The bioremediation expert, Kent comes to class.

Kent Armstrong
Picture from Kent's Twitter

In class on Monday, January 25th Kent Armstrong came to the campus of Proctor Academy in little Andover NH to talk with our D block APES class. Kent is a environmental manager and is a Bioremediation specialist. Kent works for a company named, BioStryke, which deals with toxic and contaminated areas by cleaning them up or contain them using bioremediation.



Before Kent is able to treat a site he must think, what will happen to the public health, what could be potentially effected and the environmental risks. After Kent has to give the client a price, an estimate of what it will cost. But here is the thing, the client can save money by using Kent and his bioremediation process if he has the time to wait. If he does not have the time to wait the client must think about more expensive but quicker methods such as soil washing, inorganic chemical stabilization, disposal in a land fill or incineration.


When Kent is hired and arrives at a site, he has a process and an order of which to follow.

• First he and his team evaluate. By evaluating they are looking into the history of the site, the previous testings of the site, and they will start to take mall site samples. 
• Second Kent and his team will survey and map. Surveying and mapping allow Kent to then create a flow rate for the contaminants and bare samples, and have locations for these samples.
• Thirdly we have Kent's specialty. The Bioremediation. The process of bioremediation is as follows, with the ability of drilling Kent injects the contaminated area with "food". This "food" consists of things like carbohydrates and sugars. Kent adds biostimulants to enhance the bioremediation process. ("Bioremediation is a technique for waste management that involves the use of organisms, the bugs, to remove or neutralize the chemicals from contaminated sites.) 

*Below shows a comprehendible picture of bioremediation*

picture by: science.halleyhosting.com

You may ask yourself like I did, does bioremediation actually work? The answer in yes. Kent and his team at BioStryke have proof. That after 15 years a previously contaminated site of theirs was tested with no remaining results of any contaminants. As Kent said, "There may be a couple of yellow tennis balls left (meaning toxic material) but such a small amount that the sampling has not picked up any traces." If you have the time to wait and the money to do so, your safest bet is to use our friend Kent and his company BioStryke to clean up all of your toxic messes. 

By having Kent come visit and talk to our class I have a greater understanding of not only bioremediation, but other ways of going about cleaning up toxic land areas. While the luxury of having the class discussion on youtube to watch after Kent had come to class is great, I do wish I had gotten the chance to meet with him and person and ask a couple of clarifying questions about a topic or just ask some more questions about his life and how he got top where he is. There was not only a lot to what Kent had to say but a lot of meaning, even if he did go off onto little tangents. The effect that Kent has on these areas with little hope is amazing. It gives me hope that one day I can do my part in helping the planet we all share and live on together, Earth.

To some this information may be advanced or too much, so if there is one thing I want you to take away from this blog is that Kent and BioStryke are doing amazing things to help our environment and they are doing their part in "Helping mother nature out with the overflow of substances that she can not keep up with herself."

Lets now do our part to never need need BioStryke and to never see this.

Picture by: BioStryke

Let's not light any fires

The movie, Toxic Hot Seat has begun to churn thoughts in my head about what could be harmful to me in the everyday items that I use and what the consequences could be, both short and long term. Throughout the movie, I was assigned to follow the story of Karen Kerr Stone. Karen is a Lieutenant of the San Francisco fire department.


She has a role in the movie which is critical, she is not arguing the legal side of things but she in interested in researching and creating awareness for companies, fire fighters and fire departments. Karen began researching the effects certain chemicals have on the fire fighters exposed to them. Also she was able to find out which kinds of chemicals are released at what different kinds of fires.


Karen's story puts things into perspective, with her story of being a fire fighter, and her colleague Alison Greene passing away at a young age due to toxins while battling fires. While filing a report of Alison's death, Karen was blown away by the number of toxins her and here colleagues have been exposed to over the year.








So think about it, "Among 40 to 50 year old female fire fighters in San Francisco, the breast cancer rate is 6 times the national average for that age group. So lets do what we can to let these every day household items no take away the lives of those we know and love.








I got thinking. In my life, how have I been affected in my life by the toxins? I was breast fed as a child, does that have any affect on me? Possibly, but testing for the toxins at a long term rate is so difficult to determine.


So for our D Block APES class we began to sample items in our every day life in order to check out our time and amount of exposure. I started by sampling item in my house (mostly furniture), I could determine time exposed to the fire retardant and the health and age risks for me and my family members.


While looking through my house the room I had found myself spending the most time in flipping over cushions and chairs where in the den and the living room. Each of the two rooms have two couches in each, one recliner, and a desk chair. These two rooms are littered with health risks from the fire retardants used in the process of making these items.

This is the tag containing the TB117 label

By far the most abundant product were the chairs in the dining room. All with the tag approved with the TB117 stamped on it.










When I think about the items that are uses most often in my daily life at home I thought the couch, because while searching my mattress for tags I could not find any. After discussing with Alan, I determined that my most used and most impactful item to my health was my mattress.

Dining room chair with lowest health risk

Couch with one of the greatest health risk

The product with the highest health risk would be the most used, which to me would be my mattress as I discussed above, and the product with the lowest health risk would be the dinning room chairs. The chairs that are in my dining room are rarely used and the size of the foam that is on the chair is very small compared to a couch or a love seat.

Today during class we were sampling the wise center for furniture with the TB117. Out of the 28 chairs and couches we sampled, 23 of them were CLEARLY LABLED with the TB117. Below is what we found for the varieties of furniture. *Remember these products are used daily while on campus.*

As all of the information about this health hazard may be overwhelming, there is one thing we need to consider. The regulation TB117 was only implemented in California, which is the only fire retardant regulation in the world. So let's make a stand to ban. (TB117 that is) why don't we just get rid of it all together? It's proven harmful so why do we still feel the need to produce it. We shouldn't.

We need to stop this and prevent these lethal toxins from entering our bodies. 

Lets make a change, it doesn't start without your help.

All photos by Eric Bonewald

Are we starting a fire with fire retardants

The movie, Toxic Hot Seat has begun to churn thoughts in my head about what could be harmful to me in the everyday items that I use and what the consequences could be, both short and long term. By     sampling item in my house (mostly furniture), I could determine time exposed to the fire retardant and the health and age risks for me and my family members.

While looking through my house the room I had found myself spending the most time in flipping over cushions and chairs where in the den and the living room. With two couches in each, one recliner, and a desk chair these two rooms are littered with health risks from the fire retardants used in the process of making these items.

The notice for my couch at home

The couch its self

By far the most abundant product were the chairs in the dining room. All with the tag approved with the TB117 stamped on it.

Dining room chair

Dining room chair tag

When I think about the items that are uses most often in my daily life at home I thought the couch, because while searching my mattress for tags I could not find any. After discussing with Alan, I determined that my most used and most impactful item to my health was my mattress.

The product with the highest health risk would be the most used, which to me would be my mattress as I discussed above, and the product with the lowest health risk would be the dinning room chairs. The chairs that are in my dining room are rarely used and the size of the foam that is on the chair is very small compared to a couch or a love seat.

Today during class we were sampling the wise center for furniture with the TB117. Out of the 28 chairs and couches we sampled, 23 of them were CLEARLY LABLED with the TB117. Below is what we found for the varieties of furniture. *Remember these products are used daily.*

Wise center couch with TB117 tag

Wise center chair with TB117 tag

So let's make a stand to ban. (TB117 that is) why don't we just get rid of it all together? It's proven harmful so why do we still feel the need to produce it. We shouldn't. As bad and gruesome as this may sound, I believe in my imagination, burning is a faster way of death than a long painful battle with cancer.

We need to stop this and prevent these lethal toxins from entering our bodies. 

Lets make a change, it doesn't start without your help.

All image taken by Eric Bonewald