ve viewed Mendel’s genetic pea plant experiment, on page 469 of __The Sciences, Fifth Edition.__ It showed that the grandchild pea plant inherited the grandparent gene of dwarf traits. This can explain why some children are born as dwarf. Rule number one of classical genetics state that “physical characteristics or traits are passed from parents to offspring by some unknown mechanism” (page 470, The Sciences fifth edition). In my case, I have a birthmark behind my right leg. In High School, we were told, to find something that both a family member and I had in comon. My grandfather had the same shape, same light brown color and behind his right leg. I inherited a gene from my grandfather, through the DNA, that caused me to obtain the birthmark The Punnet square is used to measure the percentage of genet inheritance. My parents have four children, two males and two females. My father inherited a gene that causes Narcolepsia. My sister also inherited the same condition. This means that there was a twenty-five percent of inheriting Narolepsia. The article reveals that there are different opinions about the evolutionary theory on how evolution evolved? “Not all evolutionary theories are created equal” (sixth paragraph, second sentence). The evolutionary theory that many years ago human beings were believed to be cave men have demonstrated that humans have to adapt to nature. Then viewing a movie in class that proves the evolution of sharks has proven to me that living things have to accustom to environmental change in order to survive. Many years ago human didn’t have the industrial equipment that exists now days, to make our labor easier. Many people, especially the slaves, would carry heavy loads on their backs and bend their backs for long hours to complete their harvest. Not to mentioned that many of them had small celders that looked more like cages to sleep. The corporal position that a person keeps has a major impact in future their body. While scientists are trying to discover how fast or slow we evolve, I as well as Leslie Aiello, feel that the theory of human evolution is missing fossil evidence. Some people say that the fossils found to prove the evolutionary theory are those fossils of our hard working ancestors. The reason that I choused this article is because it educated me about a health problem called lactose intolerant. The theory of hereditary DNA traits is proven to be true in many cases. This year in my class there is a boy that is lactose intolerant. Many times I’ve questioned my self, what causes his body to reject the milk and obtain rashes around his mouth? I know that he is lactose intolerant, but my question was deeper. What causes people to become lactose intolerant? The article explains, that although the mutation for European and African population is different “the results are the same”(page D6, paragraph2, firs sentence). The person who is lactose intolerant doesn’t have the gene that can help him/her break down the sugar in the milk. The way that we eat affects our entire body. This article also points out the fact that we have a choice of eating processed foods/dairy products. Processed foods have chemicals mixed in. Sometimes while being processed, the food might loose or gain vitamins and minerals that are essential for our well-being. Many years ago people didn’t have process foods. Our ancestors ate whatever hey hunt or grew on the ground. This leads us to evaluate that we as human beings, dependants of nature, have to take care of our natural resources to prevent future illness.


 * 1)   Book Citation – [Chapter 23, Classical Modern Genetics, The Sciences, 5E, James Trefil/Robert M. Hazen]
 * 2) New York Times, Tuesday January 20,2009, The Evolutionary Search Of Our Perfct Past
 * 3) Personal Interest – [Evolution]

#2
Earthquakes are one of the many natural effects that destroy the ground and everything that surrounds it. Other causes of natural destructions are tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes and tsunami. The difference between these natural forces is that some of them be detected before happening. This gives people a little time to prepare and find a safer place to evacuate while the event is over. A hurricane can be detected two days before it occurs. It’s route and category can be observed and estimated to advise people about the amount of disaster that can occur before. However it is very rare to be determined when and how strong will an earthquake be. An earthquake occurs when rocks suddenly breaks along a flat surface. Since the rock isn’t an elastic material that stretch the energy released is transmitted in form of sound waves. This energy causes the ground to rise and fall. Depending on the amount of energy released the ground will shake. This energy can even be released in the ocean and cause a tsunami. A tsunami is an earthquake that occurs in the ocean. The Richard scale measures the earthquake or tsunami; it was named after the scientist who discovered how to measure earthquakes. Although the earthquake’s strength can be recorded from 1-10, there hasn’t been determined an earthquake greater than 8.9. This recording was from a tsunami in the Indian Ocean during 2004. Earthquake measuring 5 can be felt, but an earthquake from 6 or more can do damages to buildings, roads and other places in the area.Although there isn’t an exact answer as to what causes the rocks to break causing an earthquake, the recordings of several experiments have been studied by many scientists mentioned in the New York Times, and proven that human activity provokes the earthquake to occur. The latest news reveals that there is suspicions that the causes of earthquake has to do with the amount of water or oil is put into or taken out of the ground. If this is the case then the exporting activities of oil in other countries has to be done with caution.

According to the Science section, of Tuesday April 4,2009, on the New York Times, the signals of an earthquake have been studied since th1970’s. Several experiments using extra water have been calculated to cause earthquakes. Lately the predictions that several scientists have made, relate to the occurrences of those earthquakes.  The pictures of Chapter 17, on page 350 compare the view of earth 240 years ago to now. Two hundred fifty years ago all of the continents were jointed together and some how they spread apart. Leaving to believe that as the sea floor increased as the continents spread apart. The causes for planet earth being divided into many layers are due to the erosion of the soil. Further more, the layers of our planet and the fossils found in them can be the estimated answer to, how many years ago that this planet was connected.
 * 1) Once the causes of the earthquake are defined then it will be easier to determine the places in the world that will have more earthquakes. If the amount of water taken out of the atmosphere then maybe the change in climate during the summer or global warming can trigger the ground to shake because the weather is hot and the reproduction of water is less. Although earth has various ways of reproducing and gaining water, the heat evaporates the water making it less.
 * Giampaolo Giuliani observed high levels of gasses released from rocks that were stressed by the pressure of an upcoming quake. Although the magnitude 6.3 earthquakes happened, his prediction of thirty miles away from the place he experimented was ignored. This led to the death of three hundred people. His method till this day, which related to the experiment mentioned in the book, is ignored. If I had been followed many people can prepare a week ahead for the up coming earthquake.
 * The project done in Basel Switzerland leads to wonder weather big earthquake emerge from small earthquakes, when an earthquake of magnitude 2.7 was triggered by injecting water three miles under the ground. Later on a 3.4 earthquake was felt and two months later three more earthquakes were detected.
 * A reservoir filled a few years earlier is believed to trigger the 1967 earthquake that killed about two hundred people. Last year an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 killed eighty thousand people in China. It is believed that the cause of this quake was a reservoir filled with three hundred twenty million tons of water.


 * 1) Book Citation – Chapter 17 Plate Tectonics "Can we predict earthquaked?" The Sciences 5th Edition James Trefil/ Robert M. Hazen
 * 2) New york times, Tuesday Aprl 14, 2009, Earthquake Many Mysteries Stymie Efforts to Predict Them
 * 3) Personal Interest – The causes of an earthquake

#3
Melissa Gonzalez Professor Lewis Boricua College In our society people tend to buy antibiotics for common infections, especially if they are cheep and easy to acquire, without noticing that this can make their immune system weaker. Usually when paying a visit to the doctor to find a cure for an infection the doctor might say that it will leave on its own. Sometimes the infections that we acquire are symptoms of being stressed or need of healthier eating habits. Every one has an immune system that fights over bacteria’s and infections from entering and weakening their bodies. If the person doesn’t give their immune system a chance to get strong and fight infections out, their immune system wouldn’t function. It would depend on other chemicals to do its job. This is the case with the Mitchell family. Mrs. Mitchell was treated in the hospital with antibiotics to cure a Stomach Bug. While experiencing this treatment Mrs. Mitchell thought that she was going to die. Even though the antibiotics killed the infection, it also “killed off large portions of the healthy bacteria that normally live in the digestive tract”. So Mrs. Mitchell had to give her body time to reproduce healthy bacteria. Sad to find out that Mr. Mitchell also acquired the same infection. This infection can be acquired by physical contact. A person that takes antibiotics often is most likely to acquire an infection because the body is not accustomed to fight the virus out. Its for example: A child is told throughout his entire life don’t touch that because it’ll make you ugly, throughout the years the child will never touch it because he/she is already fed that it would make her/him ugly. If the child is given an opportunity to experiment then he/she will learn how to work his/her way through strongly and without fear. Chapter twenty-three describes a virus as an invader in the RNA or DNA that takes the position of another cell. Viruses come in various shapes and sizes. If the immune system of a person is strong it can detect the virus by sending messages to the RNA and DNA, which produces the t-cells, to fight against the virus. It is very important to give the t-cells in your body time to fight out the illness. So that your immune system will be more aware of the different infections that the body will possibly receive. In another episode the immune system will reject the illness faster “without harming the body’s cells. > Back to Science homepage
 * 1) Summary –
 * 1) Book Citation – Infection Crystallizes Antibiotics Threat, New York Times Article, Tuesday April 14, 2009
 * 2) Chapter 23, The Sciences James Trefil/Robert M. Hazen
 * 3) Personal Interest – Helping The Immune SystemTo become Stronger