Peak Oil Blues Blog

The Peak Oil Blues Blog: "Exploring Emotional Reactions to Peak Oil, Climate Change, and Economic Collapse"

A one stop shop for your American Panic Attack.

Raw Deal

So I'm reading Bill Marler on the Nestle cookie dough e. coli outbreak. While I agree with his stance on blaming the victim (apparently, Nestle is faulting the parents who let their children eat the raw dough--nice, right?), I'm also wondering who are these freaking people who eat raw dough or let their kids eat raw dough? At my house, my child has to don a Biohazard suit whenever she's near anything raw. Meat, when I allow it to cross my threshold, is cooked to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

What really got me, however, was this post on his blog. His point in listing the numerous food terrorist incidents is to point out how inadequate and inept our current food safety systems are no matter the cause. It's so incredibly infuriating, particularly when you read about the severity of the illness, and most particularly in children.

BUT, what really got me was the food terrorism list in that post. I mean, I'm aware of Alexander Litvinenko and his polonium-laced food. FINE. That kind of thing happens when you're a KGB agent. It's an occupational hazard. But wait...what's this about cyanide-laced grapes from Chile, or a Michigan supermarket employee tainting hundreds of pounds of ground beef with an insecticide. Say what?? Why didn't I hear about that?

When he gets to the botulism modeling at Stanford, I could barely keep reading, because I was totally freaking out. It's things like this that edge me closer than ever to Julianne Moore-at-the-end-of-the-movie-Safe-porcelain-igloo territory.

But really, there's nothing funny about it. And tonight I'm having spaghetti for dinner--again.

Coyotez in the 'Hood

While the nation is focused on the active shooter scenario and the weird DHS booklet that identifies what an active shooter is ("...an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area," just FYI), I'm more worried about the 2009 coyote uprising.

Canis latrans is mad as hell and he's not going to take it. This blog is keeping tabs on this phenomenon and other animal uprisings. In Denver it's been building to a fever pitch all spring. Here's my favorite quote:

"These are coyotes that were born and raised in the 'hood," said Liza Hunholz, an area manager with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Soundtrack by Eazy-E.

X-Ray Specs

Because I have a (relatively mild) form of autoimmune arthritis, I've had a lot of x-rays in my life. I'm very familiar with my skeleton, and sometimes read diagnostic radiology journals online for fun.

This past fall, I took an introductory course in Principles of Epidemiology. We were discussing study design, and the issue of exclusion criteria. In one of our examples, subjects with spondylitis (my particular form of arthritis) were excluded from a study about bladder cancer. My professor asked why people with this condition might be excluded from the study. Of course, my hand shot up immediately because I knew the answer: multiple x-rays. That is, people with spondylitis have an abnormal amount of x-rays in their pelvic and hip region and are at a higher risk for bladder cancer. They don't represent subjects with 'normal' exposure.

After this class it suddenly occurred to me that I was in this higher risk category. I had never really thought about my condition in this way before. To date, while it's been irritating and has had an impact on my life to an extent, it never really made me feel anxious about my overall health prospects because my case is comparatively mild and while there's no cure, it's probably not going to kill me. I'm much more afraid of swine flu, or cancer, or Hanta virus, or water scarcity causing global unrest.

But suddenly I've been much more cognizant of the number of x-rays that I am prescribed. Rheumatologists love to send me to the radiology lab--dentists love to give me the bitewing x-rays--and of course there are mammograms (and while the researchers are arguing about whether women should start at age 40 or 50 for annual screening mammograms, most obgyns follow the recommendations that send patients at age 40).

So I've spent the last week or so reading up on radiation and risk, and found that there are some interesting tools that one can use to calculate your annual radiation dose.

Here is the EPA's calculator:

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/understand/calculate.html

Here is one from the American Nuclear Society:

http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/

And yet another one by the Neighborhood Environmental Watch Network:

http://newnet.lanl.gov/info/dosecalc.asp

Some of the questions they ask to calculate exposure are pretty interesting. I'm not sure, for example, if I live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant or a coal-fired power plant. I never really thought about how living in the Colorado Plateau gives you 63 mrems a year (as opposed to 16 mrems on the Atlantic coast). Having a gas camping lantern gives you 0.2 mrems annually and sharing a bed with someone gives you 1 mrem.

Here's what the American Nuclear Society says about dose:

The average dose per person from all sources is about 360 mrems per year. It is not, however, uncommon for any of us to receive far more than that in a given year (largely due to medical procedures we may undergo). International Standards allow exposure to as much as 5,000 mrems a year for those who work with and around radioactive material.

Because of my x-rays, my dose is twice as much as the norm. But I'm comforted by the fact that it's 4,373.93 rmems less than the allowable annual maximum permissible dose under the (somewhat frighteningly generous) International Standards.

CDC on Twitter

I must have died and gone to alarmists' heaven. You can now receive emergency alerts from the CDC on Twitter.

Climate Change Apocalypse: 'Extremely Frightening and Turbulent'

I never really thought of global warming as a public health issue...until now. Expect many more updates about my new favorite fear.

Thanks to Lydia M. for the warning:

CLIMATE: Warming may be world's biggest health threat -- study (Thursday, May 14, 2009)

Global warming has surpassed infectious disease, poverty and water shortages as the largest threat to public health, according to a new study from climatologists and medical professionals.

While poorer countries will be the first to feel the effects of a changing climate -- such as exacerbated food and water shortages and humanitarian crises of environmental refugees -- the problem will later cause real and lasting damage in wealthier Western nations, said Anthony Costello, a pediatrician at University College London, which conducted the report published today in The Lancet journal.

"Climate change is a health issue affecting billions of people, not just an environmental issue about polar bears and deforestation," Costello said. "We are setting up a world for our children and grandchildren that may be extremely frightening and turbulent."

The researchers said disruptions in climate could cause food, water and energy shortages and population shifts, resulting in wars over increasingly scarce resources (Cortez/Morales, Bloomberg, May 14). -- PR

Not a Fan of Watersports: N. fowleri

Sometimes people are like, Kim, why'd you start this blog? And I'm like, because where else can I describe my fear of Naegleria fowleri and how it keeps me out of lakes?

With summer coming up, I thought it was time for a PSA about my least favorite protist. Note that it has all of the features that I love to hate the most--it's rapidly fatal. Cases typically cause death within a week. And most horrible to my ears are these two words: delayed diagnosis.

Luckily, there's a way to avoid this brain-eating amoeba: stay out of fresh water lakes, especially when the weather is hot! And if you do have to wade into such a body of water, don't let it get up your nose, because that's how it gets you!

It's rare, for sure, but I'm not taking any chances:

'Naegleria fowleri, a free-living ameba, is the causal agent of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which is an acute, fulminant, and rapidly fatal CNS infection. PAM develops within several days of exposure to the contaminated water source and typically causes death within 1–2 weeks after admittance to the hospital. Few individuals survive the infection, partly because of its rapid onset and partly because of delayed diagnosis.'