Social networking

…. for farmers.  I’d say this is a good way to promote self-initiated sustainability practices.  O, internet, dost thou have a solution for everything?

via Science blog’s Worlds Fair

Posted in education, environment, link out | No Comments »

The Dead Kids of Myspace

This site is a bit frightening (and I’m not just talking about page layout taken from 1998). The site logs all the incidents of sexual abuse that the police catch on Myspace. There are literally hundreds of cases listed on the site.

If anyone was skeptical that there is a “Myspace problem” before, this site will definitely remove all doubt. It highlights the need for parents to become more aware of what your children are doing on the computer, and for parents to stay ahead of their children in terms of computer literacy.

There are hundreds of parents out there who seem to simply not care what their children get up to on the internet, and that’s simply unacceptable.

Thanks for Kim Komando for telling her listeners about the site on her radio show this morning.

Posted in education, link out, news | No Comments »

Antimicrobial Pencils (a response from Microban)

A few days ago, I blogged about a company that put a wide range of long-lasting antimicrobial products into a wide range of products. I wrote the company to complain about their practices, especially in regards to the evolution of antimicrobial resistance, due to the overuse of antimicrobial products.

To my surprise, I actually got a response from Microban International, Ltd. to the email I sent:

Dear Mr. [ecoli]

I appreciate your concern, and applaud your going to the effort of expressing an opinion on an major issue; but I also must point out that this issue shows the need for applying critical thinking to what is published, particularly on science and health in the mass media, and to be sure that you study primary sources of information before forming your opinions.

Resistant strains, such as MRSA, are an issue in the medical use of antibiotics, a subset of antimicrobials with particular modes of action and patterns of use. Microban uses general purpose biocides, another subset of antimicrobials, with multiple modes of action, which do not cause resistant strains as demonstrated in both clinical studies and in over a century of use. Triclosan is one of the antimicrobials that we use, is probably one of the most studied of the antimicrobials, and despite all of the hysteria around it has been shown in something like 6-7 clinical studies, including one by the guy who started the whole thing, and 30 years of use to not cause resistant strains. In addition, our mode of use of antimicrobials, incorporating them into products so that there is always a greater than inhibitory concentration of antimicrobial available, would minimize the likelihood of development of resistant strains; whereas the use of disinfectants and general purpose antimicrobials, common in medical, public spaces, and the home, continually cycles through substantial periods of sub-inhibitory concentrations, a situation far more likely to result in resistant strains but doesn’t. The focus on triclosan and other general purpose antimicrobials is just a red herring that distracts from the real issues concerning the use of antibiotics.

I have attached a white paper that reviews the science behind this issue with regard to general purpose antimicrobials and lists the key papers reporting on the research in this area. I hope that you will take the time to study them.

Sincerely,

Dr. Wayne Swofford

VP, Research & Development
Microban International

I’ve made the paper they gave me available as a Google Doc. I’m going to read the paper in detail over the next several days, but I’m sure at least some of the technical aspects are going to be above my head. So I appeal to the masses to give me a hand in reviewing the paper, to attempt to falsify their work. I don’t want Microban to win out in a simple ‘Appeal to Authority’ if their study is, in fact, bunk.

I urge people who are interested in this issue, to take part. I’ve posted a thread at ScienceForums.net (my home base), which anyone can and should take part in. And, bloggers, feel free to write about this in your own blogs.

Posted in education, evolution, genetics, medicine, microbiology | No Comments »

Antimicrobial Pencils

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now, wondering on how best to approach it.

For our anniversary, my girlfriend got me this box of 12 #2 Antimicrobial Pencils from Ticonderoga.

My first thought was, “WTF is wrong with the world” quickly followed by a “Why would you get this for me?” to my girlfriend.   She shrugged and said “you like bacteria.”

Well, I guess I like them so much that she thought I should contribute to the growing problem of bacterial resistance to commercial antibiotics by introducing a new source of a completely useless product.

According to the front of the box:

Microban protection inhibits the growth of odor and stain causing bacteria

and according to Wikipedia:

Microban International, Ltd. produces chemicals used for antimicrobial product protection. These persistent chemicals provide antimicrobial properties in consumer, industrial and medical products… The broad application of the Microban product in everything from cutting boards to flooring, along with its long life in the product and hence the environment, has raised some concerns about the long term effects of its promiscuous use.

This could be a made up statistic, but 48.5 out of 50 microbiologists agree that the concept of Microban products is one of the stupidest they’ve heard in a while.

We’re overusing antimicrobial agents in everything from flooring, pencils and our colons.  It’s no wonder that widespread antibiotic resistance is wreaking havoc in the medical field.  Haven’t we seen in the recent spread of drug resistant superbugs, like MRSA)shown us the dangers of overusing antibiotics?

Apparantly not, because companies like Microban will not be satisfied until their antimicrobial products are in the lining of every pot and in the flooring of every garage.  Just looking at that insidious green packaging, in it’s environmentally friendly guise, is making me angry.

I can see the attractiveness of wanting to put antibiotics into pencils, sort of.  I suppose if you happen to be an elementary school teacher who’s students slobber all over their pencils, it could help stop the spread of germs,if they happen to share their pencils. But, this still, is going too far.

Bacteria will quickly build up resistance to these types of antibiotics, which is dangerous because of the increased virulence associated with increased resistance.  So, instead of a few relatively harmless bacteria on your pencil, you’ve got lots of harmful bacteria.

This simple fact speaks to a larger ignorance in the general public about the simple fact that antimicrobial products become less effective when they’re overused.  As a result, the doctor’s treatment arsenal is getting smaller, and science simply cannot produce new antibiotic agents as quickly as they are needed.

I am going to send an email to Microban International, Ltd to give them a piece of my mind, and I urge all my readers to do the same.  Perhaps we can pressure them into at least recognizing the potential problem associated with their company.

(my email - feel free to use this version or modify as needed for your own letters)

I am writing as a student in microbiology and biochemistry to express my concern about the general content and implications of your Microban products.
As you may or may not know, antimicrobial products are important tool in medicine and treating infectious diseases, however, their overuse is leading to a serious health problem.
This company, which seeks to put antimicrobial products into everything from flooring to pencils, is doing the public a great disservice.  It is important to realize that not all bacteria or fungi are killed by antimicrobials, and that the pathogens that survive are often the strongest and most virulent of the population.  These organisms are also largely resistant to antimicrobials.
Therefore, as more antimicrobials enter general use, they become less effective.  This is annoying problem for those concerned with household odors.  This is an potential public health catastrophe to those, like myself, who can envision what the overuse of antimicrobial products will bring.
In the news we see with cases like the MRSA superbug, which have been able to outmaneuver our antibiotics faster than science can produce them, and the result is often fatal (to children).  This is one of hundreds of different cases of virulent diseases made worse by overuse of antibiotics.
I write to urge this company to reconsider the way it approaches and applies it’s products.
Right now, overuse of antimicrobials is a nuisance, but in the future it could become a real health epidemic if this overuse is continued.  If Microban International, Ltd. truly cares about the public good and its consumer base, it will seriously reconsider its business approach.  

Sincerely and respectfully,

Posted in business, education, environment, evolution, microbiology, musings | 3 Comments »

School Budget vote and Science fair

Today was the school budget vote, held in my district’s elementary school.  They also have the elementary school science fair at the same time as a way to get parents in to vote.

I remember participating in the science fairs in elementary school back in the day and I must say, though I wouldn’t trust my memory completely on this one, that the overall quality of the project has gone up considerably.

Of course, there were plenty of generic projects, like “do plants grow well in sunlight” and “how many popcorn kernals stay unpopped.”  Some of them weren’t really experiments, but demonstrative ‘engineering’ type things, like using potatoes as a battery to turn on a light bulb.  The silliest project was probably the one that compared the sinking rates of a rock and a piece of paper in water.

But there were definitely a lot of interesting ones.  For example, testing the mass-independence of gravitational acceleration, conservation of proportions of salt content in marine water, and “at what temperature water freezes the fastest” (it was room temp).

All of these projects are independent of teacher, but with plenty of parental advising I’m sure.  So, to see elementary school kids exploring relatively advanced scientific concepts is heartening.  I even saw one experiment (effect of temperature on goldfish metabolic rate) that we did in a 200 level biology lab.  There were probably around 500 poster boards and most of them where serious, if ‘elementary’ investigations.

To me, this means that, at least in my school, they are taking a serious approach to science.  Not only teaching kids to learn principles, but teaching them how to think like scientists.  Of course, parents probably helped on most if not all of the projects, but that’s in no way a bad thing.  It just means that parents today are not ignorant about science.  They want there children to learn science, and they have the capacity to help their children manage a scientific investigation.

Now, a few projects were lacking in the way they applied the scientific method, didn’t have the right controls, etc.  But I think that’s a minor point, overall.  Fostering a love for science early is the important thing; the details can come later.  I’m feeling pretty confidant about the future of science right now.

Posted in education, musings | 2 Comments »