1. Clear Dust And Mold with Bad Axe Particulate Conqueror!
Bad Axe Particulate Conqueror is designed to control dust and mold in remediation, demo, water/fire- restoration cleanup and construction projects. It is a water-soluble resin that can be fogged in the air or applied directly to surfaces, and a cost-effective process to improve success rates of air and surface sampling.
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This material is available at $20.00 per pint, and $65.00 per gallon. For more information, go online to badaxwproducts.com
2. Scientists Predict El Nino In 2020 Based On Earlier Warning Method. The complex El Nino weather pattern that can bring disastrous heavy rainfall and long droughts to countries around the Pacific – from Peru to Indonesia and Australia – will probably emerge again in 2020, researchers have predicted.
An international team of scientists forecast an 80% chance next year of an El Nino, which occurs when sea-surface temperatures rise substantially above normal in the east-central Equatorial Pacific.
This week they said their model – which uses an algorithm that draws on analysis of links between changing air temperatures at a network of grid points across the Pacific region – could predict an El Nino at least a year ahead.
“Conventional methods are unable to make a reliable ‘El Nino’ forecast more than six months in advance. With our method, we have roughly doubled the previous warning time,” said co-developer Armin Bunde, a physicist at Germany’s Justus Liebig University Giessen.
The term El Nino, meaning “boy child” in Spanish, was first used in the 19th century by fishermen in Peru and Ecuador to refer to the unusually warm waters that reduced their catch just before Christmas, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The phenomenon occurs every two to seven years and typically lasts for 9 to 12 months, often beginning mid-year and peaking between November and January. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said insights from the new method – which has been tested over the past few years – would be made available to people affected by El Nino.
PIK researcher Josef Ludescher said he would soon discuss the findings with the weather service in Peru.
El Nino often brings torrential rains in the north of the mountainous Latin American nation, with a high risk of mudslides, he said.
In the Indian subcontinent, it may change monsoon patterns, while California can experience more precipitation.
The new prediction method could give more time for authorities to prepare for such impacts, Ludescher added.
The team is now adapting the algorithm to be able to predict the timing and strength of El Nino. In the future, a similar method could be used to improve forecasts of Asia’s monsoon, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The discovery of the new method was first published in 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal – and the scientists have since been checking its accuracy.
They said this week it correctly predicted the onset of the large El Nino that started in 2014 and ended in 2016 and the most recent event in 2018, as well as absences in other years.
The next expected El Nino, due to peak in late 2020, could push global average annual temperature rise to a new record in 2021, the researchers said.
Air temperature rise lags Pacific warming by about three months, they noted.
According to the WMO, 2016 became the warmest year on record because of the powerful El Nino in 2015-2016, combined with long-term climate change. Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
3. REMINDER: Air Quality Division Stakeholder Meeting Affordable Clean Energy Rule ADEQ invites you to attend a stakeholder meeting regarding Arizona’s Clean Air Act § 111(d) state plan for the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule. We will be asking stakeholders for their input on values and guiding principles for the development of the state plan to implement the ACE Rule.
For Agenda , go to: static.azdeq.gov/pn/110819_caa_agenda.pdf
When: Friday, Nov. 8, 2019, 11 a.m. – Noon
Where: ADEQ, Room 3175, 1110 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ 85007 Follow along with the presentation online or by phone via WebEx:
Join WebEx Meeting >
Meeting number (access code): 805 649 682 Meeting password: nfyemxvJ OR Join by phone
Call-in: +1 415-655-0003
Access Code: 805 649 682#
RSVP in attending in person 4. Many Fast Food Wrappers Still Coated In PFCS, Kin to Carcinogenic Teflon Chemical. More than a decade since the health hazards of perfluroinated chemicals, or PFCs, became known, many fast food chains still use food wrappers, bags and boxes coated with the grease-resistant compounds, according to nationwide tests reported in a new peer-reviewed study.[*]Some of the test samples detected traces of a notorious PFC, formerly used to make DuPont’s Teflon, that was taken off the market after it was linked to cancer, and reproductive and developmental harm. Scientists from nonprofit research organizations including EWG, federal and state regulatory agencies and academic institutions[†] collaborated to test samples of sandwich and pastry wrappers, french fry bags, pizza boxes, and other paper and paperboard from 27 fast food chains and several local restaurants in five regions of the U.S. They found that of the 327 samples used to serve food, collected in 2014 and 2015, 40 percent tested positive for fluorine.
PFOA is a type of PFC the Food and Drug Administration has banned from food contact papers, while continuing to allow the use of newer chemicals with a slightly different chemical structure. Manufacturers claim the next-generation chemicals are less hazardous because they are built on a chain of six or fewer carbon atoms rather than eight, so they pass from the human body faster. But manufacturers lack evidence that they are really much, if at all, safer.
HEALTH EFFECTS OF PCSs
Exposure to PFC’s Has Been Linked To:
KIDNEY AND TESTICULAR CANCER
HIGH CHOLESTEROL
ABNORMAL THYROID HORMONE LEVELS
PREGNANCY-INDUCED HYPERTENSION AND PRE-ECLAMPSIA
OBESITY
The table shows the test results for food contact paper and paperboard from 27 fast food chains. Paper or paperboard from all chains for which six or more samples were collected tested positive for evidence of PFCs. The peer-reviewed paper also reports results for some restaurants that were not part of chains and for some paper items, such as cups, other than those used to serve food.
PFCs are a family of nonstick, waterproof, stain-resistant chemicals that DuPont and other companies have used since the 1950s in hundreds of consumer products and industrial applications. Other than Teflon, the best-known PFC-based product is 3M’s Scotchgard. PFCs are extraordinarily persistent in the environment and have built up in the bodies of people and wildlife worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found PFCs in the blood of virtually all Americans,[3] and in 2005, tests commissioned by EWG were the first to show they are passed from mother to child through the umbilical cord and breast milk. Source: Environmental Working Group
5. Arizona Weather Watchers Are Hoping Winter Can Take Some Of The Edge Off The Increasing Drought After A Disappointing Monsoon. So what can we expect to see in our rainy season?
The Climate Prediction Center’s winter outlook calls for a good chance of warmer than normal temperatures but the outlook for rain isn’t quite so clear. The most recent forecast calls for an equal chance of above normal, below normal or average precipitation this winter.
A wet winter would be especially welcome because the most recent maps from the U.S. Drought Monitor show increasing levels of short-term drought through much of Arizona.
After a relatively wet 2018-19 winter that carried over into spring, the state was (shortterm) drought free. That began to change when the summer heat was not accompanied by monsoon rain.
How bad is the short-term drought?
According to the Drought Monitor map released Oct. 24, almost 40% of Arizona is experiencing severe drought, mostly in the northern half of the state. The map shows 78% of Arizona in moderate drought (the more severe conditions overlap the more modest ones) and 92% of the state is abnormally dry.
As recently as Aug. 6, Drought Monitor maps showed no drought in the state and only the northeast corner being abnormally dry.
October 22, 2019
Drought Monitor maps reflect short-term, or surface, drought conditions. Think dry soil and withered vegetation, not the amount of water being held in reservoirs.
