Marco Crespo
Professor Joyce Martin
En12
07 February, 2014
Phytoremediation: Seeing Through a Beneficial Solution An accident happened on April 26, 1986, when a unexpected surge of power during a system test destroyed unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl in Ukraine, former Soviet Union. A devastating amount of radioactive material was released into the environment. 30 kilometres around the plant around the plant was closed after the accident. About one hundred fifteen thousand people were evacuated around 1986 and in the following years, about two hundred thousand more were also forced to vacate. Sadly, the problem did not end there. Three years after the incident, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assessed the situation around the Chernobyl. Toxic metals and radioactive emission like iodine, cesium-137, plutonium and strontium were found in the plants, soil and even animals. Ever since 1991, the Canadian Nuclear Association also noted that there is a sudden increase in the rate of thyroid cancer. This is happened because cesium-137 or radioactive cesium, with a mass number of 137, has the capability to enter the food chain and can be delivered around an internal dosage of radiation before it can be metabolically eliminated. To prevent this from spreading, livestock were only fed plants that are uncontaminated or plants that cannot accumulate heavy metals. After that, a method was introduced to clean the soil from the toxins. This is called Phytoremediation, which was coined by Dr. Ilya Raskin from the Rutger’s University’s Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment. Phytoremediation came from the Greek word phyto which means plant, and the Latin word remedium which means restoring balance (Radhakrishna). It is a process that uses green plants to extract and concentrate certain elements in the ecosystem. To understand it better how it is used, an example, from an article called “Sunflowers Bloom in Tests to Remove Radioactive Metals from Soil and Water” from the Wall Street Journal in 1996, mentioned that a study used sunflowers to remove contaminants in Chernobyl. A Princeton, NJ-based company named Phytotech Inc. reported that transgenic strains [contains genetic material into which DNA from an unrelated organism has been artificially introduced] of sunflowers were made. It could ninety five percent of contaminants in twenty four hours. This was placed in Chernobyl to be tested and the reports said, “Subsequently, Helianthus was planted on a styrofoam raft at one end of a contaminated pond near Chernobyl, and in twelve days the cesium concentrations within its roots were reportedly 8,000 times that of the water, while the strontium concentrations were 2,000 times that of the water” (Sunflowers Bloom in Tests to Remove Radioactive Metals from Soil and Water). This shows that plants can be used to extract contaminants that have high concentrations from the soil. From an article, called “Mining Pollution: the Case of the Baguio Mining District, the Philippines”, by Nicomedes D. Briones, mentions that the “Philippines is one of the world’s highly mineralized countries in terms of minerals per unit are of land.”The country has an estimated 36.2 million tons of mineral reserves and most of mining activities happen in Baguio where copper, silver and gold is concentrated (335). Like in most mining camps, heavy metals can contaminate soils
Soil Contamination happens when build-up in soils of toxic compounds, salts, radioactive materials, disease causing agents or chemicals. Sadly, these have terrible effects on the living things around the contaminated site. A soil can be polluted through solid waste seepage, discharge of industrial waste into the soil, rapture of underground storage tanks and seepage of landfill. The chemicals that caused these pollutions are heavy metals, pesticides, solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons. There are no known articles that show that the government is doing anything with these problems. Most of the studies come from scientist from the country and abroad that do their own experiments to discover plants that can clean the soil and search for contaminated places. The Philippines is suffering from the damages caused by the soil contaminations. This is a big issue because we rely so much on the environment. Considering the Chernobyl incident, it destroyed the food chain and, and similarly it could also happen in the Philippines. I believe that Phytoremediation could solve that. Even though it is a slow method, Phytoremediation should be used in by the Philippine government to clean contaminated sites because it is more affordable and beneficial to the country. Phytoremediation is not the most considered method of removing soil contaminants. There are so many other technologies that could work faster than it. However, even if it takes time for Phytoremediation to fully complete there are two rebuttals I like to make which were stated in the thesis statement. The paper will also show previous experiments and so on going experiments done by people in the Philippines or from other countries. It will also focus how Phytoremediation can remove contaminants from the ground although it will mention of some water being contaminated. It is unavoidable since soil contaminants can spread from soil to water. When it comes to soil contamination, there are other ways of cleaning and Phytoremediation is not one of them. Some of these are soil vapor extraction, steam injection, bioventing, conductive heating and more (Avogadro and Ragaini 8-9). These technologies are considered better because they are faster in cleaning the soil than Phytoremediation. It is undeniable that Phytoremediation but because it takes time for plants to grow and absorb the contaminants, a process which lasts for at least six months to years. An example of this is the experiment done by Professor Tongbin Chen. He discovered a plant that can grow in arsenic-rich soil in the year 1999 and tried planting it to contaminated sites in China. The experimented lasted for years and it is longer if the sites are highly contaminated (Doronila). Phytoremediation is the most eco-friendly method of all technologies. There are conventional ways of cleaning soil like Land filling and leaching, soil flushing and excavation. From the powerpoint presentation called “Phytoremediation”, it is stated that “... [T]hese approaches are cost intensive, not economically viable, intrusive in nature and cause soil degradation, not a bonafide decontamination measures but a temporary evasion of problem, destabilize natural ecosystem and aesthetically unacceptable.” Since it goes to the natural process of plants growing, it is less disruptive to the environment and does need waiting for another plant species to adapt and grow new communities in the site (Phytoremediation − An Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Method of Heavy Metal Removal from Closed Mine Environments in Papua New Guinea). The Philippines has a lot of contaminated places. A paper entitled “Levels of Lead in Urban Soils from Selected Cities in a Central Region of Philippines” used Phytoremediation to find the contaminated sites. The concentration of toxins in the plant will determine if the site is contaminated or not. Thirty sites were sampled and all showed concentrations of heavy metal, but one had the concentration that surpassed the limit of the World Health Organization permissible limit of 100 mg kg (-1), which is “San Juan in Site 4”(Ona, et,al 177-83). This is one small part of the Philippines that are contaminated and most of them are seen in mining camps all around the country. I think Phytoremediation should be used because it is really affordable. Using chemicals to destroy the contaminants is the most suggested method of all but it is too expensive. Cleaning these sites will take a lot of funds from the government and not to mention the future calamities and using the funds for other projects will just delay removing all the toxins from the soil. It is cheaper because all it takes is just planting the right plant for the contaminated site. It is that simple. All the government needed to do is to gather some people and plant. They just need to monitor the plants and gather them when it is done. Andreas D. Peuke and Heinz Ruennenberg, commented in the EMBO journal, “Compared with conventional methods of soil remediation, the use of plants provides several striking advantages. It is cheap: after planting, only marginal costs apply for harvesting and field management, such as weed control” (497-501). Like Mei Lei, one of Tongbin Chen’s researchers, said that contamination in the site decreased dramatically and not only that. The cost of study cost around one-tenth of the chemical cleaning method. With the Philippines being a third world country and Phytoremediation being affordable, the country could clean the contaminated places to risk the damage of other life forms from bodies of water, land animals, and people. Phytoremediation is eco-friendly. In fact, it is one of the benefits of the technology. Another benefit of it is the adaptability of the plant. There are so many plant species in our world in the Philippines alone; there are plants that could absorb a lot of highly contaminated toxins. These are called hyperaccumulators. The term "hyperaccumulator" describes a number of plants that belong to distantly related families, but share the ability to grow on metalliferous soils and to accumulate extraordinarily high amounts of heavy metals in the aerial organs, far in excess of the levels found in the majority of species, without suffering phytotoxic effects. Three basic hallmarks distinguish hyperaccumulators from related non-hyperaccumulating taxa: a strongly enhanced rate of heavy metal uptake, a faster root-to-shoot translocation and a greater ability to detoxify and sequester heavy metals in leaves. (Rascio, and Navari-Izzo) Heavy metal contaminated soil can be a problem to both animal and human health. Hyperaccumulating plants can be used for cleaning soils in the Philippines of this reason. The plants have a defence mechanism that prevents animals from consuming it. This is beneficial because it stops the animals for eating a plant that has lot toxins inside it. Soil contamination can come in different forms. An accident in a powerplant that caused a lot of destruction because of radioactive toxins, mining camps that had heavy metals to pollute the soil and other things that could cause soil contamination is no big thing. If left alone, the environment all around it will be destroyed, whether the concentration is high or low. If the government does not act now and consider Phytoremediation, then the country will suffer a lot in the near future. Despite the fact it is a time consuming technology, Phytoremediation should be used in cleaning contaminated site because it is saving money and benefitting the country also.

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