A Fascinating Post on Asbestos

Today is kind of a dismal day.  There was snow on the grass this morning but its all melted now.  The sky is gray.  Its cold out and the minor flurries are just making everything wet.  The reason I am telling you this is because the dismalness (sorry - not a real word) is making it hard for my brain to think of an excellent and entertaining topic for a post. So unluckily for you, I am going to write about something that will most likely be quite dull.

The topic of this week's post is asbestos (it took me a while to figure out how to spell that.  Sorry if it still isn't right)!

I got the idea for this post because we are getting our kitchen done and our tiles tested positive for asbestos so now we have to find someone to remove them properly.

So for those who don't know what asbestos is in simple terms it is pretty much this stuff they used to put in tiles to prevent them from catching fire.  According to the EPA, asbestos is "a mineral fiber that occurs in rock and soil.  Because of its fiber strength and heat resistance asbestos has been used in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire retardant..." and then it goes on to say more stuff.  If you really care about what the EPA says about asbestos, click here.

Unfortunately,  you can't tell if something has asbestos or not just by looking, it has to be tested.

Asbestos is really bad for you, but if it is in your tiles or anything it will only hurt you if it is disturbed, like if the tiles are ripped up or cracked.  If you breath in asbestos, you can get lung disease.  If you want to know more about breathing in asbestos, click here. If it is undisturbed, nothing will happen.

Asbestos tiles and such can be removed, but probably best way to deal with them are just to cover them up with other non-asbestos tiles.

 So now you may be wondering "Well, if you have asbestos tiles in your kitchen, why are you not just covering them up?" and the answer for that is, I'm not really sure.  It has something to do with the floor being too high already and if they add another layer of floor its just going to get higher (I guess I do kinda know the answer).

Hopefully, you are still here.  If you're reading this, I assume you are.  I guess that wasn't actually that bad.  I thought it would be worse, so you got lucky!  I'll try to write about something more entertaining next week.  If you have any recommendations...

 

Apparently these tiles have asbestos in them.

Image Source: Asbestos Tiles

Works Cited

"Asbestos Health Effects." Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. <http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/asbestos/asbestos/health_effects/>.

"Learn About Asbestos." United States Environmental Protection Agency. United States Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. <http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/learn-about-asbestos.html#asbestos>.

Another Passion Post, But its Not Really on a Passion

So this is my second post where we have to write about a passion or something of the sort.  Unlike many of my more inspired peers I will not be dedicating this blog to a certain topic, mainly because I can't really think of one thing to just write about for however long we have to do this.

Yesterday I was looking at different articles on sciencenews.org and I found this one called Fasting Hormone Helps Mice Live Longer, so obviously I opened it.

The author, Tina Saey, writes about a hormone called fibroblast growth factor-21, FGF21, that somehow increases the life span of a mouse.  The average life span of a mouse is about 28 months but 1/3 of the female mice producing FGF21 lived 44 months.

When certain species, like fruit flies and dogs, cut down on calorie intake but still maintain good nutrition, life expectancy is extended.  The hormone FGF21 produces a similar result to caloric restriction by hindering the reactions of a insulin-like growth factor.  This also increases life expectancy.

The mice who were genetically engineered to produce the hormone tended to be leaner and have better health.  However, some of the mice had a low bone density and some females were infertile.

Saey writes that scientists still don't quite understand how FGF21 works.  All that they know for sure is that it is made in the liver and is produces similar results to that of caloric restriction, but the only place the two interact is in the hormone interference of the growth factor.

So for those of you who are still reading this, I think that this is pretty cool. I find that even realizing that it was FGF21 increasing the life span is impressive.  And I think that what the hormone does is even more impressive.  And when scientists figure out how the hormone works, I'll definitely be reading that article.

I'm not sure if I need to make some sort of citation for this article, but I will, just in case, because I don't want to get sued or something.  So:

Saey, Tina Hesman. "Fasting Hormone Helps Mice Live Longer." Science News.
     Society for Science & the Public, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
     <http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345907/description/
     Fasting_hormone_helps_mice_live_longer>.