Safety and Usefulness of Ozone as Food Sterilizer

Dear Mr. YK Tan,

Safety and Usefulness of Ozone as Food Sterilizer

Thank you for your question on the usefulness and safety of using Ozone Food Sterilizer (Ozonizer) for removing pesticides and bacteria on fruits and vegetables.

Whenever I am invited by a scientific organization to give a public lecture on health, food and nutrition, I always see companies selling health products, display organic foods, blood pressure sets, blood sugar and health and medical measuring devices outside the auditorium. One of them is this thing called ozone food sterilizers.

Your question:

As to your question on the safety and efficacy of using ozone to remove pesticides in foods is concerned, I really cannot give you the answer with a 100 percent certainty because of lack of scientific literature on it efficacy and safety. So what I give here is based on reduction from existing knowledge how the ozone may work.

As far as I know, the ozone emitted by these home devices is infused into the water where the fruits and vegetables are placed. The ozone being a very powerful oxidizing agent may destroy bacteria and the pesticides on the surface of the fruits and vegetables by its oxidizing-reduction action. What I am worried is the leaks of ozone which is triple oxygen molecule (O3) into the air when the machine is in use.

Ozone from its molecular structure is highly unstable and chemically very reactive as it breaks down into the much more stable oxygen (O2). The highly reactive singlet oxygen (O+) which is also liberated is a very powerful and damaging free radical to the lungs and body when inhaled. In short, ozone is highly toxic, probably more damaging to health than the trace amounts of pesticides in the food, fruits and vegetables it is trying to clean up.

What they don’t tell you:

The manufacturers of these home machines do not tell you this of course. They only tell you that their ozone sterilizers remove germs and pesticides. In some ways this may be true. But you need to ask a lot more questions than this. Some manufacturers also tell you that any ozone that leaks into the air from these machines remains reactive for only 15 minutes and is only in a small amount of 1-2 parts per million. This amount although small, but when inhaled for long periods of time can cause throat and lung irritation when such a machine is used often.

I do not doubt ozone does break down fairly quickly to ordinary oxygen. But that not the point. It is the safety concern of frequent t inhalation of ozone from these machines when used everyday. Why can’t health freaks and health extremists who go all out to use ozone to sterilize foods use ordinary running water from the tap to do the job much more efficiently? Water is always the best media for cleaning anything – anything at all. Over time, with the help of light, bacteria, and air, water can even remove even oil and stain, let alone mere traces of pesticide residues. Even without water pesticides will finally bio-degenerate on its own.

Water, a Universal Solvent:

To my mind, water is a very powerful universal solvent. Water covers three-quarter the surface of this planet, and water is the best cleansing agent. Nothing can wash off better than water. These machines are unnecessary man-made devices? I just cannot understand the logic of such claims that ozone will destroy bacteria and pesticides on fruits and vegetables when water itself, a universal solvent would be far more efficient. The action of water is powerful enough in washing off any water soluble substances sticking on any surface.

Water is so efficient that it can literally wash off anything, including insoluble oils, sand, mud and even stones and rocks if they are exposed to the erosion of water for a long time. Have you seen round and smooth pebbles on seashore, by the riverside, and in waterfalls made smooth by the action of water? Since water can even make stones and boulders smooth and round by its erosive action over a period of time, washing off soluble substances like germs and pesticides are absolutely nothing.

Pathogens from meat sources not in fruits:

Have you seen entire hills being brought down by the action of rain and water in a landslide? Need I say more? What is just small load of germs (most of which are not pathogenic) and traces of pesticides sticking onto the outside the surfaces of fruits and vegetables? These machines are mainly for cleaning fruits and vegetables.

Unfortunately food poisoning, whether bacterial or chemical in origin do not come from fruits and vegetables. Most food poisoning originates from meat products, poultry, shellfish and eggs, and hardly any from fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are extremely poor source of media for bacterial growth. I shall write a little on this later.

Mechanism of action:

Ozone may work in destroying microorganisms through its highly reactive molecules similar to how chlorine works in sterilizing water. It does this by releasing one of its 3 oxygen molecules to oxidize the cellular covering of the microorganisms. The singlet oxygen attacks where the double bonds linkages are - the sulfhydryl groups of the protein and the phenolic rings in the cells. The phospholipids, intracellular enzymes, and genomic material of the cells are also targeted by ozone. The highly reactive and unstable singlet oxygen is a very powerful free radical. Because of its highly reactive nature, the singlet oxygen released by ozone during its breakdown, snatch away one of the electrons binding together the molecules of these materials, causing them to be broken up. This also causes severe cellular damage and death of the microorganisms.
Ozone compared to other chemical sterilization

The powerful antimicrobial property of ozone is partially due to its oxidation-reduction potential (2.07 V). This is higher than that of chlorine (1.36 V). Ozone has several advantages over chlorine and other chemical disinfectants. It is far more powerful as an oxidizing agent than ordinary oxygen. So powerful is it that it can even attack almost all metals except gold, platinum and iridium and render them into oxides at their highest state. An example is copper:

2 Cu+ + 2 H3O+ + O3 → 2 Cu2+ + 3 H2O + O2

Ozone has 3 oxygen atoms with a single bond on one side and double bond on the other.

Normally ozone will stabilize itself to form ordinary diatomic oxygen. It is more unstable in high concentration when the molecules are plentiful and closer to each other in order to share a pair of electrons in a double bond between two oxygen atoms

2 O3 → 3 O2 (two molecules of ozone becomes three molecules of oxygen)

If ozone escapes into the atmosphere from these machines, it may take at least half-an-hour for half of it to remain. In other words, its half-life is about 30 minutes in the atmosphere under standard atmospheric temperature and pressure, but its disassociation rapidly increases with increasing temperature and pressure. Thus the ozone that escapes into the air still remains in the air – especially where there is not much ventilation as in a kitchen.

Toxic waste:

Advertisements for ozone machines claimed that ozone can destroy microorganisms instantly and effectively. This may be true. But the question that needs to be studied carefully is whether or not they leave toxic waste products in the treated food and in the processing water. Manufacturers may claim they do not, but they have not shown us evidence that they do not.

When any substances, example pesticides, microbes, drugs, nutrients, etc, are broken down they merely change from one chemical substance to another. They cannot disappear from this planet into nowhere. It merely changes into another substance.

A (ozone) + B (pesticides) = oxygen +D (unknown). A + B can never be nothing (zero) unless both A and B are zero. To claim that they are destroyed without a trace is absolute rubbish. This would defile the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry that states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. In any chemical reaction, the reacting substances merely change from one form to the next. They don’t simply disappear. It is not freak magic

The question we need to address is, would the by-products after ozone acted on the pesticides or microbes be as toxic as or even more toxic than the pesticides themselves? This is not an easy question to answer as it requires very extensive, long term, and highly expensive toxicological studies which I do not think manufactures of these ozone machines (sanitizers) are prepared to invest and undertake a study.

Chain reactions from free radicals:

There is also a possibility of it singlet oxygen, by borrowing an electron from the material it is trying to destroy (bacteria, pesticides, etc.), and even nutrients in the food cause them to lose their own electrons by donating it to the singlet oxygen, thus making them becoming free radicals instead in the exchange. This causes a runaway chain reaction, each molecular fragment having lost one of its paired electrons; and borrowing it from the next available electron of other neighboring molecules to stabilize itself. This is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Of course the singlet oxygen can ultimately find another similar partner (singlet oxygen) to share their electrons to make it more stable double-bond diatomic oxygen as I have already shown in the equation above. But this takes time for it to look around for a singlet partner.

Free radicals destroy everything:

Meantime, it will destroy anything that gets into its way – pesticides, bacteria, vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, carotenes, bioflavanoids, aromatic substances, anything at all that are found in the neighboring molecules. It will instantly oxidize and destroy all of them – including food values in fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, organs, tissues, etc, etc. Ozone is powerful, powerful enough to destroy anything at all including metals –let alone mere bacteria, pesticides. It may destroy valuable vitamins and nutrients in the food it is sterilizing.

It is claimed that ozone is safer and environmentally friendlier than most other chemical antimicrobials for the sterilization of food. But I am unsure of these claims, as I have yet to come across any study to support this. The only plus advantage of using ozone for sterilization is that only air or oxygen is needed to produce the ozone. There is no other chemical involved. This is true, and is the only plus point in using ozone sterilizers.

Safety issues of using ozone for food processing:

Albeit it is a colorless gas, ozone is readily detected by the human nose even at 0.01- 0.05 p.p.m. At low concentrations, it has a characteristic pleasant odor, similar to that of fresh air after a rain storm. At high concentration, ozone becomes an irritant to the airways, and can damage the lungs and respiratory system.

According to the The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regulations, the permissible level of exposure to ozone in a workplace environment is 0.1 ppm during a normal 8-hour day (40-hour workweek). The short-term exposure limit is 0.3 ppm for exposure of less than 15 minutes (4 times per day). But they do not have any guidelines for those who use ozone-generating machines to sterilize or remove pesticides in foods at home.

Current situation in ozone applications of ozone for food perseveration:

Ozone has been used in an aqueous solution or gaseous form to surface decontaminates food, sterilize equipment, recycle wastewater. It has also been used to minimize pesticide levels on fresh produce. The microbiological count can be lowered, and the shelf-life of fruits, vegetables, cheese, eggs, nuts, and meats maybe be improved when treated with ozone or stored under ozone. Fresh foods may be kept longer under ozone. It has been used to control mold and bacteria in the air as well as on the surface of the foods

Studies needed:

As far as the removal of pesticides is concerned, studies have been done on specific pesticides like methyl-parathion, parathion, diazinon and cypermethrin. These were commonly used as broad-spectrum insecticides in pest control. Unfortunately their uses have resulted in high residual levels detectable in vegetables. It has been suggested that ozone can be substituted for chlorine to remove bacteria and mold from fresh fruits and vegetables in order them to be stored for a longer time on an industrial scale. But how safe is it? We do not know the answer unless exorbitantly expensive and very long-term toxicological studies are done independently, and the manufactures of these machines are not going to invest into such exorbitantly expensive studies. They are just interested in producing a machine and have them out into the market as fast as they could without any safety studies.

Fat soluble pesticides:

As to your question whether or not ozone can remove the pesticide impregnated wax on the outside of fruits, I do not know the answer. I need properly published research literatures to answer this. As far as I know, fat soluble pesticides like DDT (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane), methoxychlor, aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane, toxaphene, endrin, heptachlor, and lindane (gamma isomer of benzene hexachloride (BHC) are chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide group. But fat soluble pesticides are hardly used for agriculture purposes. Many of them are already banned. DDT is the best example.

DDT is fat soluble and is disseminated by air and water to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. When DDT enters a water environment, it is taken up by aquatic animals and becomes part of the food chain, accumulating and concentrating in the fat of predatory species including humans in their body fat. DDT was also found to remain residual in upper layers of soil, and they accumulate in many terrestrial animal species.

Toxicity of DDT:

But the absorption of DDT from the gut is poor. A large portion of ingested DDT is excreted unchanged in the feces. The remaining DDT excreted in the bile or stored in adipose tissue from which it is removed and gradually eliminated in the urine. DDT is metabolized by the liver. Since it is fat soluble, the absorption of DDT through the skin is enhanced when dissolved in an oil base solution or emulsion form, and may accumulate in the wax of skins of some fruits. DDT is rapidly absorbed by the lung especially when DDT is present as an aerosol.

Dieldrin may be absorbed from the skin in a dry powder. However, DDT is now longer in use after World War II due to its ease in getting into the food chain. So there is no question of any wax and fat soluble pesticides getting on to the skin of fruits when most of these fat-soluble pesticides are now banned for agricultural use, except perhaps in very small amounts and limited applications like in a can of aerosols for killing mosquitoes at home. Even now most household aerosols for mosquitoes, ants and house insects are made from water-soluble pesticides so that water can easily wash them off.

Pesticide Movement & their Mode of Degradation in Agriculture:

Actually a lot of pesticides do not find their way into our food. Most of them have already degraded before they can even enter the food chain. Very briefly, most of them have vanished before they can even be detected in the food. They are destroyed or have vanished by the following means:

• Runoff from the soil through rain or irrigation water
• Leaching into the soil where they are destroyed by soil bacteria
• Degradation by normal chemical breakdown
• Destruction by microbial action
• Destruction by physical means such as by the action of water (hydrolysis)
• Destruction by sunlight (photolysis)
• Destruction by heat of the Sun (pyrolysis)
• Or they simply evaporate away into the air (volatilization)

A little on the chemistry of ozone:

Ozone is highly reactive triplet oxygen molecule that can chemically destroy almost anything that it comes in contact with. This action is not just on pathogens or pesticides, but anything else that it can oxidize and act on. This includes vitamins, nutrients, plant natural compounds and phyto-chemicals of the fruits and vegetables themselves. After destroying and degrading them, they may also reduce the nutritional values of the foods. Ozone destructive action also includes damaging the DNA, cells, tissues, organs and body systems.

Ozone destroys almost everything, especially organic substances of biological origin, and hence its action is not just on pesticides, and bacteria. Do not think ozone is so specific and selective that it merely destroys pesticides and bacteria on the surfaces of fruits and vegetables and yet spares the vitamins, and other nutrients in fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and poultry?

Anything that ozone can oxidize and damage it will do so through its singlet oxygen radical nature. It will attack any molecule in the food just to quench its free radical nature. Ozone is not a sparer or a chooser. Of course manufacturer of these ozone sanitizers may not tell you this. They will highlight the machines destroy bacteria and pesticides. In some ways this may be true.

But they may tell you that the nutrients are inside, not outside the fruits and vegetables If that is the case, ozone only surface de-contaminate the food from the outside. If that is the case, what about those pesticides that have actually gone inside the food through systemic absorption? There the ozone cannot penetrate, and if they do, they will also destroy the nutrients inside at the same time. Ozone is not a selector. It will oxidize and denature everything in its path, including even metals.

Outside, but not inside:

But if the claim is that it will only cleanse the outside of the fruits and vegetables, the next question you need to ask, wouldn’t water, a powerful universal solvent that covers ¾ of this planet do the job much better. As I stress water is a very powerful and highly effective solvent for anything that is water soluble. Just imagine rubbing tons of (water soluble) salt and sugar onto your vegetables, and the next moment you decide to wash them off under a running tap. After 5-10 minutes under a tap, would you think (in your right mind) you could still have any salt and sugar sticking onto your fruits and vegetables? As I said earlier, water is the best and most effective medium for cleaning anything. The action of water can bring down an entire hill of mud, sand and boulders as in a landslide, let alone traces of pesticides residues sticking on the outside skin of your fruits and vegetables which are ‘kacang putih’ (peanuts) job to the power of water.

Deliberately adding free radicals into your food:

Not just that alone. By adding ozone to your food you are actually using a very powerful free radical which has an unpaired (single) electron linking two oxygen atoms together into your food.

Singlet oxygen is the lowest excited state of the dioxygen molecule. Although its lifetime in solution is very short - in the microsecond range, still singlet oxygen is extremely destructive. The singlet oxygen can destroy almost anything that is in a food, including the vitamins. This it does by snatching away an electron from fruits and vegetables (including meat, fish, poultry, etc) in order for it to form ordinary diatomic oxygen which is much more stable because it has a double bond.

As a result, the vitamins, phyto-chemicals and nutrients in the fruits may be damaged in order to contribute an electron to the ozone. This is no different from robbing Peter (fruit) to pay Paul (ozone).

Sterilizing fruits and vegetables:

It is also claimed that ozone sterilizers kill harmful germs and bacteria on your fruits and vegetables. Let me tell you two important things about bacteria:

Nonpathogenic or harmless bacteria make up over 70 percent of all bacteria, and only about 30 percent are pathogenic (disease causing). Not all pathogenic bacteria cause human disease. A lot of the 30 % cause animal and plant diseases. Even for those that cause human diseases only a very small percent actually are caused by eating contaminated foods. Almost all of them thrive in meat and poultry products, and hardly any are pathogenic that can live on fruits and vegetables you are trying to kill. Most pathogenic bacteria that cause human illness are from non-food sources, and enters the human body through other carriers.

Bacteria morphology and disease:

Those that cause human and animal diseases belong to Cocci, Bacilli and Spirlla. Cocci that look like seeds in groups under a microscope may belong to Staphylococci, Streptococci and Diplococci depending how they look like under a microscope – whether in chain or cluster together. Cocci cause boils, and pustules. Bacilli are responsible for disease like influenza and TB, while Spirillum causes disease such as syphilis. None of these are transmitted by fruits and vegetables, but by air, or by direct contact or biological fluids (blood, sputum, sex, etc).

Almost all the bacteria that cause food poisoning originate in meat, and meat products, including fish, eggs, milk and poultry. Hardly do the come from fruits and vegetables because plant sources are very poor nutrient media for pathogenic bacteria such as:

• Staphylococcus aureus
• Salmonella
• Clostridium perfringens
• Clostridium botulinum
• Vibrio parahaemolyticus
• Bacillus cereus
• Listeria
• Yersinia enterocolitica
• Campylobacter jejuni
• Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

The only exception I can think of right now as I type this sentence is when you decide to leave all your fruits and vegetables in a place to allow rats to urinate on them which no sensible person will do. In that case, if you eat the fruits and vegetables unwashed (with water of course) and uncooked, then you will add one more to the list above, namely a bacterial zoonotic disease caused by spirochaetes of the genus Leptospira to give you a bacterial zoonotic disease called Leptospirosis (Weil's disease). For that matter Leptospira from rat’s urine does not only affects humans, but also a wide range of other animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. But nobody leaves their food for the rat to urine on them, and then use ozone to destroy the bacteria Leptospira.

Use water to wash off rat’s urine:

Even if the rat has passed urine onto your fruits and vegetables, you can also wash them off completely with running water, and then peel off the skin for fruits, and for the vegetables cook them properly. Water washes off everything completely including the smell of the urine, but I am afraid ozone merely changes the substance from urine into something else. You still need to wash off that ‘something else’ with plain water. In that case you might as well wash off everything with plain water from the start without any ozone, and then use water again to wash off that something else (by-product). It is like touch your nose by putting your hand round to the back.

Water borne diseases:

Of course we have also to think of water borne diseases that can also get into all foods due to contaminated water. That includes among a long list the following:

1. Amoebiasis
2. Botulism
3. Cholera
4. E. coli Infection
5. Giardiasis
6. Typhoid fever
7. Etc, etc

Else almost all food borne diseases is from unwashed and uncooked foods.

Prevention:

1. The first step in preventing food poisoning is to assume that all foods may cause food-borne illness. Follow these steps to prevent food poisoning:

2. Wash hands, food preparation surfaces and utensils thoroughly before and after handling raw foods to prevent recontamination of cooked foods. Wash your hands with just plain soap and running tap water, and not use ozone to wash your hands. Nobody does this. Be sensible.

3. Keep refrigerated foods below 40 degrees F.

4. Serve hot foods immediately or keep them heated above 140 degrees F.

5. Divide large volumes of food into small portions for rapid cooling in the refrigerator. Hot, bulky foods in the refrigerator can raise the temperature of other foods already kept there and has already been cooled.

6. Remember the danger zone is between 40 degrees F and 140 degrees F.

7. Heat canned foods thoroughly before tasting.

8. When in doubt, throw it out

Chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, fungi, viruses and bacteria can cause food borne illness. Bacteria related food poisoning is the most common, but fewer than 20 of the many thousands of different bacteria actually are the culprits. I have mentioned this above.

More than 90 percent of the cases of food poisoning each year are caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Bacillus cereus, and Entero-pathogenic Escherichia coli. These bacteria are commonly found on many raw foods. Normally a large number of food-poisoning bacteria must be present to cause illness. Therefore, illness can be prevented by (1) controlling the initial number of bacteria present, (2) preventing the small number from growing, (3) destroying the bacteria by proper cooking and (4) avoiding re-contamination.

Hygiene and preventive care much more important:

Poor personal hygiene, improper cleaning of storage and preparation areas and unclean utensils cause contamination of raw and cooked foods. Mishandling of raw and cooked foods allows bacteria to grow. The temperature range in which most bacteria grow is between 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) and 140 degrees F (60 degrees C). Raw and cooked foods should not be kept in this danger zone any longer than absolutely necessary. Undercooking or improper processing of home-canned foods can cause very serious food poisoning.

Since food-poisoning bacteria are often present on many foods, knowing the characteristics of such bacteria is essential to an effective control program.

Nutrient Media for Bacterial Growth:

Bacteria not necessary can grow on any food. Bacteria do chose the correct nutrient media to grow. As an example in a microbiological laboratory, most bacteria can only grow on certain nutrient media. Almost all bacterial media need some blood base. That is why we normally culture bacteria in the laboratory on specific nutrient media such as on Blood Agar (BAP).

This high-nutrient growth medium is made with 5% sheep’s blood. Blood Agar is not selective, and will grow a wide range of bacteria. This medium is, however, differential.

Some bacteria produce hemolysins, enzymes that can break down red blood cells (hemo = bood and lyse = to cut). Depending on the type of hemolysin, the red blood cells are either completely broken down (beta-hemolysis), or partially broken down (alpha-hemolysis).

Streptococcus pyogenes is a beta-hemolytic pathogenic bacterium and the causative agent of Strep throat. When plated on Blood Agar, S. pyogenes completely breaks down the red blood cells, leaving the areas of agar around its colonies clear and colorless.

Most normal throat flora either produce alpha-hemolysis, partially breaking down the red blood cells and creating a bruised appearance to the agar, or produce gamma-hemolysis (which means no hemolysis at all), leaving the agar is unaffected.

MacConkeys & Mannitol Salt Agars:

In addition to being selective, MacConkey’s and Mannitol Salt are also differential. Each has a nutrient additive, lactose (sugar) and mannitol (alcohol) respectively, as well as pH indicators that react when these food products are fermented by bacteria.

If the Gram- organisms growing on MacConkey’s eat lactose, they produce acidic metabolites (wastes) that trigger the neutral red pH indicator. This causes the bacterial colonies themselves to turn mauve or pink in color.

So if there are colonies of bacteria growing on MacConkey’s, it’s understood that they are Gram-. If those colonies are colorless, they are not lactose fermenters. If the colonies have a pinkish appearance, they are lactose fermenters.

Other media:

Bacteria growing on Mannitol Salt Agar are most likely Staphylococcus. But this media is also differential, containing mannitol and a pH indicator. If the colonies growing on Mannitol Salt Agar are a type of Staph that ferments mannitol, they produce acidic metabolic wastes that turn the originally orange-pink medium a bright yellow.

Pathogenic Staph, like S. aureus, is mannitol fermenters:

So if something is growing on Mannitol Salt, one can be reasonably sure that it is Staph, if the media turns yellow, this color change signals the presence of pathogenic Staphylococcus.

Summary:

In short, pathogenic bacteria are very choosy over what kind of a nutrient media is most suitable. They don’t simply grow on fruits and vegetables. So to use ozone to kill off pathogenic bacteria on the surface of fruits and vegetable do not make sense. You might as well wash them off with water.

I have written more than what you need in reply to your question. Before I sign off, I like to ask you a question.

Question:

Do you use soap and running water to take a bath, or do you kill the germs, body odor, body oil and dirt from your body using ozone in water? You might as well use hydrogen peroxide. You answer this question in exchange for what you asked me.

I leave it to you to decide.

jb lim

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Reply from Mr. YK Tan

Dear Dr. Lim,

Thank you so much for your reply in great details.
I am grateful that you have taken time to write on the subject and went beyond the ozoniser.

During the demo, I noticed that the strange smell produced when the machine was in action. That could be the excess ozone released during the "cleaning" process.

I like you explanation of the oxidation-reduction using the example of robbing Peter and paying Paul.

Yes, the whole subject could be summarised as per your last paragraph of taking shower with soap and running water. Cool.....


I wish to look forward to meeting you for a cup of coffee together with Mag in the near future.
Would appreciate if Mag could arrange for same if you have the time.


Once again, thank you for your reply.


Regards
YK Tan

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AE Consultant to me
show details Sep 13 (10 days ago)


Dear Dr Lim,

Thank you very much for such a long and detail write up including testing of bacteria types etc...

Wow, what a super man you are. If I were to meet you 40 years earlier it would have changed my career...

Warmest regards,
C K Cheong

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On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Gwen Tanil wrote:

Dear Dr Lim,

I am really fascinated by your scientific articles and furthermore at your age, your ability to do research really puts someone at my age at a shame hahahhaa

I was particularly interested in the food part. If you can tell me the name of the seafood restaurant in Bagan Hylam ( as in your email) maybe one day I can take friends there.

Keep on sending the scientific and intellectual emails and keep on writing! You certainly a national treasure :)

God bless.

Gwen