“Far from being the rock or island in the Simon and Garfunkel song, it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is 'sponge’. We’re permeable. We’re absorbent.” (Smith, Lourie, 2) This quote from Slow Death by Rubber Duck best explains what is going on with all of these chemicals we are all surrounded with; it affects us so much because we are literally sponges. This book explains a new chemical in each chapter that is in our everyday lives and explains the experiment and how it affects us. I, only reading 2 chapters found the book pretty interesting; I read the last chapter named, ‘Mothers Know Best’. I chose to skip from the introduction I chapter eight because I love kids so seeing Mothers knows best caught my attention right away. That chapter told of a protest against baby bottles that contain bisphenol A (BPA) causing children to go through early development because it mimics estragon, also could have neurological issues in the future.

Back to the quote; it’s very important that people are aware of the fact that our bodies absorb everything! I’ve realized more and more how much I’m affecting my future health because of my everyday routine. For example, I went to heat up some leftovers that was in a plastic container but decided to dirty a dish and use the glass plate instead. People just don’t think ‘well if it’s sold in the store to be safe enough to put our food in, they wouldn’t sell us stuff that is going to hurt us’. Well they do. Now it’s up to you to eliminate as much from your daily routine as you can.

I think that this model capstone was a good idea, you can take something you’re interested in, do a little research and end up learning about something you were completely unaware of. It’s good to know all of the information I’ve learned in this five weeks doing a model capstone; excited to do my own. Overall it’s a fun project, compared to sitting in class listening to a teacher talk and doing worksheets, it gives us as students a sense of control or variety instead of so concrete and normal.

Smith, Rick, and Bruce Lourie. "Introduction Page 2." Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2009. N. page 2.