Irradiation

          There are many different pros and cons to using irradiation to help sterilize food.  On the up side, it can definitely help get rid of bacteria, parasites, and germs that we might consume, but since this is fairly new technology, no one is sure what will happen if humans eat irradiated food over an extended period of time.
          There are many reasons why we should not use irradiation to cleanse our food.  Irradiation can destroy up to 95% of the vitamins and minerals that are essential to our bodies, we haven't fully tested out what will happen if we eat too many irradiated foods, and irradiation doesn't necessarily get rid of all the bad things in food.
          Irradiation sterilizes food by moving the food molecules around and killing all the mold, bacteria, and insects growing there.  The problem with this is that it can destroy up to 95% of vitamins vital to our health and eradicate natural digestive enzymes that occur in the food.  This can make it harder for us to digest what we consume.  Also, as the molecules in irradiated food move around, a chemical reaction can take place which will produce disease-causing radicals.  These radicals combine with the existing chemicals in the item of food, and create new toxic materials called URPs.  This can be very harmful toward the human body.

          The FDA has only based its approval for using irradiation to clean food on 5 out of 441 animal studies.  This is not very reliable at all, and many of the animals that have eaten irradiated material have suffered from more tumors, reproductive problems, kidney failure, and more.  Furthermore, the longest experiments using humans as testers for irradiated food have only lasted as long as 15 weeks.  This way, no one knows what the long-term effects of irradiation might be.  Lastly, very few children have been tested with irradiation consumption, and so we have no idea how it might affect babies and kids.
          Thirdly, irradiation does not get rid of all the harmful things found in food.  The bacteria that do survive the radiation end up with an immunity to it.  They breed and pass on the strong genes to more bacteria, and eventually they find their way back to the poultry or meat farm where they came from.  Then, since they are not harmed by irradiation, they end up in our bodies.  This results in a stronger bacteria and a weaker technology.  Studies show that E. coli and Salmonella could possibly become more difficult to kill through irradiation.
          Although there are many bad things about using radiation to sterilize food, there are some benefits of it, too.  Irradiation makes the food we eat last longer so it won't go bad so quickly, it gets rid of almost all the bad things we might consume, and it is more environmentally friendly than using pesticides to protect our food.  
          It's important for our food to last a long time, because you can transport it greater distances without worrying about spoilage and you don't have to eat it right after you buy it; you can wait a while and save it.  Also, if food doesn't go rotten too quickly, there is less chance that you might have to throw it away and waste it because of mold.  This could lead to a decrease in the amount of trash that people throw out each year, which is more environmentally friendly.
          Irradiation is also good, because it replaces pesticides which are SUPER bad for the earth.  Pesticides are basically poisonous chemicals, and they can get into the earth and nearby streams.  This is water pollution, and the poison will travel down the streams into rivers, which may flow into either lakes or the ocean.  This can cause many plants and animals to die.  When using irradiation instead of pesticides, you can prevent all that pollution and all those deaths from happening.

Question:  Will irradiating food make people less careful about handling it?

            Yes, I personally believe that irradiating food will make people careless about handling it.  If they believe that it will be cleansed through irradiation, then they won't make such an effort to stay clean and hygienic when handling it.  They will think that it is not necessary anymore.

Noise Pollution

Noise pollution can be defined as unwanted or irritating noise that interferes with everyday activities executed by both humans and animals.  It can prevent sleep, obstruct conversation, affect wildlife, destroy buildings, and even provide health issues toward people.  If your neighbors are having a party, or if a nearby dog is barking at night, then you won’t be able to go to sleep because of all that noise.  Without sleep, you are unable to function properly, as you haven’t fully rested.  This can cause to a rise in your stress level, which can actually lead to heart disease. 

If an animal doesn’t get enough sleep, it might be too groggy to hunt or protect its young safely, and may get caught and eaten.  This might result in more deaths than one.  For example, if a female robin had just hatched four or five eggs in her nest, went out to get some food for her brood, and was eaten by a cat because she was too slow to avoid it from lack of sleep, some or all of her little chicks might die.  The male robin might still be alive to help feed the young, but he won’t be able to provide for all his children.  This means that some of them will die.  Then, because those baby robins didn’t live, a few potential meals for predators become nonexistent.  Hawks and other hunting birds might starve because they can’t find enough food, whereas if those sparrows that died because their father couldn’t provide for them had lived, they might have ensured the lives of the predators as a food source.  This whole thing might domino into something much more serious than a little noise. 

Most people probably don’t believe that not being able to hear someone else on the phone can be very bad.  Unfortunately, they are wrong.  There are endless circumstances where awful things can happen to people who are trying to talk to someone on the phone, but can’t hear the person on the other end of the line.  If a mother is telling her child to meet her after school at 4:30 so she can pick them up, and the kid can’t hear her, he/she might mistake it for 3:30.  Then, when they go to wait for their mom, and she doesn’t come, they might decide to go home all be themselves.  They could get lost, and cause a lot of stress to their parents when they don’t get home.  If a worker is talking to their boss and can’t hear what they say, they might do something wrong that could result in the loss of their job.  If someone is gravely injured and their friends or relatives call 911 but the ambulance can’t hear them, the doctors might mis-understand the address of the caller.  If they don’t arrive at the house fast enough, they may not be in time to save the wounded one’s life.  There are many different possibilities when sound pollution could cause possibly catastrophic circumstances. 

There are a few different things that noise pollution can do to damage your health.  It can lead to a rise in stress, hearing loss, and tinnitus.  If someone is too stressed, they are more vulnerable to heart attacks, which are fatal, and can lead to death.  Hearing loss is also a problem.  Scientists agree that if you spend over 8 hours in the presence of 85dB of sound, there is a pretty good chance that you will suffer from hearing impairment.  There are many affects from this, including tinnitus, a sense of loneliness, depression, problems with speech, worsened performance at school or work, and these can lead to less opportunities for jobs.  Tinnitus can either be temporary or permanent depending on how loud and how long the sound was.  It is characterized by an irritable ringing in the ears, although it is not fatal.  Tinnitus is more likely to be found in children than adults.  If you feel isolated or lonely all the time, and you are rather depressed, when you try to get a job, it will be harder for you.  Most companies look for employees with sunny, promising dispositions.  If you act all sad and melancholy, you will have a very difficult time obtaining a good job at a good company.

Noise pollution mainly comes from transportation, but there are other sources too.  Trains and airplanes that are located/fly over natural environments can harm the wildlife living there.  This can affect the way the animals in that habitat eat, mate, hunt, and even sleep.  Cars, motorcycles, TVs, and just regular household chores can also contribute to the amount of noise in the world, and noisy loudspeakers do, too.  In the United Kingdom, they have banned loudspeakers from 8am to 9pm for that exact reason.  Lastly, burglar alarms and fireworks also have very intense booming or ear-splitting noises. 

There are many different things that you are able to do to protect yourself from noise pollution.  You can find the source of the sound, and attempt to stop it, or you can simply reduce the amount of noise you create.  All of these things can help stop or prevent a potentially drastic situation.

In order to find the source of unwanted noise, just follow your ears.  You will usually be able to tell in which direction sound is coming from, and if you use your sight, you can probably figure out where the pollution is starting.  After that, all you have to do is take a few simple steps to stop it.  If your neighbor’s dog is barking loudly and won’t stop, call and alert them to what’s happening.  If a noisy party is going on your street, call them and tell them to be more quiet.  All you have to do is make a phone call.

If you want to reduce the amount of noise you, personally produce, you can do a number of things:  ask how noisy a certain appliance is before buying it; execute loud activities (vacuum, taking a barking dog on a walk, etc)  in the afternoon, when most people are awake; keep the volume of your TV down; tell your neighbors before you have a party, and keep the music down; stop any pets you have from making unnecessary sound; don’t slam your car door; don’t use your car horn unless you really need to; fix your brakes so they don’t squeal; keep the music in your car down.  Doing any of the above really might make a difference in preventing noise pollution and its consequences. 

References:

"Noise Pollution | Air and Radiation | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://www.epa.gov/air/noise.html>.

"Noise Pollution." Noise Pollution - Environmental Protection UK. Environmental Protection UK, 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.

Staff, Mayo Clinic. "Tinnitus - MayoClinic.com." Mayo Clinic. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tinnitus/DS00365>.

"What Is Noise Pollution? - What Noise Pollution Is, What Causes Noise Pollution, and Who Regulates It." Recent Questions: - Questions Recently Asked on What-Is-What.com. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://what-is-what.com/what_is/noise_pollution.html>.