1. ADEQ Lifts Fish Consumption Advisory for Gila River and Tributaries. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) announced on September 30 that it has lifted the consumption advisory for fish caught in the Gila River and its tributaries within and downstream of the Phoenix metropolitan area – this includes 100 miles of streams and 286 acres of lakes. Fish caught from these waters are no longer unsafe to eat due to banned pesticides (DDT, chlordane or toxaphene).
“This is the first time ADEQ has lifted a fish consumption advisory,” said ADEQ Water Quality Division Director Trevor Baggiore. “Fish tested by ADEQ and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that banned pesticides no longer pose a health risk in the Gila River and its tributaries.”
Lifting this advisory, which has been in place for 24 years, is credited to the cessation of the use of the pesticides in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Detailed information about the delisting of the Gila River and its tributaries can be found at: https://www.azdeq.gov/environ/water/assessment/download/delisting_hassayampa.pdf
ADEQ and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tested 67 fish tissue samples from eight different fish species in the Gila River and several of its tributaries west of Phoenix during 2011 and 2012. Fish tissue data demonstrated banned pesticide levels (DDT, toxaphene and chlordane) dropped from more than 160 times higher than threshold levels designed to protect human health in the 1990’s, to 16 times lower than these thresholds in 2011 and 2012.
ADEQ has lifted the fish consumption advisory for the following waterbodies:
2. Open and Free Information On Valley Water. 2. Open and Free Information On Valley Water.
3. How to Properly Develop an Emergency Preparedness Plan. It’s tough to predict when a natural or human-made disaster will affect small businesses, but one thing is certain: it’s possible to develop an emergency plan that will protect workers in dangerous situations.
It was in the wake of 9/11 that emergency supply and demand grew into its own industry.
As it stands, 62% of small businesses don’t have emergency plans in place. It goes without saying that this number is shockingly high. Developing one isn’t too hard or time consuming, according to Risk. By evaluating your office/facility with an open mind, it can be a straightforward process to determine the best ways to evacuate and protect workers.
The plan must include all workers, even those that might be working at home. A list of supplies should be developed, as well as quantities. One of Risk’s best tips was to consider crank-powered flashlights, as batteries tend to die over the years.
Train employees to use CPR, and establish who is in charge. Be mindful oft those who call the phenomenon “John Wayne,” Risk, acknowledged the likelihood that multiple employees would want to try and be heroic, even when the situation does not call for it.
Collaborating with other businesses and first responders is also worth considering, as it will help lay the foundation for bigger emergencies and evacuation logistics.
1. Continued from Page 1 Map of the area when ban has been lifted.
4. Copper’s Health Benefi ts Aid Hospitals Against Infections. Replacing commonly touched hospital surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches and bed rails with products made of copper can reduce hospitalacquired infections by more than half, according to a 2013 clinical trial at three U.S. hospitals funded by the Department of Defense.
Hospital-acquired infections are a big problem in health-care facilities, especially for immune-defi cient cancer patients. One of every 25 hospital patients acquires such an infection, which kills nearly 100,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the cost to the health-care system is $33 billion annually, according to the CDC.
Still, just 50 health-care facilities across the entire North American continent have bought copper products from the leading manufacturer, including the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Goodyear. One major reason is the cost for the metal is much higher than standard materials.
“Think about all of the surfaces you touch on any given day,” said Tony Kulik, director of product manufacturer CuVerro. “Anywhere that you are touching a surface, there is an opportunity for bacteria to collect, and that bacteria can cause infections.”
Copper naturally kills bacteria because of its conductive properties. When bacteria lands on copper, an When bacteria lands on copper, an electric current punches holes in the outer membrane of the bacteria’s cell, which weakens its reproductive abilities and eventually kills the bacteria.
Pure copper is soft and malleable, which is why it can be molded into flexible electric wires. To give copper exible electric wires. To give copper more durability, the metal is mixed with other elements to create copper alloys. The most common are brass more durability, the metal is mixed with other elements to create copper alloys. The most common are brass and bronze.
In 2008, after years of research, the Environmental Protection Agency allowed manufacturers to say certain In 2008, after years of research, the Environmental Protection Agency allowed manufacturers to say certain copper alloys can kill 99.9 percent of bacteria within two hours.
These alloys have to contain least 60 percent pure copper to be designated as antimicrobial and cannot be coated with any wax, gloss or paint.
Use in Arizona
The Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Goodyear installed antimicrobial light switches, outlet covers, drawer handles and towel racks and grab bars in the bathrooms of 14 patient rooms in its new third-floor unit that opened in April 2014.
“Since we are a cancer hospital, our patients are high risk, so I thought this would be a great tool for us totoprovide our patients,” said Alan Swain, assistant vice president of general services at the cancer-treatment center.
“(The antimicrobial copper) is just one aspect of the many different measures we use here to try and protect our patients from getting an infection.”
The new installations are supplements for infection control, not substitutes, so the cancer center can’t calculate the effect of the copper on infection rates. The facility continues its normal sanitation practices of hand-washing and surface cleaning, said Megan Crosser, the infection-prevention and -control practitioner at the cancer-treatment center. Source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/southwest-valley/2015/09/16/copperstop-hospital-acquired-infection-cancer-treatment-centers-america/32501819/
5. Some Ants Make for Lazy Roommates. There’s something really strange and almost alien-like about them,” says Daniel Charbonneau, a graduate student studying entomology and insect science at the Univ. of Arizona, in an interview with R&D Magazine. “And, yet, they’re everywhere. They compose a vast majority of animal diversity and, pound for pound, vastly outweigh mammals on Earth.” However different in appearance, social insects, such as ants, echo the complex societies of humans. Or perhaps, humans echo them. In some respects, insects appear to surpass humans, in terms of working towards a common goal. “But then, you start digging into insect societies and see that they have their fair share of problems: Half of the workers are just standing around while a few workers are doing all the work,” says Charbonneau.
In a recent study published in Bioeconomics, Charbonneau found approximately half of the 250 Temnothorax rugatulu ants studied in the laboratory were in a consistent state of inactivity. Yes, laziness isn’t purely a human phenomenon.
Charbonneau collected five colonies from the field, each consisting of 50 workers, and established artificial colonies in the laboratory. Inactive workers were immobile, and didn’t engage in any tasks. “I think the most commonly assumed explanation is that they’re reserve workers that are meant to replace workers that are killed, or begin working when colony workload increases,” says Charbonneau. However, all “studies that have attempted to activate inactive workers, either by removing workers or increasing workload, have failed to do so.”
Why are some ant inactive?
“It is also possible that inactive workers are selfishly avoiding dangerous tasks, such as foraging, and avoiding expending energy on work, while using colony resources to invest in their own reproduction,” adds Charbonneau. While workers are generally sterile, some develop ovaries and successfully lay eggs. An unpublished study, specifically using Temnothorax rugatulu ants, from a student Charbonneau mentored shows inactive ants are more likely to have oocytes, immature egg cells, than active workers.
Another theory suggests inactive ants may act as live food pantries. “Social insects have the capacity to store food in their crops (or social stomachs) and then share it with other workers or brood via trophallaxis (essentially regurgitating the food and sharing it mouth to mouth),” says Charbonneau. “When they have more food in their crops (which is located in their abdomens), they have larger, more distended abdomens. It seems that inactive workers tend to be more ‘corpulent’ than other workers.”
In the field, colonies can boast between 10 and 1,500 workers, according to Charbonneau. But most range between 100 and 300 workers. Usually, a division of labor occurs, but the degree of specialization is contingent on the species being discussed. “Species that have morphological castes (soldiers) or size polymorphism (minor, majors) have subsets of workers with morphological traits specific to a certain task,” such as large piercing mouthparts for prey, or armored plates on the head to block the colony’s entrance from invaders, says Charbonneau. “However, most social insects are monomorphic (all workers more or less look the same) and their specialization is more linked to behavior.”
6. 8 Hour OSHA Refresher Class. On October 12, an OSHA Refresher class will be offered in Glendale. To sign up for the class, respond to this e-mail or call 623-203-7178. Cost of the class is $75.00. Registtration is mandatory.
7. Environmental Roadshow This Next Week.
