Team:UCL/Humans/Debate

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5th September 2014, UCL: UCL iGEM 2014 team members presented the Goodbye Azodye project to an audience of about 75 people from various backgrounds including students, academics and representatives from Ethical Fashion and the Global Water Forum. The aim was to make people aware of the problem and begin to understand the views of the general public and non-academic stakeholders about the issues arising from uncontrolled azo-dye release and the feasibility of synthetic biological solutions.

The discussion was initiated by the question “How should the Problem of Azo Dyes be tackled?”

To this the first response was the proposal to ban Azo-dyes completely and move toward more eco-friendly dyes that are now available and increasingly popular in the start-up textile arena. However, this prompted the rebuttal that the problem already persists globally from unchecked effluents released into water bodies. Furthermore, it is not the azo-dyes themselves that are the cause of major concern, but their breakdown products. Azo dyes are reasonably stable and vastly versatile; used in the food, cosmetic, textile and paper industries. This means that a complete “azo-revolution” is highly unlikely and that the situation can be likened to that of farmers being encouraged to discontinue the use of harmful pesticides. As with agriculture, the government can play a crucial role in shaping the changes that occur within industries that use azo-dyes. Policies and regulations create a standard that must be maintained and can therefore serve to channel trends towards a particular, desired change. However, as

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