Chinese Milk Scandal

 When we buy food from a shop, we assume that food is safe to eat, but sometimes it isn't!

In 2008 six babies died from kidney stones and an estimated 54,000 babies were hospitalized in China after being fed "Infant Formula" (baby milk) adulterated with melamine, an industrial chemical. It is thought that about 300,000 babies in total were affected by what came to be known as the "Chinese Milk Scandal".

Why was melamine added to Infant Formula? And why did it take so long to discover its addition?

Read more in this edition of AUS-e-NEWS:

Subscribe to AUS-e-NEWS at https://www.ausetute.com.au/ausenews.html

 

2022 World Science Festival Brisbane

 World Science Festival Brisbane 9-13 March 2022. 

https://www.worldsciencefestival.com.au/

Slim pickings for chemistry (yet again this year), unless you are a tiny child who thinks making slime is the highlight of your day. 

With Australia moving towards battery storage for electricity, why are isn't there an "event" discussing big lithium-ion batteries, or the proposed next-gen alternatives? 

Or fuel cells? 

Queensland Government has a strategy for the "hydrogen industry", so where is the "event" discussing the production and use of hydrogen in a so-called "hydrogen economy"? 

How about an "event" that discusses water treatment? desalination? 

An "event" that discusses the "effectiveness" of home water filters (and dare I suggest face masks)? 

What about an "event" to talk about "food fraud", what it is, how it is detected, what we can do about it. 

Recycling plastics? Compostable polymers? Soluble polymers? 

It's not hard to think of relevant chemistry topics for a "science festival". 

 

South Australia sets a poor example

 I've always admired South Australia for its innovative and interesting chemistry syllabi, and it's great that females are being featured in chemistry labs, but the current image on their website is a big fail in terms of chemistry education.

 

https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/chemistry

 

Can you see any problems with this photo?

(revise "Safety in the Lab" at https://www.ausetute.com.au/safety.html)

Shapes of Melting Ice

 What shape is submerged ice as it melts?

That depends on temperature apparently ..

 Which suggests that we can infer water temperature in nature by observing the shape of its melting ice.

Scott Weady, Joshua Tong, Alexandra Zidovska, and Leif Ristroph (2022); Anomalous Convective Flows Carve Pinnacles and Scallops in Melting Ice. Phys. Rev. Lett 128(4)  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.044502

SI Units for Chemistry Students

What is an SI unit?

What is the SI Unit of mass?

Is ms a metre second or a millisecond?

Is V the symbol for electric potential or volts?

The answers to these and other questions about SI units can be found at https://www.ausetute.com.au/siunits.html

AUS-e-TUTE members should log-in to use the new SI Unit learning resources, including digital flash cards.

Mass Concentration (m/v)

 There are lots of ways to measure concentration in chemistry.

One method is to divide the mass of solute by the volume of solution: m/v

This is called a mass concentration and common units for mass concentration are g/L or g L^-1

AUS-e-TUTE has just added new teaching and learning resources for mass concentration calculations (game, test, drill, quiz, worksheet and problem solving template).

Members should log-in to use these new resources.

Non-members can go to the "free-to-view" tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/massconc.html

Food Fraud in Australia?

Congratulations to Dr Michael Smith, Associate Professor Mahmud Ashraf, Professor Chris Austin
and Associate Professor Rebecca Lester of  Deakin University on the publication of "Product fraud: Impacts on Australian agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries" (November 2021). This report gives a good, concise, overview of known recent agricultural product fraud from all over the world. While it can make for scary reading, it is a reminder to stay vigilant when buying food. Here is a little taste of what you will find in the report,

"Turmeric is considered highly vulnerable to food fraud, with
frequent incidents of contamination with lead chromate (a
yellow colourant) reported. A study found that seven of nine
turmeric-growing areas in Bangladesh showed evidence
of turmeric adulteration with lead chromate. Levels of lead
exceeded national limits by up to 500 times (24-9-19)."

You can download a copy of the report at the AgriFutures Australia website: https://www.agrifutures.com.au/product/product-fraud-impacts-on-australian-agriculture-fisheries-and-forestry-industry/

Examples of food fraud can be used when teaching chemistry. Students can calculate the concentration of milk or fruit juice after it has been fraudulently diluted, and then compare that to what is stated on the nutrition panel product label. You can learn a lot about the properties of chemical compounds and mixtures by making a fake egg or fake milk. You could used the adulteration of "manuka honey" to teach spectroscopy, or the melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) in milk scandal to teach percentage composition or volumetric analysis. The pedagogical possibilities are limited only by the resourcefulness of the food fraudsters.

If you are looking for some more inspiration, try "Sorting the Beef from the Bull: The Science of food fraud forensics" (Evershed, R., and Temple, N, 2017). And yes, I may have bought it because it has such a great title ... you all know me too well 😉