From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org> |
Date: | Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:43:57 -0800 (PST) |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, PHYTOREMEDIATION: "New grasses neutralize toxic pollution from bombs, explosives, and munitions" |
New grasses neutralize toxic pollution from bombs, explosives, and munitions by Jennifer Langston Phyrs.Org November 22, 2016 On military live fire training ranges, troops practice firing artillery shells, drop bombs on old tanks or derelict buildings and test the capacity of new weapons. But those explosives and munitions leave behind toxic compounds that have contaminated millions of acres of U.S. military bases—with an estimated cleanup bill ranging between $16 billion and $165 billion. In a paper published online Nov. 16 in Plant Biotechnology Journal, University of Washington and University of York researchers describe new transgenic grass species that can neutralize and eradicate RDX—a toxic compound that has been widely used in explosives since World War II. UW engineers introduced two genes from bacteria that learned to eat RDX and break it down into harmless components in two perennial grass species: switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera). The best-performing strains removed all the RDX from a simulated soil in which they were grown within less than two weeks, and they retained none of the toxic chemical in their leaves or stems. … For the entire article, see 'http://phys.org/news/2016-11-grasses-neutralize-toxic-pollution-explosives.html -- Lenny Siegel Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight a project of the Pacific Studies Center 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 <lsiegel@cpeo.org> http://www.cpeo.org _______________________________________________ Military mailing list Military@lists.cpeo.org http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org | |
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