I learned a wealth of interesting tidbits during the NC Science Blogging Conference tour of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), January 18th. Instead of overwhelming you with vast details on each point, I've decided to give a brief overview of several items with links leading off to more fascinating details for those who wish to read more.

The EPA's cafe recently switched to compostable plates and plastics utensils due to the severity of the drought.

"The Greening Curve” - A history of designing Triangle EPA campus. Includes why they made the decisions they did when building. Find out about solar paneled street lights, the 100KW solar array that supplies 5% of the power used by their computer center, wild flower landscaping and more.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System – Companies that wish to participate pay a fee and use various resources provided by the US Green Building Council to obtain the building rating they desire.

We found out the EPA uses modularized lab benches. While the plumbing stays in one location, the rest of bench structure can be changed to accommodate their current projects.

Fume hoods in the laboratories use a lot of power. The EPA has a special set-up so if fume hood closed up and lights turned out at the end of the day, a sensor cuts back the amount of single pass air that goes through.

The EPA has a limited number of closed offices to allow natural light to come thorough and light office.
LED lights?

Quote: “On spaceship Earth, there are no passengers ... everyone is crew” ~ Marshall McLuhan

While doing fact checking on this quote, I discovered it was not actually made by Buckminster Fuller as attributed in the presentation; however I did come across a fascinating read by the man who buckyballs were named after, the “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”. He claimed Earth did not come with one and decided to write one himself.



In the Health Affects Lab the EPA uses mice and rats to test disel affects. In order to keep them in place, Velcro mice and rat suits were created by one of their scientists. The Velcro on the suit attaches to its mate on a testing vesicle's wall.

Each state has to develop an air quality plan every year. NC, not in CO compliance.

In the EPA's wind tunnel laboratory all kinds of particle tests can be conducted. Since particles affect individuals of different heights uniquely, the EPA has various sized dolls equipped with measuring devices. The smaller kid sized doll is named “Chucky”. They also have a man with mechanical foot purchased off ebay. When the EPA could not afford a moving doll one of the scientists too measures into his own hands and bought a used mechanical foot off of someone on e-bay that no longer needed it. He then adapted it to their current adult doll to measure how much particular matter is kicked up when a person is walking.

Detroit Exposure and Aerosol Study (DEARS) – Measured how various pollutants affect humans.

According to the scientists in the human exposure lab, the highest creators of particular matter are cooking, cleaning, and self grooming.

July 4th day highest particular matter, because of all the fireworks debris.

Dust – Since it comes in different sizes, the different sizes have differing abilities to enter the body.

Through a process called bioremediation, certain microbes can eat TNT rendering it harmless. The University of Idaho appears to be conducting a study of this with sheep.

Radon information

Recipe: Dangerous Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies Dissected by Sweet Napa. Nice food blog.