Category Archives: Issues In Science

Blue Light – A Propagated Myth!

Unsplash Photo by Lukas Blaskevicius (Editorial, Technology) Unsplash

Device users are not a risk of eye damage due to blue light emitted from their devices, but they may be at risk of poorer sleep.

In 2019, Director Dr. David Ramsey of Ophthalmic Research at Lahey Massachusets Hospital and his study maintained that “many retail stores have ambient illumination twice as great…as [ones] iPhone, [and that] the sun yields illumination ten times greater!”

Light sources such as incandescence (light bulbs) and LEDs emit a broad spectrum of light, namely 400 to 700 nanometers (nm). Blue light is in the 400 to 450 nm range, carrying more energy than red light, raising concern.

Our retinas regularly absorb blue light emitted by the sun. For roughly 300,000 years, humans have sustained minor to no retinal damage: if it were damaging, we would have evolved optically blind.

Device intensities are much less than the sun and are regulated by manufacturers using light filters.

In 2019, CBC News conducted a Marketplace undercover investigation to debunk the concerns. In addition, Dr. SUNIR J. GARG, American Board Ophthalmologist and clinical researcher, addressed the myth.

“Why you don’t need blue light lenses: Hidden camera investigation (Marketplace)” A 2019 CBC Interview with Dr. SUNIR J. GARG, American Board Ophthalmologist, about why blue light glasses are unnecessary. Youtube

However, in the Harvard study, Dr. Ramsey adds that using devices late at night mimics sunlight, restraining melatonin production, a sleep-inducing hormone. This stimulates your circadian clock (your body’s 24-hour sleep clock), tending to delay your sleep cycles, disrupting your sleep, and increasing drowsiness the following morning.

By stopping use of electronic devices 30 minutes before bed, you can increase REM (deep-stage sleep), reduce morning drowsiness, and maintain a consistent circadian rhythm, which in itself has its own benefits.

In short, research before propagating a supposed “scientific claim” and reduce your screen time before bed.

~ Octavian Turner

The Gore-Tex Enigma

Gore-Tex is a highly versatile material that has garnered a lot of publicity in recent years.

Gore-Tex Logo

It is a magical material in many respects. Water simply glides off it, leaving it bone dry. Being also very breathable and light, it is no surprise that it is the ideal material for water resistant clothing.

First invented in 1968 by Wilbert and Robert Gore, it is made of polytetrafluoroethylene, more commonly known as Teflon. Not the hard stuff though. It’s basically Teflon that has been stretched… a lot.

With the likes of Adidas and Nike incorporating it into their outdoor wear products, its worldwide use and popularity has called into question the manufacturing process and its environmental impacts.

Teflon is a very durable material that does not degrade easy and lasts for a long, long time. This is a good thing right? Well, yes… But what happens when that fifteen year old jacket you own is discarded or lost, and finds itself buried in the dirt outside an abandoned parking lot?

It persists. And doesn’t degrade. For centuries.

PFC’s or perfluorinated compounds are those that contain only carbon and fluorine atoms. Teflon is made from these compounds.

Chemical structure of Teflon: repeating units of carbon and fluorine atoms

The problem with PFC’s is that they tend to accumulate within our bodies and the environment. They are difficult to break down as they are quite unreactive.

A class action lawsuit at a DuPont Teflon plant found a very strong association between working with PFC’s and two types of cancer. Since then, many other studies have found a correlation between exposure to certain PFC’s and negative health outcomes.

To be clear, it isn’t the wearing of Gore-Tex products that is concerning. Also, not all PFC’s are harmful. However, the manufacturing process dispels many harmful PFC’s into the environment.

Gore-Tex jackets are also near impossible to recycle. They are made in complex ways, and the design process involves multiple layers, glues, and components.

Gore-Tex must not be completely written off though. Gore and company have assured investors and the public that they are stopping the use of many harmful PFC’s in their manufacturing process. However, the effects of this are yet to be seen.

There are also other, more intriguing applications of this remarkable material.

What is not talked about nearly enough is the role of Gore-Tex in medicine. It has shown to be ideal for use inside our bodies.

Being so unreactive, it allows the body’s cells and tissues to grow through it without any side effects. This makes it a viable material for many medical applications.

Like most technologies, Gore-Tex is complicated in many ways. Its strengths in one regard prove to be its downfall in another. It seems the jury is still out on this one

– Salik Rushdy

Enzymes – A Solution in the War Against Plastics

It should not be a surprise to people that it can take over 500 years for UV radiation – light from the sun to break down a piece of plastic. But what if there is a faster way to break down single-use plastics?

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley invented a new way to decompose consumer plastics in a short amount of time, simply with heat, water, and nano-dispersed enzymes.

Plastic waste covering the shoreline. Source

UC Berkeley professor Dr. Ting Xu and her research group developed a nanoscale enzyme that can eat away at the polymers in plastics. These nanoscale polymer-eating enzymes can be embedded into plastics during manufacturing. The enzymes were wrapped around plastic resin beads. These beads are melted and can be manufactured into single use consumer plastics. To prevent the enzymes from activating when not required, a random heteropolymer (RHP) coating is applied to hold enzymes without restricting the flexibility of tensicity of the plastics.

Xu likened this process to organic composting. By adding water and heat, the RHP polymers is removed and starts eating away the polymers into smaller subunits.

The research conducted by Xu and her group found that the enzymes took about a week to degrade most of the plastics. Polylactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) based plastics embedded with nanoscale polymer eating enzymes are able to break down the polymer chains into smaller molecules, such as lactic acid.

Plastic cups made from biodegradable plastics. Source

It is clear there is still more research needed in this field. Currently, Xu is developing other modified RHP-wrapped enzymes that can stop the degradation process at specific points in it’s degradation so that the polymers can be recycled into new plastics.

“[Humans] are taking things from the Earth at a faster rate than we return them,” said Xu. “Don’t go back to Earth to mine for these materials, but mine whatever you have, and then convert it to something else.”

As consumers, we can play an important role reducing our consumption on single use plastics and create a more sustainable environment for ourselves and future generations.

Raymond Tang

Aspartame Health Risk Claims Seem Artificial

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that replaces sugar in several food products. Ever since James M. Schlatter discovered it in 1965, the public has had ongoing questions about whether consumption poses a potential threat to our health. The low-calorie sugar substitute is appealing with diabetes cases in Canada rising to 8.9% of the population. Canada approved the usage of aspartame in 1981, so why is there still a controversy?

Equal Sweetener Source: 怡口糖 by SoQ錫濛譙

People have accused aspartame of causing health issues related to toxicity, diabetes, cancer, seizures, and allergies. The reality is that most of these speculations are unsupported, and the government of Canada had to examine numerous research studies to allow Aspartame’s approval in the first place.

Haighton et al. reviewed past cancer epidemiology investigations that claimed to present evidence for these suspicions. After evaluating them, they concluded that the results did not give reasons to believe there was a correlation between aspartame and cancer risk. Considerations going into this decision included how many experiments used diet soft drinks as their main sample source, which contain other compounds and sweeteners besides aspartame.

Aspartame Structure Source: Benjah-bmm27

However, there are health risks that have been discovered in regards to aspartame. It metabolizes into methanol and aspartic acid, as well as phenylalanine, a compound that negatively impacts patients with the disorder phenylketonuria. Therefore companies are required to label products to caution people of phenylalanine content.

The uncertainty around aspartame encourages the need for continued studies to identify the definitive effects of long-term aspartame consumption. It will keep Canada informed to lower the discrepancy between the public view and make sure that the acceptable daily intake, currently 40 milligrams per kilogram body weight, is up to date with health safety precautions.

For now it seems aspartame is here to stay, and we can continue to enjoy the sweetener.

The Gore-Tex enigma

Gore-Tex is a highly versatile material that has garnered a lot of publicity in recent years.

Gore-Tex Logo. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:GoreTex&action=edit&redlink=1

With the likes of Adidas and Nike incorporating it into their outdoor wear products, its widespread use and popularity has called into question the manufacturing process and its environmental impacts.

Teflon is a very durable material that does not degrade and lasts for a long, long time. This is a good thing right? Well, yes… But what happens when that fifteen year old jacket you own is discarded or lost, and finds itself buried in the dirt outside an abandoned parking lot?

It persists. And doesn’t degrade. For centuries.

PFC’s or perfluorinated compounds are those that contain only carbon and fluorine atoms. Teflon is derived primarily from such compounds.

Chemical structure of Teflon: repeating units of carbon and fluorine atoms. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Alhadis

The problem with PFC’s is that they tend to accumulate within our bodies and the environment. They are difficult to break down as they are quite unreactive.

A class action lawsuit at a DuPont Teflon plant found a very strong association between working with PFC’s and two types of cancer. Since then, numerous other studies have found a strong correlation between exposure to certain PFC’s and negative health outcomes.

To be clear, it isn’t the wearing of Gore-Tex products that is concerning. Also, not all PFC’s are harmful. However, the manufacturing process dispels many harmful PFC’s into the environment.

Gore-Tex jackets are also near impossible to recycle. They are made in complex ways, and the design process involves multiple layers, glues, and components.

Gore-Tex must not be completely written off though. Gore and company have assured investors and the public that they are phasing out the use of many harmful PFC’s in their manufacturing process. However, the effects of this are yet to be seen.

There are also other, more intriguing applications of this remarkable material.

What is not talked about nearly enough is the role of Gore-Tex in medicine. It has shown to be ideal for usage within our bodies.

Being both porous and unreactive, it enables the body’s cells and tissues to grow through it without any side effects. This makes it a viable material to be used in sutures, grafts and other applications.

Like most technologies, Gore-Tex is exceedingly complicated in many ways. Its strengths in one regard, prove to be its downfall in another. It seems the jury is still out on this one

– Salik Rushdy

Aspartame Health Risk Claims Seem Artificial

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that replaces sugar in several food products, though it raises questions about whether consumption poses a potential threat to our health. The low-calorie sugar substitute is appealing with diabetes cases in Canada rising to 8.9% of the population. Canada approved the usage of aspartame in 1981, so why is there still a controversy?

Figure 1: Equal Sweetener Source: 怡口糖 by SoQ錫濛譙

A study was done to review past cancer epidemiology investigations that claimed to present evidence for these suspicions. After evaluating them, they concluded that the results did not give reasons to believe there was a correlation between aspartame and cancer risk. Considerations going into this decision included how many experiments used diet soft drinks as their main sample source, which contain other compounds and sweeteners besides aspartame.

For now it seems aspartame is here to stay, and we can continue to enjoy the sweetener.