Uses of Carbon in daily life

Chemical properties of astatine – Health effects of astatine – Environmental effects of astatine

Astatine is highly radioactive and is only available in tiny quantities. Astatine can also react with hydrogen to form hydrogen astatide, which when dissolved in water, forms hydroastatic acid. Astatine is the least chemically reactive of the halogens and exhibits the most metallic properties of the halogen group.

State at room temperature Room temperature is usually taken as being 25°C. At this temperature, fluorine and chlorine are gases, bromine is a liquid, and iodine and astatine are solids. There is therefore a trend in state from gas to liquid to solid as you go down the group.

3550 oC

• It makes up for 18% of the human body. Sugar, glucose, proteins etc are all made of it.
• Carbon in its diamond form is used in jewellery.
• Amorphous carbon is used to make inks and paints.
• Graphite is used as the lead in your pencils.
• One of the most important uses is carbon dating.

Symptoms of overexposure by inhalation include dizziness, headache, nausea, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, deeper breathing, increased heart rate (tachycardia), eye and extremity twitching, cardiac arrhythmia, memory disturbances, lack of concentration, visual and hearing disturbances (including photophobia.

When there is exposure to very high levels of CO2, in excess of 5% (50,000 ppm), the body’s compensatory mechanisms can become overwhelmed, and the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) functions are depressed, then fail. Death soon follows.

When we exhale, we breathe out less oxygen but more carbon dioxide than we inhale. The carbon we breathe out as carbon dioxide comes from the carbon in the food we eat. The carbon dioxide is dissolved in the blood, carried to the lungs by the circulation, and breathed out.

So breathe easy. The average human exhales about 2.3 pounds of carbon dioxide on an average day. (The exact quantity depends on your activity level—a person engaged in vigorous exercise produces up to eight times as much CO2 as his sedentary brethren.)

The Role of the Respiratory System is to breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. This is known as respiration. The cells of the body use oxygen to perform functions that keep us alive. The waste product created by the cells once they have performed these functions is carbon dioxide.

The Carbon Majors Database report names the following 10 companies as those which belch most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere:

• China Coal 14.3 %
• Saudi Aramco 4.5 %
• Gazprom OAO 3.9 %
• National Iranian Oil Co 2.3 %
• ExxonMobil Corp 2.0 %
• Coal India 1.9 %
• Petróleos Mexicanos 1.9 %
• Russia Coal 1.9 %

Eighty-five percent of all human-produced carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, including gasoline. Human activities add a worldwide average of almost 1.4 metric tons of carbon per person per year to the atmosphere.

Photosynthesis. Cellular Respiration. Burning fossil fuels.

The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

Carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere by human activities. When hydrocarbon fuels (i.e. wood, coal, natural gas, gasoline, and oil) are burned, carbon dioxide is released. During combustion or burning, carbon from fossil fuels combine with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide and water vapor.

Energy consumption is by far the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for a whopping 73% worldwide. The energy sector includes transportation, electricity and heat, buildings, manufacturing and construction, fugitive emissions and other fuel combustion.

Hence, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) livestock generate 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents — more than the entire transport sector, automobiles, trains, ships, and planes.

5 Causes of Global Warming

• Greenhouse Gases Are the Main Reasons for Global Warming.
• Cause #1: Variations in the Sun’s Intensity.
• Cause #2: Industrial Activity.
• Cause #3: Agricultural Activity.
• Cause #4: Deforestation.
• Cause #5: Earth’s Own Feedback Loop.

What solutions to consider? Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy. Solar, Wind, Geothermal and biomass could be the solution. Our transport methods must be aligned with environmental requirements and reduce their carbon footprint.