Episode 94
How Are Heavy Metals Affecting The Environment and Health
Episode Summary: Heavy metals can be found in a wide range of sources, from the air we breathe to the foods we eat and beyond. Do you know how heavy metals are impacting our health and the environment?
In this conversation, Olabanji and Brian speak with Ediomo Abikpa aka Eddie, a Nigerian advocate for climate change and sustainability who holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Biochemistry. Eddie initially pursued this degree to explore her passion and interest in the field.
Humans can be exposed to heavy metals through various sources such as contaminated air, water, soil, food, and industrial products, which can lead to adverse health effects.
Eddie raises awareness about the risks posed by heavy metals and their negative impact on both the environment and human health. She provides useful tips for reducing exposure to heavy metals, including being cautious of consuming fish and shellfish that may contain high levels of heavy metals, and avoiding household products that contain these toxic substances.
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Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!
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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Olabanji Stephen and Brian Tormey
Brian is a Real Estate Title Insurance Professional and Goat Farmer in the US.
Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Ima.
Speaker:I live in Scotland.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen and I'm from Canada.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Ola Vanji and I'm from Nigeria.
Speaker:Hello, I'm Leaky and I live in Paris.
Speaker:Hey, I'm Rod.
Speaker:I'm from Peru.
Speaker:Welcome to Carbon Sessions.
Speaker:A podcast with carbon conversations for every day with everyone
Speaker:from everywhere in the world.
Speaker:In our conversations, we share ideas, perspectives, questions, and things we
Speaker:can actually do to make a difference.
Speaker:So don't be shy.
Speaker:Join our carbon sessions because it's not too late.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Hi everyone.
Speaker:I'm Aji.
Speaker:I'm Brian.
Speaker:I am Eddie.
Speaker:Welcome, Eddie.
Speaker:, , today we have an amazing guest with us.
Speaker:Um, ed is joining us today from Nigeria and um, welcome Eddie.
Speaker:Welcome to Carbon Sessions.
Speaker:Uh, you know, one of the coolest parts about carbon sessions is, you
Speaker:know how we have really interesting conversations about climate change,
Speaker:and we have, we've had so many guests join us and, you know, people just
Speaker:talk about the experiences about climate change and things in that area.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:, some of the work that they are doing and, today we have with us
Speaker:Eddie Eddie's, uh, Climate change and sustainability enthusiast.
Speaker:, and she's a, she specializes in growth marketing, um, with a passion
Speaker:for helping startups and emerging brands, achieve their business goals.
Speaker:And while she does that, which is really interesting, she maintains her
Speaker:reputation as a sustainability advocate.
Speaker:Um, and even taking that to, when she did at m msc, , she worked on one of the.
Speaker:Perhaps rare topics or interesting things that you, you'd find, and that's the heavy
Speaker:metal connection, um, talking about how climate change is worsening the impact
Speaker:of toxic metals in our environment.
Speaker:So, um, Eddie, perhaps the, the first question is why, why climate change?
Speaker:What picture interest?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I studied science lab tech, but Biochemistry and chemistry option.
Speaker:Do, . I didn't completely do climate change in my msp so I worked on,
Speaker:um, heavy metals and percent beds.
Speaker:Like how heavy metals currently.
Speaker:You know, affect, um, men, you know, when they give birth and their children.
Speaker:So that's basically what I, I worked on during my masters,
Speaker:but then it's all intertwined.
Speaker:Like it, there's a connection to all of these things.
Speaker:Because every metal basically affect the environment we're eating, so
Speaker:it's affecting the environment.
Speaker:See that it, it should definitely affect the, um, inhabitants of
Speaker:the earth, affect everything, the plants, water, and all of that.
Speaker:So yeah, it's intertwined.
Speaker:So back to your question , I think the question should be why, um,
Speaker:an environmental biochemistry.
Speaker:I think that I've always just, , loved everything about, , the environment.
Speaker:I've always very been curious about like, How everything came into existence,
Speaker:right from when I was very small.
Speaker:I used to ask like a lot of questions.
Speaker:I mean, why are we here?
Speaker:What are we even doing here?
Speaker:Why do we have all these things in place?
Speaker:Why do we ask the way we ask?
Speaker:Why do we even have cars?
Speaker:Why didn't we use horses?
Speaker:You know, why, why?
Speaker:So I've always, my, my passion , for the environment, I would
Speaker:say is from, it's from within.
Speaker:There's no particular reason why I said, okay.
Speaker:I, I just.
Speaker:I wanted to.
Speaker:And funny enough, when I decided to do MST in Environmental Bio,
Speaker:it's not cause I particularly wanted to use it to work anywhere.
Speaker:, I just wanted to know more, about the environment and how, our activities
Speaker:and as human beings is affecting the.
Speaker:So that's basically, and that's interesting , it's, it's somewhat
Speaker:hopeful to find that some people have a natural, um, I mean, I didn't care
Speaker:about the environment very much growing up except for not littering places
Speaker:and just being neat, but, , finding that, you know, there are other people
Speaker:that actually, you know, are very interested in the environment and how.
Speaker:Whatever we do, activities as human might affect it.
Speaker:Um, but , going from what you say now, , we should perhaps start from metals.
Speaker:Like what are heavy metals?
Speaker:Okay, so, um, every metals in the are basically those metals that have like,
Speaker:is very higher atomic width, right?
Speaker:Their density is quite higher than normal.
Speaker:What that is, that cause of this high density and their communicating can
Speaker:actually affect , the environment.
Speaker:Like if they, if they accumulate for a very long time because they don't
Speaker:break down easily, they could easily affect the environment, they easily
Speaker:affect, um, humans, you know, so it's just in the simple platform you just
Speaker:basically mess out that have very high atomic with so, There are metals
Speaker:like al, there's lead, so there's, um, arsenic, you know, and these are things
Speaker:you find in like, um, of some of them.
Speaker:We, we, they are missed every day.
Speaker:Like we get exposed to them every day.
Speaker:You get.
Speaker:So yeah, that's just what every . And what are some of the
Speaker:things that we use every day that.
Speaker:Heavy metals are part of, are there, are they a part of buildings or Yeah.
Speaker:Are there things that we see in our environment every day that
Speaker:are made from heavy metals?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So lets say for example, right, so.
Speaker:There's, um, process, um, fertilizer that can actually cause, right?
Speaker:And most of these companies are produce these fertilizers.
Speaker:The empty is into oceans, the empty into sea, you know, and what
Speaker:happens when, um, the, the fish and yes, the is actually con right.
Speaker:Consume them because most of us eat fish, you know, and then there've lead.
Speaker:So there, there are some paint that has led me, right.
Speaker:And living in a country like Nigeria where there's every day.
Speaker:You're to be from vehicles and all of that.
Speaker:So somehow it's naturally right.
Speaker:They're supposed the naturally present.
Speaker:But in get.
Speaker:So that's just, but some, some technological advancement, you know,
Speaker:industrial Revolution has made us like use some certain things that, you
Speaker:know, has some of these things we need.
Speaker:I'm going back to Cardium now.
Speaker:So pvc, you know, that we use our feelings and all of that has some of it, you
Speaker:know, so that there are lot of them.
Speaker:We could go on and on and on, but there's just a lot of them.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Eddie, I, this is Brian and I have a question for you.
Speaker:I don't, I don't know if these a as heavy metals, but I know that mini
Speaker:metal are used as pigment and paint and in, in sort of the paint we see all
Speaker:around us to create some of the colors.
Speaker:And I just read this very article about how.
Speaker:There's a new kind of structural paint that's creating color, not using pigment,
Speaker:but by vaping, aluminum nanoparticle.
Speaker:Um, and it was very exciting to me to read about this new
Speaker:technology, this new innovation.
Speaker:And that is going to, you know, for a few reasons, it's going to
Speaker:help be a cooler paint who will not absorb infrared rays the same way.
Speaker:And they were talking about.
Speaker:That it doesn't have, and I named a number of the different metals in it.
Speaker:And I don't know if these count as heavy metal.
Speaker:This is where part of my question is, but that now this kind of paint will
Speaker:not need the many kinds of pigments that are used to create paint that we all
Speaker:know in our our world today, like the kind of paint we use on our doors, our
Speaker:walls, and our cars and our airplane.
Speaker:But the structural paint, because they're actually.
Speaker:Taping these aluminum nano part of colds in a way to refract light correctly.
Speaker:It mimics, it's like biomimicry.
Speaker:Is that, is paint?
Speaker:Is that sort of a, a kind of area where , we are also seeing for those pigments
Speaker:that are in paint of metal pigments that are pain be considered heavy metal.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, um, like I said before, not all metals are classified as heavy metal.
Speaker:So it also depends on what, what are, what are the kind of metals that they're using
Speaker:and what are their identities, right?
Speaker:So if it's actually so much right there are some metals
Speaker:that classified by what else?
Speaker:Organizations that these metals are, you know, are heavy metals
Speaker:So, so sometimes people confuse metals and heavy metals, right?
Speaker:So there are list of metals that are classified as a heavy metals.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:By what else?
Speaker:Organization.
Speaker:So it basically means that, right?
Speaker:They have like higher density than normal.
Speaker:Like it shouldn't even be found in the human system or anywhere around.
Speaker:So, cause there has been like a number of research going on concerning everyth,
Speaker:so I feel like what anybody's producing right now, right before the particular
Speaker:problem did not make the situation worse.
Speaker:The, the question and the of lead and recession led things has been
Speaker:on for a while and I think they found a way to, um, resolve that.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Any research or anything that anybody's producing now would not in
Speaker:any way, , um, they would not want to do something that, that is worse
Speaker:than, what has been going on already.
Speaker:So the question now is what are the metals in the team?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So the question now would be like, okay, why are they using nanoparticles?
Speaker:Like, why are they using this and that?
Speaker:, and we also need to check and is this every method they're using?
Speaker:So it's not heavy metal then?
Speaker:I think it's fine.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well that's exciting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, the metal they're using is aluminum, so I think that wouldn't be
Speaker:a heavy metal, but I could be wrong.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:, and partly what I'm getting from the answer you just gave is that
Speaker:, there's a responsibility with.
Speaker:Production to make sure that whatever materials they're using
Speaker:for production is safe for both the environment and for human health.
Speaker:Um, is that, is that correct?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, I think last thing Brian said, it was breaking, I think
Speaker:I, I had him mention aluminum.
Speaker:Could you say aluminum?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Okay, so they're using aluminum.
Speaker:The, the nanoparticles are being made out of aluminum or maybe al aluminium
Speaker:if it might be pronounced differently.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So if that's what they're using.
Speaker:Aluminum actually is very light, lightweight it's not that heavy,
Speaker:so it could be fine of gray.
Speaker:I had a a, a different question if you, if I can.
Speaker:Go here.
Speaker:So one of the other things I do under, I think I understand about heavy metals
Speaker:and their, uh, contribution to poly, though their name is heavy metal, some
Speaker:of where that contamination comes from is from, um, gases and PM and, and these
Speaker:metaled actually in very small form being carried in the air and then settling.
Speaker:Is that correct?
Speaker:Yeah, but they could also be from water as well.
Speaker:Cause some of these heavy metals are from waste products.
Speaker:They're sea.
Speaker:So some companies, um, some manufacturing companies.
Speaker:They flood, they enter their west into the ocean.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:So most water bodies, these and the oceans are actually very contaminated.
Speaker:Heavy metal.
Speaker:Cause some of these um, um, waste that they out heavy metal.
Speaker:So . Air, water, and soil.
Speaker:Brian, did that answer your question?
Speaker:, Eddie, thank you so much for that answer.
Speaker:I think that does help explain, , where the many places that the
Speaker:different heavy metal can, can be sources of contaminate them.
Speaker:Um, Do you, for our audience today, do you have any thoughts or words of advice
Speaker:to share around different products that they might buy or activities
Speaker:they engage in right now that that contribute to this heavy metal issue
Speaker:or things that they might choose to do differently to help reduce the impact
Speaker:of , heavy metal in the environment?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, I, I feel that, you know, people should, cause when we say heavy metal,
Speaker:heavy metal, people don't feel that or basically affect the environment, right?
Speaker:So whatever comes into the environment has like the end product you, because
Speaker:you exist in the environment, right?
Speaker:So people need to start to understand the impact of all
Speaker:these things in human life, right?
Speaker:Because after the environment it's you.
Speaker:After the case that you find yourself, it's you, it's affecting, right?
Speaker:So every myself has like a lot of negative impact.
Speaker:Cause number one, when it gets into the system, it cannot break
Speaker:down like it's accumulate up.
Speaker:So another question would be, why are we, why are we even talking about
Speaker:climate change and heavy together?
Speaker:Why are they on this same level?
Speaker:Like why are we having a conversation about climate change and.
Speaker:So over the years, climate change has been, there has been
Speaker:like , um, changes in climate and the truth is changes level heavy,
Speaker:heavy.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And what that eventually means is that we're more prone to having, if it's
Speaker:now everywhere, if it's increasing, we're more prone to like these things.
Speaker:We're more prone to having it in our system.
Speaker:We're morene to having it in our body.
Speaker:And what that means is that it gets into your body ites, right?
Speaker:It cannot break down, it just keeps accumulating in your body.
Speaker:So that's why you have, um, a lot of.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, it can cause neurotoxicity, it can cause, um, toxicity to
Speaker:your new, um, neuro system.
Speaker:, it can cause damage to your kids because they're not, they can't find way out.
Speaker:They're just up, right?
Speaker:Cause stress, like I balancing, , between the oxidants and the
Speaker:antioxidants, and is that imbalance?
Speaker:It causes a lot of health challenges, like high blood pressure, a lot cancer.
Speaker:So people need to understand that first, it has an, it has effect on you
Speaker:as a human because I feel like if you understand that it affects you as a
Speaker:human being, you'd be able to, you know, work towards making it not affecting
Speaker:the environment that you live in.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So what are the ways that you can, you know, avoid this?
Speaker:Um, al sometimes in some situations you can't avoid it, especially we
Speaker:live in a country like, um, Nigeria I'm sure, understands what I'm, I'm
Speaker:trying to see where you are constantly exposed to some of these things.
Speaker:You can't tell you that that does the truth.
Speaker:Cause there's traffic, you know, there's pollution everywhere
Speaker:that is in the air, right?
Speaker:But the human, what you can do that, you can prevent it.
Speaker:You can be careful enough to check that whatever product that you're
Speaker:buying does not contain every mental, so I read sometime ago that
Speaker:there's some lipstick that has.
Speaker:Um, it, is it umum?
Speaker:I can't re, I can't re remember the exact Right.
Speaker:So you need to check the products that you're buying to ensure that,
Speaker:especially cosmetic products, right?
Speaker:To ensure that it doesn't contain any of these things, right?
Speaker:So that one that, you know, , you can reduce, our exposure to
Speaker:another way is that, um, I, I think this one is, is more collective.
Speaker:Cause if we're talking about this one should government or
Speaker:something because we can't, we can't control this particular one.
Speaker:Most of these comes from when we consume, um, fishes.
Speaker:Like I said before.
Speaker:Right when we consume, things from, um, we sea the ocean and all of that.
Speaker:So the only way that can be controlled , is maybe there's like government
Speaker:regulations, you know, that, that probably, um, the way, um, the way
Speaker:industries or the way companies channel their waste into this environment, I
Speaker:think that's going to go a very long.
Speaker:I think there's one last one.
Speaker:In some countries, right?
Speaker:So countries are actually exposed to arsenic.
Speaker:Arsenic is, and they're drinking water, right?
Speaker:So, Some of these comes from the wells and all of that wells and
Speaker:maybe water is not properly treated.
Speaker:So during that the water is properly, um, is from the right source is
Speaker:another way that that can be presented.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker:That ingesting water would, heavy metal would be very problematic.
Speaker:I can imagine that with some of these sources like fertilizer, you know,
Speaker:and these other methods that you've mentioned of the runoff into the water.
Speaker:You know, people can't necessarily know if their water had, you know,
Speaker:my, my water comes from the well, which comes from deep underground,
Speaker:and I don't test it regularly.
Speaker:So I just hope that it doesn't have heavy metals in it, um, as I give it to
Speaker:my children and cook with it, I, I hope that there are fertilizers and runoff and
Speaker:other things creating that impact here.
Speaker:I think this is also really interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hopeful.
Speaker:Um, we, we, we had a conversation about, about a research that
Speaker:leaky had shared and how plastics even get washed into the ocean.
Speaker:So, and it's like very tiny, tiny particles of rubber
Speaker:and from like car tires and.
Speaker:I think it's mostly car tires and how they wear out as cars are driven on the
Speaker:roads and then those very tiny particles of the tires get washed into the ocean
Speaker:when rain falls and then the fishes and um, and other creatures in the sea, you
Speaker:know, start to, well get that into their system and then we go ahead and get
Speaker:seafood and then we sort of eat that.
Speaker:You know, because, you know, it's, it's about the circle of
Speaker:life and so we consume that.
Speaker:You know, part of it is a bit like how do we, how do we know what we consume?
Speaker:Um, you, you had talked about cosmetic products and some of the other things
Speaker:that it could be written on it as an ingredient for, you know, we used this
Speaker:to make this, and that's, that's an easy.
Speaker:Want to detect.
Speaker:And then difficult one becomes when we inhale or when we start to consume
Speaker:seafood and the other things that we might not have a way to test.
Speaker:And this also is like, well, you know, back to your point, getting the government
Speaker:to ensure that these things are stopped at source so that they don't get into.
Speaker:Um, so they don't get into the environment and the way that starts to harm people.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:But it's been an interesting conversation.
Speaker:I, I totally enjoyed it.
Speaker:perhaps, let me ask, are there any personal, you know, you've, you've, you
Speaker:know, talked about your research and some of the things that you've worked on,
Speaker:and thank you for really educating us.
Speaker:I would've thought heavy metals were, you know, the very giant metals that I
Speaker:used in buildings or, cause the first time I saw heavy metal, I was like, well,
Speaker:let's talk about how they make the metal.
Speaker:Maybe the process of cutting it or something was like, well, heavy
Speaker:metals have to be something heavy.
Speaker:Um, but thanks for, she lights on on what heavy matters really are.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, we're about to round this, um, are there any last words that you
Speaker:have that you'd like to share , with our listeners or something that you
Speaker:would like to talk about and we've not asked or we've not yet talked about?
Speaker:Um, it'll be interesting to know.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, um, what I would probably love to leave, I think I
Speaker:always like to see this right.
Speaker:So, um, in a case like every metal and anything, like from the
Speaker:conversations we've probably had multiple my that, so we don't, there's
Speaker:not much thing I can do, right?
Speaker:the government or, or maybe if there's just too, I can't do.
Speaker:The thing is, if we all contribute our little quarter by little quarter
Speaker:is being able to speak up like most people dunno, these thing.
Speaker:Most people don't know that, oh, if I thinks going cost this, you
Speaker:know, some of these things are even in process foods, they use it
Speaker:for preservations and all of that.
Speaker:Some of the time pigment like coloring pigment for food and all of that.
Speaker:So people need to be aware.
Speaker:So, The, the, what we can do is letting people know.
Speaker:So we might feel that, oh, there's not what I can do.
Speaker:I mean, the bulk of the work is for the government, you know, and the people
Speaker:that make this regulations, you know.
Speaker:But as, um, um, as, um, Climate keeps changing and keep getting worse.
Speaker:It affects us and it, it gradually dies, right?
Speaker:So, To preserve the edge and to preserve the, the universe
Speaker:for our children, our kids, and wants to come after hours, right?
Speaker:We just need to be aware.
Speaker:We need to inform our, um, our neighbors, our kids.
Speaker:We know our family members.
Speaker:Let them know that, oh, this thing exists.
Speaker:Be careful when you're going the superstore to buy something.
Speaker:You need to be extra.
Speaker:You need to check the.
Speaker:You buying even your processed foods and all of that.
Speaker:So yeah, that's, that's really all I can see right now.
Speaker:Well, that's a very beautiful way to end this episode.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Um, and it's good to hear from you, you know, talking about personal
Speaker:responsibility as far as sharing more, you know, and informing people go.
Speaker:So thank you so much.
Speaker:It's been a really great one.
Speaker:I think brand might have some words to say.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just wanted to say thank you, Eddie, for both sharing some of this wisdom and your
Speaker:knowledge with us today and trying to help make a difference in the world around you.
Speaker:I think it's, uh, sort of neat to see someone who.
Speaker:Didn't necessarily go into their career and their educational pursuit because
Speaker:of the environment, but has found their way through that to, um, to really
Speaker:helping make an impact on the world.
Speaker:So thank you for doing that every day.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I'm grateful.
Speaker:Thank you guys for having me here.
Speaker:You've been listening to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with carbon
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