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May 19, 2006

Puget Sound: Full of Vanilla and Spice, and not everything nice

December 26, 2006 06:14 PM EST

views: 25 | comments: 7

This story from the Associate Press "UW Researchers: Holiday cookies have impact on Puget Sound" today caught my eye. I usually don't consider any of the pollution Puget Sound might have as anything 'good', but this article shows just how much influence we have on the environment around us. Not just the oceans, but in everything we do. An excerpt from the article states:

Keil and UW researcher Jaqui Neibauer's testing of treated sewage headed for the Sound from the West Point Treatment Plant in Magnolia showed that cinnamon, vanilla and artificial vanilla all rose between Nov. 14 and Dec. 9, with the biggest spike on the weekly test right after Thanksgiving.

So far, they've found no evidence that snickerdoodles are harming sea creatures, but their research does lead to some serious environmental questions.

Fish do rely heavily on their sense of smell to locate food, however, and, in the case of salmon, to find their way back to their home stream to spawn.

Read the article to see just how much caffeine is in Puget Sound too. More

Tags: caffeine, vanilla, environment, spice, you will never look at cookies the same way again, webduck, people, homemade, pollution

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Comments: 7

Lori C. Dec 26, 2006, 6:43pm EST

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this article with us.

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Larry H. Dec 26, 2006, 7:08pm EST

what they going to test for next?

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Ms. Meacham: Money Maven Dec 26, 2006, 8:31pm EST

What an interesting perspective on how we impact the environment simply by what we wash down the drain. Could this be a call for improved water treatment facilities? I'm saddened to think of how substances such as the pills we take and the pesticides we wash off of our produce are affecting the species that live in the water. Thank you for this enlightening piece.

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Webduck * Dec 26, 2006, 9:07pm EST

Thank you for the comments. Jennifer, I was concerned too because I (mistakenly) thought that treated water meant "clean" water going back into the Sound. But, as is probably true all over the world, much of what gets washed into our bodies of water is untreated from things like inadequate drain fields, to name just one. Again, I am reminded to "never assume".

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Ruth MacGill Dec 26, 2006, 9:39pm EST

Good Heaven's Webduck, with all the worry about what Dubya and his mentor, Cheney, might bring down on us in the next two years, now I've got to worry about Salmon getting lost because of vanilla in the bay! I'm sorrry. It is not funny. It is just one more serious example of pollution endangering wild life, and hazards to wild life means dangers to us humans, too.

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