Beer on my Beef Please

By: Kate M. Serrano

Nothing beats a cold bottle and a hot steak on the grill. What’s more cool is pouring the cold one on your meat before grilling also has a positive effect on health.

Using beer as flavor base of marinade dates back to the old Egyptian and Mesopotamian days. Both civilizations are advanced and archaeological evidence suggests their cuisine was rich and flavourful. A tough steak can be extremely difficult to chew. Beer allows you to enjoy the once tough leaner cuts as its alcohol content helps tenderize the meat by breaking down its proteins. The longer the steaks marinate in beer, the more meat proteins dissolve, and the more tender the steaks become.  Plus, the beer combined with citrus juices or vinegar will make the tenderizing process faster than with just the beer alone. Of course beer marinade doesn’t only work on steak and meat. Wheat or white beers can be used to steam hot dogs or to base sauces for steaks. Also, flavoured beers like apricot or lime are good choices when paired with sauces or marinades of the same flavor.

And here is the good part. According to the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, marinating with beer reduces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are the deadly carcinogens that form on meat cooked on a grill or barbeque. Limited exposure to PAHs mean limited exposure to cancer. In an experiment conducted by researchers, they found that dark beers reduced net PAHs by 53 percent. This is twice the effect compared to results from a non-alcoholic pilsner, which reduced only 25 percent.

So next time you plan on a barbeque party, keep in mind that beer-bathed pork and beef may look as healthy as it tastes. Just make sure not to drink the marinade.
                 

Not So Sweet Dreams

By: Jessica Robertson

We are all well aware of the constant presence of chemical compounds in our surroundings. Because of their prevalence, it can be a natural reaction to trust in their safety; anything so common shouldn’t be a threat. A team of environmental engineers from Cockrell School of Engineering has recently investigated a frightening topic that had never previously been considered. Looking at the foam padding in new crib mattresses, the team recorded high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the material. Sometimes found in products like household cleaners and sprays, VOCs include chemicals like formaldehyde, benzene, and acetone, among others. No conclusive studies have shown the definitive health effects of exposure to the chemicals, although they are regarded as dangerous chemicals.

By comparing polyurethane foam and polyester foam in a group of both new and old crib mattresses from ten different manufacturers, the researchers found that the new crib mattresses release VOCs at a level four times higher than old crib mattresses, and a baby’s body heat triggers VOCs to be emitted. Frighteningly, the VOC emission levels were found to peak in the baby’s immediate breathing zone. The VOC levels that the new crib mattresses emit are comparable to some other potentially hazardous household materials, including laminate flooring and wall coverings.

Considering that infants are highly susceptible to pollutants and that infants can spend over half of their time asleep in their cribs, the presence of these chemicals within the mattress material is shocking. The findings did not shock some of the experts, saying that the levels of VOCs, while surprising, were not high enough to cause true alarm for the safety of children. However, those experts deem this very valuable research and worthy of further investigation to assure safety. 

It is not recommended to replace new mattresses with older mattresses that contain banned substances, like flame-retardants; reusing an older crib mattress that is known to have no banned substances may reduce infants’ exposure. To reduce levels of VOCs in new mattresses, a period of airing-out may help. Keep an eye on this issue to make sure your children are protected.  

                         

BPA Holds True Danger

By: Jessica Robertson

It’s in manufactured products everywhere, from the lining of metal food containers to dental composites, but suspicion continues to grow about the safety of biphenyl a, better known as BPA. Canada has already deemed it a toxic chemical, but the United States is taking its sweet time to address the dangerous compound. Some researchers attribute the dangerous characteristics of BPA to its chemical similarity to biological hormones, especially estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormones. Since studies on rodents have already shown BPA to be linked to abnormalities like cancer and immune, reproductive, and brain function problems, the United States has extended the studies to include primates. In previous studies, BPA was shown to alter fetal development when rodent mothers were exposed daily to very low doses of BPA, which is cause for alarm and for further research.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, a recent study on rhesus monkeys was considered to be a very similar model to what likely happens within the human system when a pregnant mother is exposed to BPA. Though the rhesus monkeys in the study were exposed to a level considered to be far less than the levels humans are daily exposed to, tissue samples showed damage to the mammary glands, the ovaries, the brain, the uterus, the lungs, and the heart in rhesus monkey fetuses whose mothers were exposed to BPA. It is likely that, often, actual human exposure to BPA is underestimated in both measured levels and in estimated danger. Not only does the study provide evidence that BPA does pass from mother to fetus, but it also provides evidence that BPA causes serious dangers for developing fetuses.

Hopefully the dramatic findings of this study encourage stronger regulations against such a ubiquitous but harmful chemical. 

They've stopped counting the dead

By: Daniela Silva


It hard to really catch on the current events, especially on Syria; thinking about it, I myself sat in confusion as to what really was going on. Syria is located in western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean sea. It is a giant melting pot of diverse ethnic and religious communities, including Arab Alawites, Arab Sunnis, Arab Christians, Armenians, Druze, Kurds and Turks. Arab Sunnis make up the majority of the Syrian population of 22.4 million people.

With this in mind, Syria had peaceful protests in which the people asked for democratic and economic reconstitution within the government and in return the government had overthrown this peaceful protest with military force on the people openly shooting children and women. The civil war then came into motion in March 2011, when fourteen to fifteen teenagers were arrested, six,allegedly tortured and two brutally killed for vandalizing school property with an anti government statement. Since then the people have taken a stand and have began a civil war-which goes on to this day.

Over 130,433 people have lost their lives; the UN has decided to refrain from counting anymore. Fathers, mothers and children have been brutally killed on a day to day basis, and the war has shown no signs of breaking. Shootings of people, snipers that prey on children and chemical warfare have been used against the people. The chemical inside the deployed rockets, is called the sarin nerve agent; twenty times more deadly than cyanide. The Syrian army is believed to have 1,000 tonnes of chemicals for use in warfare, including the sarin chemical; It is highly believed by the United states of america that the Syrian government is responsible for this attack.

This right here is unethical, inhuman and gruesome; a lot of people still have no idea as to why.

Syrians need a voice, the people need aid and care. Stand up and voice what is going on; we need to step in. Below, a child is treated after a bombing.