Alterra Sanchez
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Microplastics in the crosshairs

3/12/2019

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The five-day United Nations Environmental Assembly meeting began yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of the assembly is "Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production (1)," with the goal being to have individual countries "significantly" reduce plastics production, including a phasing out of single-use plastic by 2030 (2,3). The night before the summit, an estimate of $20 trillion was declared as the cost of ecosystem loss due to pollution (4). What also happened the night before the meeting was the crash of flight ET302 in Ethiopia, killing 21 UN workers, many heading to the environmental assembly. While trying to find if any microplastics scientists I know died in the crash, I learned that media outlets are not giving out this information clearly. CNN (5) barely mentions the environmental meeting, and the article even goes further to say they don't know why the 21 UN workers were on the plane...

Without taking too much of a turn towards the conspiracies and tin hats, let's still recognize that people who work for the greater good can become targets. So, I'll end with a fun fact: in 2016 alone the sales of bottled water (a single-use item) made $16 billion dollars in the U.S. (6).  


1)http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/un-environment-assembly-and-governing-council
​2)https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Plastic-crosshairs-UN-environment-forum/688340-5019926swbbi6z/index.html
3) https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/plastic-crosshairs-un-environment-forum-doc-1eh38t3
4)https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/scitech/science/687615/plastic-use-in-crosshairs-at-un-environment-forum/story/
5) https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/10/africa/ethiopian-airlines-crash-victims/index.html
6) https://www.bottledwater.org/economics/bottled-water-market
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Are you an undergraduate or graduate student who would like to share your work concerning environmental conservation /challenges /innovations /technology?

3/7/2019

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If you are in the Chesapeake Potomac Region of the US, CPRC SETAC, the local chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Chesapeake/Potomac region) would like to share your research! Additionally, the CPRC SETAC spring newsletter is coming soon, and will feature highlights of student research in the region.
​
If you are interested, please send 1-3 research related photos, your name, and a brief blurb about yourself and your project (</100 words) to socialmedia.cprc.setac@gmail.com. With your permission, your research will be shared on the CPRC twitter, instagram, and facebook. 

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Microplastic Conceptual Global Framework

9/9/2018

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Schematic representation of sources, sinks, and pathways of microplastic transport in the environment: from manufacture to the ocean. Rectangle shapes represent major sources, oval shapes represent major sinks, if underlined it represents a major transport pathway, and black arrows show the fluxes between the different compartments. “*” signifies degradation of microplastics via fragmentation. “^” and “#” signifies adsorption and desorption of organic pollutants from microplastics, respectively. “?” represents an area where there is a significant knowledge gap. “?” are put after what is unknown, i.e., if sorption data is missing, the “?” will follow the “^” or “#”.
Modified from
Figure 1 of: Zhang, Hua. “Transport of Microplastics in Coastal Seas.” Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, vol. 199, 2017, pp. 74–86., doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2017.09.032.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771417307254
Figure 2 of: Horton, Alice A., et al. “Microplastics in Freshwater and Terrestrial Environments: Evaluating the Current Understanding to Identify the Knowledge Gaps and Future Research Priorities.” Science of The Total Environment, vol. 586, 2017, pp. 127–141., doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.01.190.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717302073

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The Opioid Crisis and Quest for Superior Analgesics without Addiction : ACS FREE webinar

6/20/2018

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"Opioid-related drug overdoses are leading to approximately 150 deaths every day in the United States alone. Furthermore, present day statistics show that almost a third of the American population suffer from chronic pain and opioids continue to be our best choice for pain-relief. Join Ajay Yekkirala of Blue Therapeutics, who has over 10 years of research experience in opioid medicinal chemistry and the neurobiology of pain, to discover how medicinal chemists are developing potent analgesics that are devoid of narcotic side effects to stop the cycle of pain-opioid abuse."
Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 2-3 pm ET 
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/acs-webinars/popular-chemistry/crisis.html?sc=180510_webinar_popchem_em_eb_opioid
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Mental Illness Awareness

10/6/2017

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In light of the Vegas shooting, and the fact that coincidentally it is Mental Illness Awareness Week, I wanted to share this great Ted Talk about destigmatizing mental Illness. 
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Talk at Baltimore Underground Science Space tomorrow!

9/21/2017

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Come see me talk about microplastics tomorrow night @BUGSSLab! https://tinyurl.com/ybs8wjve ​

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The Wedding Party PoLaRoiDs

7/30/2017

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We thought it would be fun to leave a couple of disposable cameras lying around. My sister-in-law, who is a photographer, took most of the pictures. Thanks, Dana!
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The Wedding PARTY! July 30, 2017 San Diego, CA

7/30/2017

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Amazing history of the world; turns out everybody is a jerk

7/21/2017

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Our little wedding in Ellicott City, MD on May 31, 2017

5/31/2017

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    About this Blog

    This is a place for the dumping of my thoughts, an electric pensieve if you will. If there is something you would like me to discuss or post in my next blog, comment and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Hope you enjoy the drippings of my mind.
    -Alterra
    P.S. If you got what I meant by pensieve, rock on. 

    This blog is a collection of my own opinions and thoughts and do not represent in any way Sonoma Lab Works. 

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