Dr. Gail Begley of North Eastern University visited Stonehill College last week to talk with students and faculty about her new research in bacteria. Why is this important? Dr. Begley and her staff are trying to use special bacteria that are grown in a lab to clean the environment of a certain contaminate called Vinyl Chloride, VC.
For those who don’t know about vinyl chloride, it is a very harmful toxin and carcinogen that is found in approximately 40% of our hazardous wastes. It is used in the plastic industry to make pipes and other products. It is also present in a different form in dry cleaning products. Sometimes it can be released at certain industrial sites and travel into our drinking water supplies making our water harmful for us to drink. What makes it even worse is that once in water, the compound becomes very motile and can spread fast.
Scientists and biological engineers have discovered that certain bacteria actually feed on VC and completely breakdown the compound. This is a major discovery because these bacteria grow naturally and do not have any harmful effects on the environment. This method is thereby a “green” solution to the VC problem. Engineers have developed a filter system with these special bacteria that is inserted into the ground at sites of contaminated water. Contaminated water passes through the filter and the bacteria breakdown VC.
Begley and her staff test water samples that have been filtered with the bacteria to ensure that the bacteria are really performing their jobs. Her staff are also responsible for identifying and characterizing these bacteria. As of now these bacteria are the only known bacteria that degrade VC. “The reason why this is really important is, everyone wants to drink his or her tap water,” Bagley said.
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