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  • Writer's pictureCecilia Wandiga

Kenya Sustainable Cities - Monitoring for Toxins


Climate Change has two toxic components.  

First: the toxins created and released by human activity cause damage to plants and micro-organisms. This is because the chemical composition of the Earth's ecosystem gets altered. Think of the planet Mars. The chemical composition of the ecosystem is different. As a result, the type of life we are used to here on Earth, especially plants and animals, do not exist on Mars. We are releasing chemicals on Earth in a way that will make it too difficult for plants and micro-organisms to regenerate the environment we are used to. 

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/05/could-we-live-on-mars

A simple analogy, if you drink 1 gallon of water with 1 teaspoon of ammonia, you will get a very bad stomach ache but your body can recover. If you consume 1 teaspoon of ammonia every day, you will start to get sick. If you drink 1 gallon of ammonia you will need to be in hospital. If you keep drinking one gallon of ammonia while in hospital, it will be a miracle if you survive and, if you die, it will be your own fault for not using common sense about your health. Trying to defend yourself by saying the human body naturally produces ammonia (same as arguments that the Earth already produces green house gases) would be irrelevant. The critical issue is you have exceeded the levels of ammonia that allow you to maintain a healthy body.

Urine Ammonium, Metabolic Acidosis and Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease (2018)

https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/481892

Second: the defensive reaction of plants and microbes that are under stress due to changing climate conditions causes the plants and microbes to release toxins. Think of your behaviour under high stress. Most start yelling or becoming physically aggressive or using foul language. This behaviour is socially toxic. Plants and microbes become chemically toxic. Then you eat what you think is healthy food because it is "organic" but you are eating both the toxic chemicals that are causing stress on plants and microbes as well as the toxic chemicals the plants and microbes are creating due to environmental stress.

More details 

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/amp/article/2000203586/extreme-weather-increasing-level-of-toxins-in-food-scientists-warn

Kenya has passed a Climate Act and has set aside funds for mitigation efforts

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/State-sets-up-kitty-to-fund-climate-change-drive/3946234-4677950-view-asAMP-103rdx9z/index.html

Kenya also has a policy and strategy on Climate Action 

http://www.kcckp.go.ke/policy/

http://www.kcckp.go.ke/frequently-asked-questions-faqs/

YOUR role in Climate Action:

All the funding, scientific research, government policies and action plans are useless until we all change our behaviour. This means we must stop releasing toxic chemicals at levels that go beyond what a healthy Earth can recover from. 

One of the toxic chemicals is sulfur dioxide. 

SULFUR DIOXIDE

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208295/

Industrial Health and Safety 

https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/sulfurdi.html

Sulfur Dioxide: Its Role in Climate Change (free course teaching materials) 

https://esseacourses.strategies.org/module.php?module_id=168

You can create awareness of sulfur dioxide levels in your community by using our micro chemistry kits for fieldwork or promoting the use of our micro-chemistry kits. They fit in a backpack so you can analyze chemicals even when you are not in your laboratory. If you do not have a laboratory, these micro-chem kits have the basics you will need to perform experiments. We also have KICD approved workbooks that include a guided experiment on sulfur dioxide testing.  

Please allow 3 weeks for delivery.

Explore the reactions in life and industry: You can be the change towards a healthy planet and successful Climate Action! 


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