Lia Tarachansky

Science & the Environment

In Their Backyard
Turning Indigenous Lands into Toxic Dumps for Canadian Industry
Published in the Canadian Dimension Magazine, November 8th, 2008

Indigenous lifestyles are traditionally more linked to land and water than those of the Canadian population at large. Rural communities, especially in the north and west, still depend on country (wild) foods and forestry for livelihood and medicine. Many depend on the land for spirituality and for socio-cultural reasons. From this perspective, industrial pollution has a larger impact on Aboriginal communities.

The impact industrial development and pollution has on the wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples can be seen and measured scientifically as well as socially. Each year, the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), a body of Environment Canada, reports accounts on each contaminant released by each processing plant and facility throughout the country. Until recently, such figures remained only on obscure governmental websites. When the NPRI completed its GoogleEarth maps in 2006, however, Dr. Laurie Hing Man Chan of the University of Northern British Columbia cross-referenced them with locations of Indigenous communities. His findings are consistent with global trends, showing pollution usually takes place on Indigenous land.

John Schertow (Ahni) of the Haudenosaunee community in Ontario examined Dr. Chan’s data and calculated that, according to a Treasury Board of Canada inventory on contaminated sites, there are 4,464 toxic sites within the treaty territories of Indigenous peoples in Canada. That, he explains, is an average of 1.5 sites for each of Canada’s 2,720 reserves (though in reality some reserves have upwards of a dozen sites).

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Golden Opportunity: Mining against all costs
Published in the Canadian Dimension Magazine, September/October issue 2008

Guided by resource discovery and the heavy-handed rule of the free market, the mining of gold today is “rush-mining,” much as it was a century ago. From the Indigenous lands of Brazil to those in Canada, from Tanzania to the Philippines, whenever gold is discovered, local communities are forced to migrate or attempt to adjust to the new industry. In fact, only eleven per cent of the gold mined worldwide has a practical use in technologies like biomedicine or electronics. Meanwhile, seventy per cent is used for jewellery, with the rest going to investment. Some 35,000 tonnes of gold simply sit in bank vaults around the world, while the environment and innumerable communities are destroyed for its excavation.

Canada plays a huge role in this global market, being home to the largest gold-mining corporations in the world. At the very top reigns Barrick Gold, with others like Goldcorp, Gabriel and Pacific Rim close behind. Collectively they mine on every continent except Antarctica, on which mining is forbidden. But not all gold is excavated by large, corporate colonialists, nor is all of it done abroad. One quarter comes from artisanal or small-scale mining, and minimal but continuous extraction takes place at home (mostly in Ontario and Quebec.)

Countries in Central America and Central Africa have low environmental regulations and worker-safety requirements. They are resource-rich, and are therefore a lucrative destination for Canadian businesses. At home, even though most resource extraction takes place on Indigenous lands, we have relatively strict extraction, land-use and environmental laws, meaning most companies strive to mine offshore.

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The Cyborgs Are Coming, The Cyborgs Are Coming
The Sci Phile Column
Printed in The Ontarion Winter 2007

Once only a fictional dream, cyborgs are now common place and are a frequent product of medical care. From the artificial limb to the mechanical heart to the vision lens, mechanical additives have been enhancing, supplementing, and repairing human beings for decades. By definition, a cyborg is an organic being which utilizes inorganic parts for its function. This idea has had its equal in fiction, termed a biomechanoid and usually involves beings that have self-repairing parts. Medicine has been busy incorporating mechanical components into daily human life since the invention of the prosthetic eye, the mechanical arm, or the AbioCor artificial heart. “I’m fortunate to have been born in a time when we have these advances in science” says Eric Cloutier who has had metal supports surgically grafted due to severe breaks in his hand and clavicle. “I can’t imagine not having the plates” he continues “I went through a period with many surgeries and though the shoulder plate still causes me pain, without the plates I think doctors would have had to continue to reset by bones.”

Louise Persy who has been a medical cyborg for 30 years has Herington Rods implanted into her spine due to Scoliosis. “According to the doctor, without them there would be a curve in my back and there would be pressure on my lungs and heart” she says. “The doctor says my lifespan would have otherwise been largely shortened.” Still, not all experiences are entirely positive. “When the weather changes I have a lot of back pain and there’s certain things I still can’t do.” Though, she admits the overall effect is very beneficial and agrees the technology has changed largely since she has had her surgery. “Back in those days I had to take a whole year off work.”

Mostly in search of mechanisms to improve the daily function of individuals with disabilities, biomedical engineers and biocybernetic engineers have contributed largely to a revolutionized branch of medicine. Today, many depend on mechanical supplements to make daily activity possible. Beyond enhancing hearing, vision, and touch, mechanical implants are now capable of determining whether a patient lives or dies as transplant lists of organic organs are often impossibly long or even non-existent. Since the first successful open-heart surgery performed by Dr. John Heysham-Gibbon in 1953, the technology of the long sought-after artificial heart now includes biosensors, plastics, and rechargeable power sources. The AbioCor Implantable Replacement Heart is the first fully internal machine to successfully replace a working biological heart and since the FDA’s approval in 2006 it is now in growing use.

Other biomedical engineering experiments include the artificial kidney, larynx, and even muscle and skin. Developed by Dr. Allen R Nissenson of the University of California, the artificial kidney requires a connection to the bloodstream where it filters and processes the blood through a series of membranes and discards wastes and harmful substances into a bladder external of the body. The clinical utilization of this project though won’t be seen until 2010 according to Dr. Nissenson who believes caution and rigorous testing is essential for a successful device. Some however, are not so patient.

Dr. Kevin Warwick of the department of Cybernetics, University of Reading, England, has taken the cyborg concept to territories previously thought to only be possible in Sci-fi films. Not only studying artificial intelligence and ways in which human intelligence can be enhanced, Dr. Warwick is also the world’s first intelligence cyborg. Eager to test out his brand new invention he has had a Silicon microchip implanted into his forearm in 1998. This chip has allowed for Dr. Warwick to communicate with a distant computer and perform mechanical functions far away. Subsequent experiments have produced a microchip capable of transmitting information directly from a person’s nervous system to a computer or even another person. This technology can allow for humans to adopt abilities their natural forms could not. “This will, I feel, change the way we not only sense but also understand the world around us.” says Dr. Warwick. “It will make things possible that we presently feel is impossible! Humanity can change itself but hopefully it will be an individual choice. Those who want to stay human can and those who want to evolve into something much more powerful with greater capabilities can. There is no way I want to stay a mere human.”

For more information:
“I Cyborg” by Dr. Kevin Warwick, Century Publishing 2002
“Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds : Artificial Intelligence from Automata to Cyborgs” by Stefano Franch, The MIT Press 2005

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Deplete This! The ongoing story of Deplete Uranium
The Sci Phile Column
Printed in The Ontarion Winter 2007

Since the invention of the arrow, humankind has been on a progressive path towards the improvement of weapon effectiveness and impact. Since the first use of the bullet much change has occurred leading to the creation of the Depleted Uranium (DU) shell, a weapon far deadlier than any of its predecessors. Although incredibly precise and effective, DU ammunitions are detrimental as they leave behind chemically toxic and radioactive waste which imprints the surrounding environment with a half life of 4.5 billion years. First devised in the 1970s, DU is the by product of the enrichment process of Natural Uranium into nuclear weapons and energy. It was first introduced to the world in the form of ammunition by the U.S. Army in the Operation Desert Storm of 1991 in Kuwait and Iraq. Because of DU’s incredible weight and density which is 2.54 times greater than Tungsten which was used before, DU is incredibly effective as it can travel further and more accurately. It is also highly destructive as it combusts upon impact and produces Uranium Oxide particles which can then be inhaled and ingested by bystanders. Since this first demonstration of the inconceivable power of DU it has been used in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Afghanistan, and in the recent Operation Iraqi Freedom and new governments such as Russia, Israel, France, and China have adopted its use. This is regardless of alarming scientific data from veterans and animal studies pointing at both its radioactive and chemical toxicities. Added, research is suppressed by governments worldwide making it even harder to learn its true effects. Of the independent biomedical research performed, it has been demonstrated that DU particles can penetrate the lungs, where they also accumulate causing both the formation of cancer and the possibility of mutating the genetic code of nearby cells (Miller et al. 2006). In a 2005 publication by M. Souidi in the Journal of Toxicology, it has been shown that crucial enzymes are altered by exposure to DU. Also in a 2005 publication by V.A. Fitsanakis of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine it was shown that after only 3 months of exposure to contaminated water, DU accumulated in every part of the brain.

Water contaminations such as these studied in the lab were compared to Finland, where DU has mobilized from the 1994 bombing of Bosnia and the 1999 bombing of Kosovo and Montenegro. Unfortunately, because of the Hussein regime in Iraq after the first Gulf War research wasn’t able to be conducted by foreign scientists, and Iraqi scientists did not have funding necessary to conduct such research. Since the fall of the Hussein regime the United States government has forbidden environmental studies from being conducted in Iraq where levels of DU contamination are highest because this may show the true danger of this perfect weapon.

It is so great a weapon not only because it can be fired at the enemy from farther than the enemy can fire back, but because tanks can be coated with it, preventing penetration by enemy fire. The Abrams tank for example is coated with DU and has infact repelled the majority of Iraqi fire during the War. This military advantage is very well summarized by Colonel James Naughton, who has spearheaded the mass usage of DU by the U.S. Navy, Army, and Armed Forces during the 1991 war. In a 2003 press release of the Department of Defense regarding the second war in Iraq he stated: “What we want to be able to do is strike the target from father way than we can be hit back, and we want the target to be destroyed when we shoot at it… Nobody goes to wat and wants to be even with the enemy. We want to be ahead, and DU gives us that advantage. We can hit and they can’t hit us”. This only accentuates the point Ronald Wright had tried to portray in A Short History of Progress: “At the gates of the Colosseum and the Concentration Camp, we have no choice but to abandon hope that civilization is, in itself, a guarantor of moral progress”.

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The Antideppressant Story

The Sci Phile Column
Published in The Ontarion: Fall 2006

It’s official, one out of every ten Canadians is clinically depressed according to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). In a recent report the CMHA showed that levels of depression have been stable over the past decade but Stats Canada shows slightly different trends. Merely10 year ago, the level of depression in Canada ranged from 4.3% to 5.4%, yet both reports agree that “the prevalence of depression is not uniform across the age groups, it peaks in those aged 15-24” and “work is a major contributor to serious stress leading to depression”. Most of us, university students, do not have stressful jobs, but who can deny that the average semester brings more than once that feeling of misery and sadness, exhaustion, hopelessness, anxiety, difficulty to think clearly, and the general decline in the enjoyment and interest in life.

Yes, feeling these things at one time or another is not indicative of clinical depression but a whopping three quarters of Canadians feel symptoms of depression at least once a month. Now that can’t be good. Another important point is that although women are twice as susceptible to depression as men, according to a study conducted by the Canadian Forces “the prevalence and incidence of mood disorders appear to be increasing among young male subjects”. Maybe it’s increasing, or maybe we’re just finding better ways to express depression in a sex that is less inclined to express it. Even Stats Canada agrees that gender differences in depression “may be caused by the [historical] lack in social support for men over women”. Either way, the majority of persons diagnosed with clinical depression are administered antidepressant drugs. Many more are administered drugs for other mental and mood disorders, and yet even more indulge in self-medication to escape or suppress their pain. It is thus important to understand what drugs are involved in the treatment of depression and how they affect the brain.

There are many different types of antidepressants, but they usually work in a similar way; they inhibit the reuptake of neurotransmitters (chemicals in the brain that transmit messages). What this basically means is that they prolong the action of brain chemicals without which the brain leans towards depression. The simple version of this process goes something like this: Brain cell 1 releases a chemical that binds to a receptor on brain cell 2. This binding sends a message or causes changes which control brain function. After the binding, the chemical is lets go of the receptor and is reuptaken back into brain cell 1. Now, if the chemical didn’t get reuptaken it would continually act on brain cell 2 by, for example, causing the sensation of happiness. That is exactly what antidepressants do. “Most antidepressant drugs are drugs that inhibit the reuptake of serotonin and epinephrine. And serotonin seems to be the neurotransmitter that’s more involved in depression” Says Dr. L. Peterson of the Department of Psychology here at the University of Guelph.

According to Peterson, it is also important to understand that “in terms of the way they function, [antidepressants] are not a cure they are just a treatment of the symptoms of depression. If the depression is still there and the patient stops taking the drugs they will start experiencing the symptoms again”. Most antidepressants are administered for a period of about 6 months, but according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists of England “without any treatment, most depressions will get better after about eight months. It is generally accepted that most depressions resolve themselves naturally, but within three months of treatment with antidepressants, 50-65% of people experience a significant improvement. Also, 25-30% of individuals with certain disorders which are given a placebo (fake pill) experience a significant improvement. “Anything that affects a neurotransmitter’s system is going to affect another’s, it’s just the way the brain works” says Peterson, and this helps to explain side effects. Most antidepressants are synthetic and cause such side effects as dry mouth, nausea, nervousness, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, headaches, and memory. Even natural antidepressants such as St. Johns Wort which can be purchased over the counter share these side effects.

So as always, it all goes back to prevention. Whether natural or synthetic drugs are administered, it is important to remember that in our day and age workplace stress increases with every generation. The population grows, and the so called rat-race gets increasingly more cut-throat. Because the majority of depressions treated today are not clinical, that is caused by malfunctions within that system of release and reuptake, it is important to prevent symptoms. Relaxation is crucial for a healthy mind and taking time to appreciate yourself and your environment is the best way to deal with reducing depression or its symptoms. For some, treatment is essential, for others it is not, but either way, support from family and friends in absolutely vital on the road to happiness.

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Déjà vu- Beyoncé Ain’t Ready For This Jelly
The Sci Phile Column
Published in The Ontarion: Fall 2006

Almost each of you reading this article has or will experience a déjà vu at some point in your life. You will feel a strong sense of familiarity with a situation that in fact is not familiar to you at all. Example- you’ll walk into a room knowing logically you’ve never been in and yet a light bulb will turn on somewhere in the back of your head. The few seconds it will take your brain to realize your sense of familiarity is impossible will then turn that light bulb right off. Scientists in the field of psychology and memory have established that no matter how familiar it may seem nor how vivid the image, this isn’t a memory at all. Some scientists in the same field have even concluded that what you’ve just experienced was a minor epileptic seizure (yikes!).

Though psychologists and psychiatrists, psychics and neurologists can’t agree on what it is let alone what it means to have a déjà vu, some studies show 70 to 90 percent of the population experience it. It is then clear that déjà vu plays an interesting part in the human psyche and the science of the brain.

For centuries déjà vu has been considered a faint memory and even as proof of the paranormal. From collective consciousness to psychic predictions of the future, from hypnosis to communication from the afterlife, the déjà vu experience has raised many a brow. In the very young history of neuropsychology though, a few explanations have become accepted and these are unfortunately unlike their supernatural counterparts in that they are explainable scientifically. One theory

proposes a lapse in time has occurred between the time you’ve perceived the situation, and the time your brain has processed it, therefore creating a desynchronized moment of ‘almost recognition’. Another theory says it is an electric disruption in the brain, while yet another says it’s caused by you not paying attention to what you perceive. This variety of scientific explanations is not a surprise as Dr. Dan Meegan of the Department of Psychology here at the University of Guelph states, “it’s not unusual for science to have ideas that are mutually exclusive, even contradictory. Déjà vu is such an illusive experience that happens so rarely that it is really hard to study for scientists.”

Even though some have tried stimulating the déjà vu experience in a laboratory setting, it is nearly impossible to recreate the factors involved in the creation of a déjà vu. Stimulating the right parts of the brain though, is quite possible and is also quite easily done in individuals which often experience déjà vu- patients of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Studies such as these have shown that structures in the brain such as the Amygdala, typically responsible for evaluating the immediate environment, and the Hypothalamus, responsible for everything from stress response to emotions body temperature and motivation, are involved in the process. But these studies didn’t quite answer why the déjà vu happens in the first place, and why the déjà vu is so different from a memory, brain-wise.

“The déjà vu experience is often just misattribution” says Meegan, “because that is something we do often”. Misattribution is caused by a weak recollection triggered by a familiar effect (like a smell) that reminds us of something else. Also, it is important to distinguish and clearly state, déjà vu is not a memory, not even what is called a ‘false memory’, “such as the tip-of-the-tongue effect, because memories are often stored depending on the subject’s emotional response to the situation” according to Dr. H. Marmurek, also at the Department of Psychology. But the emotional state one is in during a déjà vu seems to not play a significant role. The uniqueness of the déjà vu is the exact fact that your feeling of familiarity is a response to something that you absolutely could not be familiar with.

Well, the study of déjà vu is infinitely more complex simply because it’s hard to choose a direction of study. It can be studied in relation to mental or memory-related disorders such as epilepsy or Alzheimer’s, especially because patients of these diseases experience déjà vu-like sensations much more often. Also, it can be studied in association with memory which most psychologists agree is becoming very important in our aging society. But, for the majority of people with what is called “psychological normality” who also experience déjà vu, it would be interesting to know whether the psychics and parapsychologists were right all along, or whether it really is a matter of scientific exploration.

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Invasion of the Superbugs
The Sci Phile Column
Published in The Ontarion Winter 2007

Ever watch a Lysol commercial and wonder how come all these cleaners kill 99.9% of bacteria, but not quite the full 100%? The amazing thing about life on this planet is that the forces of nature have always fostered a harsh environment in which only the fittest survive to reproduce. Well, in the case of those microscopic beings, a constant introduction to synthetic agents forces the surviving of the remaining 0.01% and allows them to reproduce. The significance of this is that this tiny percent of the population that has survived did so because it was able to overcome the chemical ‘attack’. More importantly, is now able to pass on the genes necessary for survival to the offspring and the mass development of resistance. Coupled with mutations, the surviving strands are then targeted by new antibiotics in newer products which breed more and stronger survivors, which then necessitate more diverse and stronger antibiotics.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million patients in American hospitals each year are infected during their hospital stays. Of these 90,000 die; in 70 percent of the cases, the bacteria that kill them are resistant to at least one commonly used antibiotic” say Mark Plotkin and Ramanan Laxminarayan of The Washington Post. Cases of mass infections such as the ones hitting hospitals have been popping up all over our overly-sanitized country and around the world. A March 2003 infection of Staphylococcus aureus (Staph bacteria) resistant to Methicillin has caused infections in thousands of individuals across North America. Symptoms of Staph include wound infections, boils, and food poisoning. Methicillin, which the bacterium is resistant to, is a synthetic form of Penicillin and its ineffectiveness leads to patients requiring more complicated forms of treatment which often feeds back to the cycle of antibiotic failure.

Resistance of bacteria and viruses to pharmaceutical drugs are often facilitated by mutations. Through the course of a species’ evolution every (roughly) 100,000 generations a mutation occurs within the genetic code and this can lead to the species’ acquiring new characteristics. Mutation can even lead to the development of a split in the evolutionary tree and the production of new species. For our species, 100,000 generations take so long a time that we aren’t aware of changes caused by them, but for microbes, some of which reproduce as rapidly as every 20 minutes, a mutation is much more prevalent.

Infections like the one of Staph bacteria have been showing up especially in circumstances where large groups of individuals are confined such as in penitentiaries, in military camps, and in hospitals. The Influenza (Flu) virus is a prime example of developed resistance to antiviral drugs and vaccinations such as Amantadine. The New England Journal of Medicine has published a detailed account of such a resistance caused by the increased intake of antiviral drugs for Flu like symptoms in China, shortly after the SARS epidemic. The epidemic scare is a prime example of how microorganisms receive a boost to evolution because of an overuse of antiseptics and over-the-counter drugs. . “Hospitals are failing to control antibiotic-resistant "Superbug" infections that kill as many as 8,000 patients each year and cost health-care systems at least $100 million annually” reports an account by CBC in March 2005.

The school or work environment, in which most of us are everyday, is an excellent space for the “Superbug” to spread. These environments make it increasingly more difficult to contain and treat, let alone prevent the diseases microorganisms cause.

Overprescription of antibiotics has also largely increased in the past 60 years since the discovery of Penicillin by Sit Alexander Fleming in England. Doctors, swamped with overcrowded clinics and the increased shortage of health care workers often prescribe antibiotics for viral infections, which cannot be cured by them. This is common simply because symptoms of viral versus bacterial infections are often similar, and it’s much easier to treat with antibacterial methods before trying the antiviral ones. In effect, these practices along with the myriad of antibacterial products commonly used in our everyday life lead to the speedup in evolution which is causing thousands of deaths annually because of the to the development of more “Superbugs”.

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