Adventure Ausrama Blog

Chromium like mercury has a bad name. We have all heard of mercury poisoning. It is a nasty and potentially fatal condition. Many miners today suffer from it particularly in developing countries where workplace health and safety is non-existent. Chromium comes in a variety of forms. It is used in compound with other metals. Its main use is for chrome plating, an industry which is fading as people turn to plastic based alternatives.  Chromium poisoning can occur through breathing in dust, eating, drinking, skin absorption and smoking.  Symptoms include dermatitis, asthma, ulcers, general infection, mucus membrane inflammation, burns on skin, respiratory tract inflammation, conjunctivitis with ulcers and lung cancer. It is disconcerting to hear that chromium supplements are being offered to lose weight. Like smoking, general body inflammation can keep one skinny, but it is an irrational thing to do. The US Academy of Science claims that 200 micrograms a day is safe. The latest re

You don't have to be big to kill a crocodile. A relatively small imported pest can kill one. Cane toads are in plague proportions in the Northern Territory.  Some like it so much here they have grown to be much larger than in their native Central America. Cane toads have poisonous sacks on their heads. When a saltwater crocodile eats a toad assuming it to be a tasty snack the salty ingests the poison and dies.  The problem is so serious that the crocodile population has fallen by half in some areas. Because the species takes a long time to breed up numbers, crocodiles could become very scarce in some regions. Introducing cane toads was a great mistake by Australian scientists. They were brought in to combat beetles destroying sugar crops in 1935, but the toads ignored the beetles and now threaten many native species by eating what they eat. To travel faster around the country some toads have developed larger hind legs to cover a greater distance before the sun goes down. ht