Author: abby_li

On our last day of WEP, we presented to Mr. Self. As we presented the slides, he asked questions along the way which helped strengthen my understanding of the topic. Overall, this work experience was really informative.

Today I met with my group and we did a run through of our presentation. It was nice to see everyone in person after a week and overall the run through was a success. I’m excited to present to Mr. Self tomorrow.

Today I mainly focused on drawing connections between all my research. Specifically, I answered the question “which climate regions are affected the most by permethrin?”. I was able to successfully answer this question by looking at my previous research regarding the specific climate regions and the trends between rainfall/temp and permethrin.

 

Today I continued researching the different climate regions of Africa. Unlike yesterday though, I focused on finding quantitative data. For example, I looked into the common temperature ranges and rainfall for each region. With this new information, I decided to find direct correlations between these factors and permethrin. Specifically, I researched what the relationship between permethrin and rainfall is and what the consequences of that may be. Something interesting I learned is that there are very high levels of permethrin runoff from concrete (~5330 mg/L) and the effects of this residue was still found in runoff water 3 months after treatment. This shows how the permethrin chemical can pose risks even after initial treatment. Overall, Kyler and I were able to finalize the research for our section and all we need to do now is start organizing our research into the PowerPoint. The photo is one of the graphs presented in the study showing the levels of permethrin in runoff water after various trials.

Today, I looked into the different biomes and climatic regions in Africa to help determine the potential effects of permethrin on the different regions. There are 6 different climatic regions total, so Kyler and I split the work, and I researched the rainforest, grasslands, and semiarid regions. It was interesting to see how different and diverse the environment is throughout one continent. A fun fact I learned is that there are 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species in the Congo Rainforest. It was also sad learning that much of the wildlife is at risk due to increased rates of deforestation.

Today we split into different groups to focus on 3 different aspects of the question: the environmental effect of permethrin, its effect on humans, and its effect on specific regions within Sub-Saharan Africa. I worked with Kyler  to address the third effect (regions of Sub-Saharan Africa). In the morning, I called Kyler and we brainstormed ideas and created an outline of topics we want to cover. The rest of the day, we split up and did research. I focused on finding specific studies involving permethrin mosquito nets that were conducted in Sub- Saharan Africa. I found an interesting statistic that says how child mortality declined by 33% with mosquito nets. Later, I looked into the impact of permethrin on fisheries since fishing is a large part of Africa’s economy.

We started with a large group meeting with Mr. Self. He discussed what Vector textiles is and we were introduced with the question that will need to be answered by the end of this WEP: what are the effects of chemicals, specifically permethrin, on the environment in Sub-Saharan Africa? After the discussion, our group created an outline of what will need to be accomplished each day and we started doing general research of what permethrin is and its effect on the environment, people, and animals.