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Team:Exeter/BeyondTheBench
From 2014.igem.org
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Beyond The Bench
Where could our construct be safely and legally used? And what social and economic impacts would this have on the surrounding communities?To understand this question more thoroughly we broke the question down into various locations, considering needs of each individually.
Europe
In Europe the release of any synthetic organism that changes its surroundings in any way is completely forbidden under EU law. In addition to this, many countries in the EU already have the means and funds to either use a more expensive clean up method such as composting (You can find out more about current clean-up methods here), or else rebuild communities away from contaminated sites now that health risks have become apparent.
USA
In the United States of America it is legal to release synthetically modified organisms. This gives our project huge scope to be used in the remediation of many of the pollution sites detailed in ‘The Problem’.
Bioremediation using this method is much more viable -both economically and in practicality– than current methods that require transport of soil or large amounts of energy to complete.
This could make utilizing E.R.A.S.E a very attractive prospect to the parties responsible for the pollution; hopefully encouraging them to partake in clean up efforts rather than ignore the environmental implications of their work. This may previously have been an unattractive option due to the high cost and workload a soil remediation would incur.
Asia
Due in part to the more recent industrial revolutions that have occurred across Asia, a great deal of explosive residue has been created during both military and civilian activity. However for many countries in this continent space is limited and expensive/time consuming techniques such as incineration of soil are not a priority, due to more vital issues requiring the governing bodies efforts.
It is here that we believe our project could be of great use, as in many parts of Asia it is legal to release synthetically modified organisms into the wild.
When manufacturing plants for explosives are developed, many of the surrounding communities are exposed to dangerous levels of explosive pollutant in soils and water. This can have catastrophic social impacts as destructive health effects run rife in the communities – placing strain on the social infrastructure. Not to mention the agricultural impacts soil pollution can have for rural communities reliant on farming.
Our project could present an economical solution to this problem – our construct is easy and cheap to manufacture and transport, and with additional features such as kill switches we can ensure safe release to perform the bioremediation in-situ.
Remediating this land would be of huge social and economic benefit to surrounding communities – allowing them to rebuild and prosper, especially in areas where pollution is due to military activity.
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