Kent Armstrong

Kent Armstrong

BioStryke Remediation Products

     On January 25th our AP Environmental Science D Block was visited by local expert, Kent Armstrong. Kent has been in the field of Science for 35-40 years. Kent started his career at the young age of 19, working for the Audubon Society. Kent has also spent time being a "turd hurder" and establishing himself as a hard worker throughout his career. Throughout his long career in the field of Science he has found himself as the owner of BioStryke, a company that focuses its efforts on Bioremediation. When Kent started to work in the industry of his motto was "I'm going to clean up the world" Kent kept telling himself that and today he is putting those words into actions. When Kent visited our classroom we were all intrigued by his energy on the topic, always trying to keep us engaged through stories of his past, such as the moral conflicts he has had to deal with in the past. Kent spoke to us in a much less professional way then he is used to which makes it very hard to adapt to a new system but he did so in a way for all students to understand.

     Throughout the past couple decades Kent said there had been a massive amount of new chemicals introduced to the world, Kent said with time mother nature will figure out how to deal with all these chemicals but because they are so new and so harmful we have to figure out how to deal with them. The world is all about making money and the new chemicals were introduced without proper ways of managing them, which is why Kent and BioStryke have been trying to find a way to neutralize these chemicals. Kent also cleared a much need clarification between a brownfield and a superfund site. A superfund site has a federal mandate on it for cleanup, where a brownfield has not been assessed and has not been declared necessary for cleanup.

Contamination and the assessment

     BioStryke focuses on toxic waste clean up, the company locates sites which have been contaminated by Tetrachloroethene. This is usually caused by a leak in the company tank, whether it is above or underground. This is when Kent's team comes into play to assess the situation. The team assess the spill to determine how the soil has been infiltrated by the chemicals. There are three main steps into the bioremediation process; Evaluating the site, surveying the site, and remediation.Kent and his team use microbes to get rid of these chemicals by using microbes that are able to eat and breath the electron attached to Chlorine, when the bond is broken the chemicals have a harder time sticking together. The problem with this technique is that it requires time and a lot of companies do not have that type of time because they will run out of business before the process is completed. The alternative is the conventional method of 'cleaning' which just follows protocol of how to excavate the chemicals which just in turns releases them into the air. There is also the cost factor for a conventional cleanup, for every ton of soil taken out the cost equates to about one hundred dollars. There is also the drill that is needed to asses the damage and the cost quickly adds up. Kent has a site in Lebanon and over a 15 year period the lab can not longer detect a trace of chemicals in the ground and the owner only spent 100,000 dollars. For a conventional cleanup the cost quickly adds up to hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars. 

Examples of contamination 

     Throughout the talk with Kent the future of our contaminations looked dim because of the little support behind the bioremediation efforts. The majority of our freshwater is held in unusable glaciers and the rest we are finding ways to contaminate it. The chemicals have been used irresponsibly, Kent told us of a company he had to go assess because they were being shut down and when they got to the room of the cafeteria the mercury was dripping from the ceiling and "That's why the soup taste so good." Kent then talked to us about the smallest contaminations can ruin a water supply. Kent told us not to quote him on this but I have no choice "Two drops of waste oil can contaminate a hundred thousand gallons of water." The mismanagement of chemicals only show how fast paced science in. When Kent was in school he used to play with Mercury, Lewis and Clark ate it during their expansion west, nowadays no one would dare come in contact with it. 

Toxic Hot Seat

A Review on Toxic Hot Seat through Patricia Callahan
By Riley Anderson



Throughout the first couple weeks of the class returning from Christmas break, we embarked on our journey through toxicology. The class was assigned to watch Toxic Hot Seat, which is a documentary that explores the effect of Technical Bulletin 117 which was a law established in 1975. Technical Bulletin 117 required that all fabrics sold in the state of California had to have flame retardants. Throughout the film there are many objective perspectives from mothers, firefighters, scientists, journalist and even politicians on the issue of TB 117.

Patricia Callahan

Each member of the class was assigned a specific person to watch throughout the film, throughout Toxic Hot Seat I was assigned to look at the perspective of Patricia Callahan. Patricia Callahan is
an investigative reporter who currently works for the Chicago Tribune. Patricia Callahan launched an investigation on Technical Bulletin 117 and how the product safety agency was unable to protect children from deadly chemicals. The result of this investigation was the recall of over a million baby products and in 2008, won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Patricia Callahan often interviewed people and always asked one question before finishing the interview, "When doing interviews that had to do with chemicals, not flame retardants, I often ask what didn't I ask you or what is interesting?" The response that she got the majority of the time is what you really should be looking into is flame retardants. Through watching the documentary, it was obvious that flame retardants are everywhere in our society today. Throughout the average household there are around 84,000 chemicals. Flame retardants are found in the polyester foam that serves as padding in couches and chairs throughout the household and everyday spaces.

Patricia Callahan was talking about the impact that TB 117 has on everybody in the United States and the activists for change of Technical Bulletin 117 was a group of citizens who are affected by TB 117. "The group that was lined up to change Technical Bulletin 117 wasn't just a few environmental activists. It was firefighters, who had been sick, and it was nursing moms, and public health advocates, and scientists. Overall it was a diverse group."

Patricia Callahan went to a conference where the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute were also attending, the CFSI claims that "Citizens for Fire Safety is a coalition of fire professionals, educators, community activists, burn centers, doctors, fire departments and industry leaders, united to ensure that our country is protected by the highest standards of fire safety." Later on Callahan went to find the list of members who are actively a part of Citizens for Fire Safety and what she found was "Here is the list of the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute member list." The three names on this list are Albemarle, Chemtura, and Israeli Chemical. The three largest makers of flame retardant in the world. 

Technical Bulletin 117 would have one thing going for it if it actually worked. When the flame retardants, such as PBDE's are exposed to a small flame it slows the ignition of the polyester foam by twelve seconds. However with combination of the fabric it really only prevents the ignition of the foam for a few seconds, and when it does ignite it burns hotter and releases deadly chemicals into the air.

Throughout the course of the film I was opened to a world of chemicals I never new existed. The past couple weeks, learning about Toxicology, has helped develop a new perspective on the industrial work that goes on in our country. The PBDEs that are found in the furniture and other flame retardants has life threatening effects and are even found in our newborn children. The most shocking part of the film is when they had the child wear flame retardant pajamas for one night, and the next day they found traces of it in her urine. I hope the industry changes TB 117 that was based on an idea that has been found to not work.

Flame Retardants 101

Flame Retardants

Flame Retardants are found throughout the household and everyday spaces. Flame retardants are found throughout the the polyester foam typically found in couches, chairs and bedding. Throughout my house I found very little evidence of TB 117 due to the lack of tags being found on the furniture but while searching through the house I found a tag on my Lane chair which contained the TB 117 tag on it. Many of our findings in our school system did not show a tag or the tag was ripped off. 

Throughout the course of Toxic Hot Seat we were able to learn that TB 117 as allowed for the chemicals of flame retardants to be found in the breast milk of woman. Throughout the film we learn that firefighters are at extreme risk in the chemical business, when a house is on fire the flame retardant becomes airborne and can cause fatal outcomes. The flame retardants are found throughout a household and really do not provide much of a security. They claim that is reduces that time a fire is lit by 12 seconds but that is not including the fabric that lights on fire, which drastically increases the time and makes the area much unsafer. 

A much more safer way to proctor people is to use natural items such as cotton, which is more protective and far less dangerous than PBDEs emitted from flame retardants. Throughout watching Toxic Hot Seat I payed close attention to Patricia Callahan and she said "When doing interviews that had to do with chemicals not flame retardants, I often ask what didn't I ask you or what is interesting, and they always say well what you really should be looking at flame retardants." Many health problems can be found through the flame retardants in foam that is located in couches, chairs and bedding.

The most dangerous item in my house or in many houses is most definitely the beds or the seats in an individuals car, the product that has the lowest health risk may be that of furniture you rarely use or small electronics that have been covered with flame retardant. The best alternative would be a more natural resource like tightly woven cotton or wool, but with that being more expensive, is unlikely to happen..

The sofa next to college counseling containing
foam in the padding of the couch

Here distinguishes TB 117 and TB117-2013

TB 117 findings at Proctor

Blue chairs found in the Library contained Foam and Polyester

Here is the a red chair in the Library which
through inspection no tags were found on this chair.

A TB 117 tag found on a bed in my house.