Danger in Your Backyard

Reported August 2005

DULLES, Va. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- There could be dangerous chemicals lurking in your own backyard, putting you and your family at risk. The harmful chemical arsenic, once used to treat lumber, and now primarily used in pesticides, can make its way into the ground and linger for decades, turning clean soil into tainted dirt. Now, scientists are getting down and dirty with a new way to clean it up.

James Riordon has spent years enjoying his deck. But like many homeowners, he was shocked to hear harmful chemicals hidden in the wood could be a health risk for his family. "I'm surprised to learn that there could be arsenic in a deck that my son has been exposed to for almost a decade," he says.

Although arsenic is no longer used to treat wood, the chemicals from older wood decks and playgrounds may have seeped into the soil. The polluted soil can be dug up, but it's costly.

"What we're looking for is an additional option for reducing arsenic levels, one that is more environmentally friendly, one that's more economical, and one that's more pleasant for the residential homeowners," Edward Hughes, P.E., an environmental engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Baltimore tells Ivanhoe.

Now, soil chemists have a new, cheaper, greener way to soak up buried backyard chemicals, fern plants.

Soil chemist Michael Blaylock, Ph.D., of Edenspace Systems Corporation in Dulles, Va., says, "We know that plants are very good at taking things out of soil. That's what roots do; they take elements and nutrients out of the soil."

The ferns clean up contaminated soil by a process called phytoremediation. A contaminant -- like arsenic -- is absorbed through the plant's roots. The arsenic then moves up to the leaves where it's stored. The leaves can then be cut off.

"The whole key is being able to concentrate the arsenic in the plant," Dr. Blaylock says.

Now homeowners like Riordon can grow ferns under their decks and let these hard-working plants do the dirty work.

Also at risk are people living on former farmland that once used pesticides. Homeowners should get a soil tester and check the arsenic levels. If you want to buy soil test kit or arsenic eating ferns, go to http://www.edenspace.com.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Pesticide Programs
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20460
opp-web-comments@epa.gov



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