Poisons+and+Hyrdrocarbons

**Hazardous Hydrocarbons**
===A hydrocarbon is any chemical compound that only consists of carbon and hydrogen. The simplest hydrocarbon is methane, a hydrocarbon with one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Hydrocarbons are considered the "building blocks" of oil. (http://www.gsenet.org/library/04chm/hydrsntv.php)===

The Dangers of Hydrocarbons
===About ten years ago, there was a massive oil spill in Alaska. At least 11 millions gallons of crude oil was dumped into Bligh Reef. This was a devastation to Prince William Sound, Alaska but it turned out to also be an experiment. It turns out that fish, especially pink salmon, are a lot more sensitive to hydrocarbons, which are the "building blocks" of oil, than previously thought. Scientist further studied this. They exposed pink salmon egg to different amounts of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which is one of the many thousands of compounds in oil. They discovered that the PAHs concentrations after the spill can kill the fish, damage their ability to reproduce and lower their growth rates. Now the scientists have discovered that even lower concentrations of PAHs can be harmful to pink salmon and pacific herring. http://www.gsenet.org/library/04chm/hydrsntv.php=== ===The fact that just a small amount of oil (1 ppb) is harmful to fish and other organism is scary, because just a small leak from a factory or vehicles into BASGO's river could kill the things living there.===

How to Fix It
===I think that there should be a drainage system through-out BASGO's neighborhoods, on both sides of the street or road. This is for the oil that might leak from a garage because of cars, tractors etc. There should also be an underground draining system for oil that leaks through the ground from pesticides or lawnmowers or other potentially poisonious things that are used on a citizen's yard. This might prevent an underground water supply, like a well, from being toxicated. This would also probably decrease the risk and occurance of oil being spilled into BASGO's river. Another idea that might largely lower the chance of oil being a danger to BASGO's community is if there were a seperate garbage or area in one's house specifically for oil that one might use, like cooking oil. This would make it easier for people to resist from just pouring access oil down the drain. Then, everone's seperate disposal would be combined and properly taken care of.===

Pesticides
===A pesticide is a chemical that is used by a human to kill pests. The pests could be insects, infected plants, fungi, weeds, snails, or slugs and many more organisms. Some pesticides can be more deadly to pests than others. For example one type of pesticides could kill a pest if the pest simply walked on the plant or area where the pesticide was exposed. On the other hand, there are pesticides that have to be eaten by the pest to take action. These particular pesticides are more safe, lest costly, and take more affect quickly rather than bait or a surface spray.===

===Pesticides find their way into bodies of water due to human acts; these include, spraying poisons and dusting them into Maine watersheds which leads to the poisonous chemical entering the Gulf of Maine. Pesticides are very dangerous, obviously to pests but also humans and animals. Pesticides have many ways to get into human bodies. Everyday pesticides get into human bodies by water, fish, vegetables, milk, meat including turkey, chicken, steak and other common meats. This occurs because the pesticides go through a sort of cycle. During this cycle the pesticides always start on a humans garden, plant, lawn........etc. Then they are eaten by animals or insects. Then those animals are eaten by humans. Another way pesticides get into humans is by water. Pesticides run off gardens or plants and get into water reserves. Then the humans drink the water and the pesticides get into the body. Below there is a picture of how pesticides work. Unfortunately pesticides can seriously sicken humans. For example, humans can get cancer just because pesticides have entered their system. Organophosphate pesticides are one of the most poisonous and have the same affect on humans as they do on insects. Biochemical pesticides are non toxic pesticides which I believe Basgo all Basgo citizens should use. If Basgo citizens were to use biochemical pesticides it would decrease the amount of poisons in the Gulf of Maine and the amount of poisons in humans.===