Chemistry in Everyday Life, Hydrogen Peroxide PDF

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An example of how chemistry is used in everyday life from my SCH3U course....

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Chemistry in Everyday Life Chemistry and chemical compounds play an important role in our daily lives. Though we might not pay much attention to it, think about some of the compounds involved in our daily schedules. For example, you wake up, you brush your teeth. Toothpaste contains calcium carbonate, mouthwash contains menthol and thymol, more chemicals to add to the list. Maybe after a while, you have a cup of coffee before work or school, which contains caffeine. An example of a molecular compound you may use in everyday life is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide differs from water with only one extra oxygen atom, though this turns it into a powerful oxidizer. With a chemical formula of H2O2, hydrogen peroxide can be used as an antiseptic for your skin, and help you clean and disinfect your whole house. Though, what are some ways you can actually use hydrogen peroxide? First and foremost, for cleansing your skin. Hydrogen peroxide works in such a way that once applied to your skin, the release of the oxygen atoms foam on your skin, which in turn removes dead skin cells and cleanse the area (though you should always clean the area first before applying hydrogen peroxide anyways). You can also use it to rinse your mouth, similar to mouthwash, to help with cankers or gingivitis (inflamed gums) and even whiten your teeth. To clear some things up, you should never use hydrogen peroxide to cleanse bites, or deep wounds. For the most part, there are other things you can apply to your skin rather than this peroxide that would be more safe, effective, and practical. It is more recommended to use hydrogen peroxide to rinse your mouth rather than apply to your skin. If you do apply it to your skin, stay away from large patches of skin, your eyes, nose, and any other sensory organs. Secondly, you can also use hydrogen peroxide to clean up and disinfect your entire household, as it is a practical antiseptic. You can use it to disinfect mouth guards, toothbrushes, and retainers, as long as you don’t ingest it. No matter how safe it may seem, ingesting hydrogen peroxide will cause vomiting and sometimes problems to hollow organs. You can also use it to disinfect kitchen sponges (which contain harmful bacteria like salmonella and E.coli if not cleaned regularly), as well as your cutting boards. You can also use it to sanitize your beauty and makeup tools, a dip and rub of hydrogen peroxide is enough. Lastly, you can use hydrogen peroxide as a practical whitener, for pretty much anything. You can whiten your discoloured nails by mixing hydrogen peroxide and baking soda in a bowl, dip your nails in for around three minutes then rinse with water. Through the same mix, you can whiten discoloured cookware, and even game consoles. If you don’t like using bleach to whiten

your clothes, you can actually use hydrogen peroxide to the washer, this also helps get rid of stains on clothes. Hydrogen peroxide works miracles, as it is relatively safe (especially in its 3% form), over the counter, and practical. You can use it as an antiseptic/disinfectant for everywhere around your house, a whitener, and various other uses. It is kept in a dark bottle as it breaks down to water when exposed to sunlight or heat, which means you’ll just be cleaning with water and it ruins the purpose. You can find it over the counter in a few forms, 3%, 6%, and food grade. I would recommend hydrogen peroxide for daily life, and for household cleaning. What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an amalgamation of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is defined as litter that ends up in the ocean, and many other large bodies of water. The patch as a whole consists of the Eastern Patch, and Western Patch which is located between Hawaii and California, and Japan respectively. The entire garbage patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre which is a large system of swirling ocean currents, acting as a highway for even more debris to enter the patch. The patch is mainly made up of little bits of plastic that are not visible to the naked eye, and are not biodegradable, as the plastic only keeps splitting into tiny pieces. Now that we’ve cleared up what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, what is it doing to our marine life? It’s not just all plastics in the patch. Fishing gear, shoes, and other various items are found floating around the patch. Animals are at risk with abandoned fishing gear and nets strangling them, creating death traps for sea animals. World Animal Protection estimate that around 640,000 tonnes of gear is discarded annually, which results in at least 136,000 seals and sea lions, and even whales. Animals become entangled in the gear and may drown in minutes, or some enduring long and lasting painful deaths that can last for months or years on end. Microplastics and other debris also block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae deep down below the surface. Algae and plankton serve as a food source for sea creatures, and also as sponges for carbon. What can be done to stop this? Due to the large amount of trash found in the garbage patch, the most important thing is the prevention of new debris from entering the patch. This means putting a stop to littering, and avoiding the use of plastic whenever possible. Using renewable sources such as metal straws is something simple that even you can do. When you do use plastic, make sure it is biodegradable. Moving on from plastic is the number one way to help this problem from further development. What strategies are being used in the Edmonton Composting Facility to accelerate the composting timeline? The Edmonton Composting Facility is now shutting down as the conditions inside the facility were longer safe to continue operating and the organic waste will

now be moved into the recently finished Anaerobic Digestion Facility. The Edmonton Composting Facility used co-composting for organic waste. This method uses household waste and biosolids and microorganisms to break down into a simple compost....