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xtruss · 5 months

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In Pakistan’s Chilli Province, Growers Turn to Innovation Against Toxin Contamination

Aflatoxin, toxic byproduct of mold that spreads on crops during production, harvest, storage or processing, has hit chilli crops in southern Sindh province

Twelve growers with the help of a government institute have installed drying machine, solar tunnel and dehydrator to mechanize drying and washing chillies

— Zulfiqar Kunbhar | November 21, 2023 | Arab News

UMERKOT, SINDH: A dozen growers in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh are successfully using modern methods and machines to protect their chilli crops against fungal contamination in a region that is highly vulnerable to climate change and ranked among the top five in the world for chilli cultivation and production.

Around 150,000 acres (60,700 hectares) of farms in Pakistan produce 143,000 tons of chilli annually, making the country the fourth largest for chilli production worldwide. Sindh, which produces 126 million tons, contributes around 88 percent of the country’s total chilli production.

But floods that wreaked havoc across Pakistan last year, on the back of several years of high temperatures, have left chilli farmers struggling to cope. In a country heavily dependent on agriculture, the more extreme climate conditions are hitting rural economies hard, farmers and experts say, underscoring the vulnerability of swathes of South Asia’s population to changing weather patterns.

In recent years, contamination by aflatoxin — a toxic byproduct of a mold that tends to spread in drought-stressed crops during production, harvest, storage or processing — has also hit chilli crops in Sindh.

Dr. Muhammad Siddique Depar, the principal scientific officer at the government’s Arid Zone Research Center (AZRC) Umerkot, said chillies traditionally needed to be air-dried outdoors for two weeks but increasingly higher daytime

In this photograph, taken on November 13, 2023, Dr. Muhammad Siddique Depar, the principal scientific officer at a research center, showcases dried red chilies using a drying machine in the Umerkot district of Pakistan's Sindh province. (AN Photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar).

temperatures and inconsistent dew were creating favorable conditions for aflatoxin growth during the process of drying. The rest of the damage was done by dust in the outdoors, which collected on the chillies as they dried.

“Over the past three years or so, AZRC has installed a foreign-donated red chilli drying machine, a solar tunnel, and a chilli dehydrator drying and washing machine,” Depar said, explaining the modern methods being used by twelve growers to combat aflatoxin contamination.

Compared to two weeks in the open air, chillies can dry in four days inside a solar tunnel and within 30 hours with a dryer. Both methods also prevent the chilli crop from being exposed to dust, which is the main reason for a decline in quality, Depar added.

“After the area’s [12] growers utilized these facilities for drying fresh chilli crops, achieving better results compared to open-sky drying, we can say it proved to be a successful model,” the researcher said.

Worker spreads red chilies for drying in the Umerkot district of Pakistan's Sindh province on November 13, 2023. (AN Photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

But the machines are not adequate to meet the demands of the region’s farmers.

Four red chilli dryer units and two chilli washing units were donated by the Korea Program for International Cooperation in Agricultural Technology to AZRC Umerkot. The total capacity of the KOPIA chili drying units is 20 maunds, or approximately 800 kilograms. In addition, one unit each of a solar tunnel and a solar-cum-gas-dryer were installed at AZRC Umerkot under a Pakistan Agricultural Research Council agriculture-linkage program project titled Post-harvest Processing of Chilies for Producing Quality Produce. The project started in 2018 and ended in 2020.

Now, Umerkot’s chilli growers want the government to scale up the new methods to save local chillis from contamination.

“I availed the AZRC red chilli drying facilities and it saved me time and quality,” farmer Javed Rajar told Arab News.

In this photograph, taken on November 13, 2023, farmer Javed Rajar showcases local chillis in the Umerkot district of Pakistan's Sindh province. (AN Photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

“However, I am still dependent on traditional methods too as AZRC did not have that capacity to dry all my chilli crops. The issue is that for large scale production these machines are not enough.”

He called on the government to act promptly to protect the region’s famous Lungi chilli crop.

“Lungi chilli is renowned for its unique taste globally,” the grower said. “However, environmental conditions are either causing a decline in its production or it is being replaced by hybrid varieties. The government needs to act promptly by establishing large-scale chilli drying units to support local farmers and boost Lungi’s exports.”

Official figures show Pakistan’s dried red chilli exports have declined in the last few years, mainly due to aflatoxin. As per the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Pakistan exported 2,751 metric tons of dried red chillies in 2019, which declined to 1,665 metric tons in 2022.

But officials are optimistic that with innovation, chillis can be protected from toxins in the future during the drying process.

“Using modern techniques helps us to manage the phytosanitary and meet food safety requirements of other [importing] countries by addressing the issues of aflatoxin and pesticide residues,” Dr. Mubarik Ahmed, a consultant for agriculture and food at TDAP, told Arab News.

“TDAP is planning to help local chilli farmers in developing more drying units.”

This photograph, taken on November 13, 2023, shows local red chilies at a farm in the Umerkot district of Pakistan's Sindh province. (AN Photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar).

#Arab News #Pakistan 🇵🇰#Chilli Provenance #Toxic Contamination #Innovation

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emergencymanagementnews · 10 months

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The study is among the first to pinpoint areas where rising groundwater is at risk of making contact with contaminants and could move them toward the bay or people’s homes.

#toxic contamination

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reality-detective · 7 months

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TEXT TAKEN FROM JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER MASONIC CREED

We will keep their lives short and their minds weak while pretending to do the opposite. We will use our knowledge of science and technology in subtle ways so that they never see what is happening. We will use soft metals, aging accelerators and sedatives in food and water as well as in the air. They will be covered in poisons wherever they turn.

The soft metals will make them lose their minds. We will promise to find a cure from our many funds, and yet we will give them more poison. Chemical poisons will be absorbed through the skin of idiots who believe that certain hygiene and beauty products presented by great actors and musicians, will bring eternal youth to their faces and bodies, and through their thirsty and hungry mouths, we will destroy their minds and systems of internal organs. reproduction. However, their children will be born as disabled and deformed and we will hide this information. 🤔

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think for yourselves #think about it #think for yourself #do your homework #do some research #do your own research #ask yourself questions #question everything #water #poisoning humanity #toxic chemicals #toxic water #contaminated water

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humberg · 9 months

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In love with @pinkyjulien and @arcandoria's new Respirator Mask 😷👉👈

#as always thank you both for your impeccable mods!!#i imagine vincent has gone to a job which is contaminated with toxic fumes hence he is wearing the respirator mask 🤲#ima have a lot of fun with these :3 #oc: vincent ronin #mods #cyberpunk 2077

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kaydub80 · 1 year

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#east palestine #toxicity #contamination #ohio river #america is a failed state #america is a shithole country #america is a third world country #media blackout #media coverup

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oveliagirlhaditright · 1 year

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This whole train derailment thing in East Palestine, Ohio is so horrific.

And those toxic chemicals got into the Ohio River!

And I heard people saying that there was danger that it could possibly get into another body of water?

Apparently, this is going to affect 10% of the country's water supply, as things are? (According to one comment I saw, anyway.)

The place really has become the next Chernobyl, and everything has been handled so badly! (I feel if this had happened in a bigger state, that wouldn't have happened. And I strongly feel they should have evacuated everyone on day one.)

And no one's talking about it! In fact, at first they were covering it up and tried to arrest at least one reporter on the job of reporting the truth (finally more people are starting to discuss all of this, but still not as many as you would think. Especially with the massive ramifications this could have for so many!)

And why hasn't the president or any of the big wigs talked about this or done anything about it? Why didn't people in hazmat suits knock on the people in East Palestine's doors to tell them to evacuate when they finally did give them that order, instead of acting so blasé? You know if it was a place that people actually cared about, people would do so much more. I'm disgusted with my country.

#and it sounds like the whole thing might have happened because the railroad workers had gone on strike because they wanted safer worker #conditions and sick days. something that the president denied them. which in turn led to this tragedy #and also because. like. the railroad lines/tech is really ancient stuff that hasn't been updated since the civil war?#basically. as always. greed won out over safety measures and now we have this to thank for it #i guess people are also worried that acid rain could come from this. from that massive black cloud that's still over east palestine ohio #you know what? i wasn't going to admit this for many reasons. and maybe i still shouldn't. i might come back and delete this tag #but i'm from ohio. not from this city. but guess who still has to worry about all of this now affecting her (like the water not being safe)#and is furious about it and how everything's been handled? this girl #at this point there's a good chance i may die from cancer somewhere down the line from the water i've already ingested (that was #contaminated) since the derailment happened. before they were upfront about just how bad all of this was #and now i'm even MORE mad. in some ways. upon rewatching this one video i had before and realizing i'd gotten some of the context of it #wrong before. like apparently they've let some people come BACK to live in the town if they have nowhere else to go. being like 'carry on.#there's nothing to see here!' when that is NOT okay. when the town is still SO VERY TOXIC and hazardous to their health. and. tbh. the #government should probably be flipping the bill for them to be staying elsewhere for their safety at the moment

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leafonsidewalk · 1 year

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Mushrooms Help Clean up Toxic Waste

Through a process called mycoremediation, mushrooms can be used to remove chemicals from the soil and heavy metals from water through their mycelium (one of nature’s most resilient living organisms, fire-resistant, water-retardant, vegetative part of a fungus). Research suggests that mushrooms can convert pesticides and herbicides to less harmful compounds, remove heavy metals from brownfield sites (land that was once used for industry and now lies useless), and break down plastic. The main idea of mycoremediation is to use a fungi’s natural decomposition abilities to restore and regenerate land. With fire return intervals becoming increasingly shorter and fire severity growing more intense, ecologists have started to use mushrooms to repair severely scorched soil.

Most of the breakdown of toxins/waste takes place before the fruiting body is formed.

The waste is typically fully absorbed by the fungus within a few weeks. The enzymes produced by a mushroom are able to break down a lot of different pollutants and the mycelia (mycelium plural) ‘digest’ the surface they grow on and convert it into nutrients and possibly edible mushrooms. Some species of fungi are being “trained” in labs to digest things like polypropylene face masks and plastic gloves.

Mushrooms have been used to clean up oil spills in the Amazon, boat fuel pollution in Denmark, contaminated soil in New Zealand, and PCBs in the Spokane River. Mycoremediation is a natural, more gentle, and possibly cheaper alternative to the traditional “scrape and burn” approach towards environmental cleanup (where the contaminated soil is dug up and incinerated). The traditional method can remove potentially fertile soil but mycoremediation can help clean up the toxic soil while also improving soil fertility.

Now the big question: if mycoremediation is so great, why don’t we see more of it on a larger scale?

Federal regulations require a 100% removal of the targeted contaminants within a short period of time, but we currently don’t know how effective the breakdown is when using fungi, and the speed of it. Also, each biohazard site may require a customized treatment; how a mushroom reacts to the site depends on the species, the contaminants present, and the local growing conditions. There’s also not much investment and funding in this area of science and biology, causing many scientists to seek other areas of work.

Sources: Mushrooms Clean Up Our Toxic Messes - resilience, Mushrooms Clean Up Toxic Mess, Including Plastic. So Why Aren’t They Used More? - YES! Magazine (yesmagazine.org), Mycoremediation: How Fungi Can Repair Our Land | Office of Sustainability - Student Blog (usfca.edu)

#mushrooms #fungi #fungus #toxic waste #mycoremediation #fun facts #nature #ecosystem #oyster mushrooms #oil spill #contaminated water #science

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aci25 · 1 year

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Footage shows highly contaminated water in Ohio after train derailment.

#ohio explosion #somewhere in ohio #highly contaminated water in Ohio after train derailment #ohio train derailment #breaking news #this is ohio #contamination #Toxic Chemicals Released in the Ohio Train Derailment Are Horrifying #ohio

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caffeinatedkris · 1 year

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(via Follow the Money $ Jigsaw Puzzle by kristalcurt)

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waitingforminjae · 2 years

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living w my mom is insane mostly bc she just fucking makes shit up all the time and believes it like i will never ever forget my mom going on and on for months in 2013 abt how gerard way had cancer (that his dad also had) and almost died. like she referenced this so casually like it was fact - off hand or specifically or randomly, like she mentioned it all the time. then one day we were watching a mcr concert on tv and him and mikey were doing their song cancer, and i mentioned how that must've been especially touching for them and she was like "what do u mean" and i was like well didn't gerard way have cancer like their father? and she looked at me like i'd grown a third head.

or my other favorite, which is that lee dongwook and yoo inna are married, and that nana and the comedian jaeho (i think that's his name?) are married.

#i'm still mad abt that too this day like BITCH UR THE ONE WHO TOLD ME THAT AND TALKED ABT ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!#and like i Get It now ik it's sorta a coping mechanism she makes stuff up to feel less alone #but also she just fucking makes up the most random shit it's insaneeeeeeee like it's so random and not gaslighting bc she rlly thinks it!!#she rlly thinks those pairs are married!!!#she sees one thing (b/t/s busan concert changing venues) and immediately extrapolates out #into 'hybe tried to put fans into an abandoned factory that's still contaminated with toxic chemicals and refused to back down until #the busan govt got involved' like WHAT!!!!!!!!!#hella personal #and it's JUST outlandish enough to be skeptical but just believable enough to be plausible #anyway #sorry to rant abt my mommy issues it will happen again. i need therapy btw

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museicalchairs · 2 years

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y'all want Homestuck in 2022? new character: morbus hexxus shut up the name was made before morbius shut up shut up shut up shut up

tags for her will be in the thingy oh boy here she is! her shitty art made on my phone and screenshotted from it!!

#{contaminated} morbus aes #(toxic fumes) morbus musings #[mobster & the pauper]#//smoking #ooc #h...#homestuck oc

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thedevilscarnival · 2 years

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the ideal cannibalism victim is an upper class vegan with no familial history of seizures, and you should avoid consuming the nervous system when eating them. prion diseases are not as common as one think and the specific instance of human and cattle brain degeneration that most know about were due to subsequent and generational consumption of nervous system meat within the same group of organisms. your chances of getting a prion disease from someone with the above demographic are drastically low.

#korro.txt #i say ''vegan'' for several reasons. the first being that you can get prion diseases from eating contaminated meat of Any species #see: mad cow disease and wasting deer. so you don't want to eat the meat of someone who eats meat if you can avoid it #also! carnivore meat has a high aclimation of heavy metals from eating other creature's flesh. this is why it tastes bad #and can sometimes be toxic #so in terms of both safety and flavor a vegan would be best.

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reality-detective · 2 months

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Why You Should NEVER Drink From Paper/Plastic Cups

These cups contain a variety of harmful substances such as fluoride, lead, cadmium, microplastics, and more, which leach into the liquid you're drinking. 🤔

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wausaupilot · 3 months

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Toxic chemicals and cleanup efforts on next 'Route 51'

Tune in at 10 a.m. Jan. 26.

WAUSAU – Communities throughout Wisconsin are grappling with ways to deal with contaminated water and soil after new research that suggests PFAS, dioxin and other toxic chemicals can have significant implications on public health. As scientists continue to work toward a better understanding of the risks involved, regulators are monitoring cleanup efforts, which can be costly and difficult to…