Side Notes

At this point in my research I will be focusing on water and soil quality. To do this I need to buy standards from NIST for water and soil so that I can calibrate the machine to analyze things other than toys. I as well still need to call Scott Kellogg of the Raddix Center to assist him in analyzing water or soil quality for Albany, NY. Below are a list of websites that have helped me in research.

http://www.nist.gov
http://radixcenter.org
http://www.bruker.com
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm
http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-resource-conservation-and-recovery-act

My current tasks are to:

1. Purchase water and soil standards
2. Begin full analysis on Siena College's water and soil
3. Contact Scott Kellogg and assist in projects
4. Write a report on my findings

My research is finally starting to take shape. Last week was about reconnaissance and next week will be about implementing the steps I need to begin analyzing data.

A Good Way to Ruin Your Childhood

Testing Toxicity of Children's Toys

Intro-

Recently, I have been using the machine to investigate chemicals in children’s toys. As part of the CPSIA, XOS created the HD Prime Analyzer to investigate this topic. I chose to take a closer look at a toy car, Legos, play dough (not the actual brand), and plastic toy handcuffs. I went in believing the handcuffs, which were made in China, would hold the highest content of toxins. I as well believed the play dough would be the safest seeing as kids are most likely to put it in their mouths. What I found was very surprising results.

Toy Car-

The toy car, Hotwheels brand, was the first toy investigated. I checked it off as a metal toy and ran an analysis. What I found was the toy showed no threats chemically (If we are talking about the wheels, then there is serious physical harm. Those things really hurt when they pinch you).

Play Dough-

Remember as a kid when you used to make delicious looking Play Dough pizzas and then bite into them only to realize it tasted like complete garbage. Well even if you never did that, I still remember. When doing an analysis on a generic brand I found frightening results: 87815 ppm of Cl. Cl is one of the eight tested toxic elements and in this product it failed with flying colors (red to be exact). Beware: DO NOT LET KIDS MAKE ANY FOOD OUT OF PLAY DOUGH!

Handcuffs-

I hated toy handcuffs as a kid! Not because I used to accidentally chain myself to the table, but because they never worked and bruised my wrists. Because they looked like they were bought at some dollar store and were made in China, I believed they had to packed with lead and who knows what else. Yet when I tested them, they were clean. I guess I really need to end my grudge with my least favorite toy.

Legos-

My favorite toy ever! One time I built the Star Wars Lego edition of Cloud City. It was the coolest set I ever had. I want to kill myself now. If I never had opened it then it would be worth over $1000 now! Anyways, I happily put my childhood pride into the machine and practically cried when I read the results: 52.6 ppm of Sb. This is not the worse reading, but it could be a little safer. Do you know how many Lego blocks I swallowed as a kid (I’m sure that the Sb probably wasn’t the worst reason I shouldn’t have been eating them, but still!)?

Physics T-Shirt Designs

Below are two rough sketch designs for the physics t-shirts. One is a very basic clean design, while the other is a little more busy and creative. Once we decide what type of logo we want, I can redo it so it comes out as a cleaner design.

Siena College Water Analysis

Intro:

Earlier I said that I collected a random sample of tap water from Roger Bacon and found it to contain high levels of antimony. I then decided to preform a study on several water sources from Roger Bacon, Siena College campus, and from products. In the study I specifically investigated: my control (air), secondary control (soil), water from Roger Bacon’s first floor sink, second floor sink, the environmental lounge, and a distilled sink. I as well collected samples from Padua Hall, the dinning Hall, and from bottled water.

Side Notes:

In the study I ran two tests for each sample. If the sample produced similar results from both tests, then I only posted results from one of them. However, if I received two differing results from one sample, then both results were posted.

Controls:

Before I went any further into this study, I wanted to make sure there was not a chunk of antimony stuck to the HD Prime (honesty, I wish that were the case). I also needed to make sure that the antimony was not coming from the test containers. My first control was to us just the container or in other words, a sample of air. It recorded safe levels of all the toxic metals, ensuring me that it was not the plastic nor was there a chunk of antimony logged into the machine. Just for reassurance I as well ran a test on soil I collected from outside. It read off safe levels too. Now I could go into the study knowing that if the HD Prime read off crazy numbers of antimony, it was real.

Figure 1. Air Control

Figure 2. Soil Control

Sample 1-5:

Samples 1-5 came from various locations within Roger Bacon. Sample #1 was the first sample I had collected approximately one week ago. In that x-ray analysis approximately 276 ppm of antimony were found. Hoping it would just be a fluke I proceeded to run it again several days later. Sample #2 was the recent sample of the first floor sink that resulted in 518 ppm of antimony to be found (much higher than the sample several days earlier).

Figure 3. Sample #1.

Figure 4. Sample #2.

I then decided to investigate all of Roger Bacon. Sample #3 came from the second floor sink and produced a reading of 504 ppm of antimony. Next, I went into the Environmental lounge (sample #4) and recorded 676 ppm of antimony being found.

Figure 5. Sample #3.

Figure 6. Sample #4.

At this point I knew there was a problem in Roger Bacon. My last hope was to collect data from a distilled water sink in Roger Bacon (Sample #5). Distilled water is supposed to be a pure form of water that can reliably be used for experiments. My two results varied greatly: one being 15ppm of antimony being found and the other containing 239 ppm. So, maybe this source is not so reliable for experimenting, but it is a little cleaner than the other water sources in Roger Bacon.

Figure 7. Sample #5.

Other Water Sources:

My last three samples taught me very important rules about where to get my water from. First, sample #6, which came from bottled water (Natures Place Spring Water) had safe levels of toxic chemicals. If all else fails I can safely buy water that will not kill me. Sample #7 came from Padua Hall where I currently live. This sample as well read off safe levels for me. Now, I can take a shower without being afraid. Unfortunately, sample #8 from the dining hall read off hazardous levels of antimony (approximately 701 ppm).

Figure 8. Sample #6.

Figure 9. Sample #7.

Figure 10. Sample #8.

Questioning:

So, why could it be that some of the water sources were reading high levels of antimony while others were not? I can only infer based on the characteristics of antimony and the history of the school.

Characteristics of Antimony:

I previously mentioned antimony being a heavy metal with several health risks. Besides that, I found antimony was once used in plumbing. It wasn’t until 1958 that antimony was first noted as being something potentially hazardous as stated by WHO. This issue was brought up again in 1963 and 1971. However, it was not until 1980’s WHO published the Standards for Drinking Water.

History of Siena College and Inferences:

Interestingly enough, it appears all of the older buildings at Siena College with old piping are the ones releasing antimony into the drinking water. Roger Bacon was built in 1965, which is prior to antimony standards being listed. As well, the dining hall was built even earlier. Padua Hall on the other hand was built in the 2000’s meaning it should be up to date on standards. I suspect then that all new buildings will have low readings of antimony and all older building (most likely built before the 1980’s) will have high levels of antimony in the drinking water. I feel safe saying the water of New York is not toxic, but rather Siena College needs to fix the piping.

Future studies:

I wish to come back to this with more information including: more tests on the remaining buildings and an understanding of how harsh these levels of antimony are. Antimony does not bioaccumulate, so are these readings that hazardous to us? More to come in the future.

****************
Update May 28th '14

More issues to come.

When I went into Foy hall, a rather old building, it was to no surprise it tested for high levels of antimony. What confused me was that Morrell Science center, a rather new building did too.

Figure 11. Foy Hall.

Figure 12. Morrell Center.

My new theory is I cannot proceed until I obtain a software that analyzes things other than synthetics. Currently, the machine only tests consumer products, not soil, water, and foods (which I want it to). I am now looking into buying the standards so I have a proper comparison. For now I will hold on to all of the water samples until I can proceed.

Figure 13. All the samples.

One last note. Why is it that the set standard for water is supposedly .006 ppm, but I am getting numbers much larger? Also, I read you get sick if water has 15ppm of antimony, but I have apparently been drinking water with much more than that. The next step must be to buy resources so that I can properly calibrate the machine.

Understand Characteristics of X-rays

I have been using some very confusing terminology at times. Below is the URL to a great web page that will explain everything on x-ray characteristics. It discusses light spectrum, K orbitals, L orbitals, M orbitals, and energy peaks. I often get confused by scientific writings and I was ably to understand this source just fine.

http://www.amptek.com/pdf/characteristic_xrays.pdf

Siena College Water Sample

What I am about to present was not meant to be anything in particular. I had one hour left of work and I decided to spend it analyzing random things I could find. But, it was in this hour I stumbled across something concerning.

Siena College, located in Loudonville NY might have toxic water.  I randomly chose to analyze the drinking water in Roger Bacon (our science building). Note: this was the only building I surveyed so I cannot make the same judgment for other buildings until further tests are run.

Results

The HD Prime works by surveying samples for their elemental makeup. It specifically looks for eight toxic elements. When an element is found in a substance above its regulated standards (set by the CPSIA) the box will appear red. Below is what the HD Pime found in the water sample. The EPA allows for .006 ppm of antimony in drinking water, but my smaple contained approximatky 276 ppm. Next week I am going to go around and test water samples from all around campus. I hope this is a fluke sample (all though in another sample from that day I found even more).

I hope that an error occurred through cross contamination. I had just worked with limestone that had high levels of antimony in it. It is possible some hight have crossed over into my contaier before I filled it with water. As well, the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry said anything above 17ppm will make you sick. I will be looking into this water issue all next week.

Side Effects

Side effects of antimony include respetory iritation, pneumoconiosis, gastrointestinal symptoms, and cancer.

Experiment #1

Summary

This experiment was to use basic, high definition x-ray fluorescence such as the HD Prime, to assign a composition to three minerals. In the experiment Copper, Limestone and Galena were analyzed.  Copper was the first model used because it would mostly contain copper (Cu) in it, making it easy to read for the first sample. Limestone, also known as calcium carbonate, was then used because it was an intermediate compound that would be slightly harder to read. Lastly, galena was chosen as a complex ore to read and understand its composition (I mainly chose it because I did not know any elements that go into its composition).

This experiment was simply a trial run to get me comfortable with the equipment and reading the graphs. Note: The graphs work by showing me spikes in counts of atoms (found on the y-axis). The x-axis tells me how much energy was being released by the x-ray (units: KeV). Based on where the peaks are found on the x-axis only certain elements will emit energy at those quantities and be counted. For example copper releases energy back when hit with energies of approximately 8.04 KeV and 8.904 KeV. The machine then reads these “coordinates” and identifies the element along with its count.

I could have very easily just read the results the machine gave me on counts of atoms found, but that would not be any fun nor would it teach me how the machine works. By using the graphs I am that much closer to understanding and appreciating how x-ray analysis works.

Figure 1. Minerals: copper, limestone, and galena.

Copper

If we look at the graph below we will see peaks in energy at around 8 KeV and 9 KeV on the x-axis. I then used an energy chart and say that copper releases a K-alpha at and 8.04 K-beta at 8.904 Looking back down at the graph we see that our peaks occur very close to those numbers, thus identifying those energy peaks at copper. This was a very simple model used to have a basic understanding of how to read the graph. (Note: K-alpha and K-beta are the emission lines of when atoms transfer to lower shells. Also, the ratio of K-alpha lines to K-beta lines is 10:1)

Figure 2. Graph from copper sample.

Limestone

The limestone sample was a little harder to read seeing as it had multiple peaks that belong to a mixture of elements. If we look at the first two peaks we see a K-alpha at approximately x=3.5 and a K-beta at approximately x=4. Then looking at the energy chart I see it matches that of calcium where K-alpha=3.691 and K-beta=4.012. Doing the same thing for the next peak I see my K-alpha is approximately 6.3, which matches iron where K-alpha=6.403. Again, I find peaks at x=14.2 and x=15.8, which closely resemble strontium where K-alpha=14.164 and K-beta=15.834.

What is interesting though is the last two peaks that closely resemble molybdenum that has a K-alpha=17.478 and K-beta=19.06. What makes this interesting is that in the list of elements that one in particular does not appear. So then what could it be? Towards the end we see a wide peak that represents the whole substance being read. Could it be then that the two peaks prior belong to nothing in particular as well?

Figure 3. Graph from limestone sample.

Galena

To say the least, galena confused me. After reviewing a full summary of data the three most common elements were lead, bismuth, and sulfur. However, when referring to the graph I cannot find half of those elements. The first small peak occurs roughly at x=2.4, making it the K-alpha for sulfur.

The next part is what makes everything confusing. After reading the manual, only k emissions should be released. Lead and bismuth however, do not release k emissions until over 70 keV, much higher than the graph goes and the machine outputs for an energy level. Now I am curious as to how the machine finds elements past 30keV when I believe that is the largest amount of energy it releases.

The remaining peaks might belong to As, Kr, and Y, but I do not want to finalize that until I learn what I am doing wrong.

Figure 4. Graph from galena sample.

Conclusions

After my first week of research I can identify easy-intermediate samples by using a graph. I still have much to learn on graphs of x-ray fluorescence, but I have made vast improvements sense the first day. This experiment has taught me the basics of how to read x-ray fluorescence graphs, compare them to the tables count (note I did not post the tables because they are very long), and learn interesting things about minerals.

**************

May 27th
Update

Below are updates on the graphs for Galena and Limestone. I realized for Galena, the lines I had trouble with belonged to Pb, but it was the L-orbital releasing energy rather than the K-orbital. As for limestone, I am still not sure why my last spike belongs to. Looking at the graph it would most likely be Mo, however Mo is not sound in the list of elements. Limestone may forever be a mystery to me, unless anyone has ideas.