BIO

My name is John Stainbrook and I am from Sarasota Florida. I am passionate about fitness and love spending time outdoors. I continue my interest in public health related research due to its focus on positively impacting the health of people and the communities they are a part of. I am pursuing a career as a physician to have an active role in saving and impacting lives.

F-Sand for Lake Munson

Abstract

The over 100-year history of pollution at Lake Munson has continued into modern day with sewage spills and contaminant runoff continuing to pollute Munson and the Munson Slough. This long history of pollution and neglect has negatively impacted the health of community members many of whom are suffering from cancer diagnoses and severe health and quality of life complications. My previous research with Terry Ryan and Ali Bell found statistically significant evidence (p=0, n>50) that the census tracts encompassing Lake Munson and the Munson Slough had lower life expectancies than the Leon County average. F-Sand is an affordable and naturally produced cationic filter media that has been successfully used in Rwanda to remove negatively charged E-Coli and Polystyrene particles from drinking water. F-sand utilizes the cationic protein from Moringa oleifera seed serum extract to reverse the charge of sand and bind to negatively charged molecules. Nitrate and phosphate anions are some of the most common eutrophicating agents leading to harmful algal blooms, common place at Lake Munson. I have created a calibration curve comparing log-Absorbance at 198 nm wavelength to NO3-N PPM (m=1.2012, b=0.3721, R^2=.9092) on a Cary 60 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer to quantify experimental results. If my hypothesis that F-sand can remove eutrophicating anions from the water column is true, then harmful algal blooms could be reduced at Lake Munson with an affordable “sandbag filter” design. If successful, a litany of other applications such as fertilizer run off induced red tide could be explored to positively impact health.

Keywords: F-Sand, Lake Munson, Nitrate