I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.

The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.

Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.

Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.
If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,

http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”

Stuart Strand wrote:
I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington
in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National
Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science
Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants
in contaminated soils and water. Now we want to create house plants
that can purify the air in your house.

The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer
causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you
park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding
benzene and chloroform to your home air.

Please explain where the benzene and chloroform gets into my showerhead and
what concentration in the house air might develop from this practice and how
that relates to the safety standards.


Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto
chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the
pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove
chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants.
Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common
houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your
family.

Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of
foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be
hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with
only a few plants per room.

Which is quite impractical or even impossible for most people.

If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,

http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”

There is a movement that says you can sell anything in the western world if
you invoke the boogieman of danger to children. This idea tells us to buy
special products to sterilise the inside of our toilet bowls and every
surface in our house and to have a machine on the wall that pumps out
perfume/insecticide/ bactericide all day at timed intervals.

Now I would much prefer to house full of plants to splashing chemicals
everywhere but I am doing neither until both the need and efficacy is
demonstrated. Your web site seems devoid of both.

David

On 12/18/2012 4:25 PM, Stuart Strand wrote:
I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.

The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.

Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.

Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.
If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,

http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”


Not on my budget. I see on net that some plants are better than others.
I'd go for them if so inclined but I'm not. I'm not afraid of a ppb
of any common chemical in the air I breathe.

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 2:43:14 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott wrote:
The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer

causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you

park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding

benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Please explain where the benzene and chloroform gets into my showerhead and

what concentration in the house air might develop from this practice and how

that relates to the safety standards.

The chloroform is in all municipal drinking water that has been disinfected with chlorine to prevent water borne disease (such as cholera). Chloroform is formed from the reaction of the chlorine with natural compounds (humics) are present in almost all waters. Chloroform is volatile, meaning that it comes out of the water into the air when you use hot water in your home. So you and your kids breathe this carcinogen.

Benzene comes from different sources in the home, not the shower (please read the FAQ!): cars parked in attached garages, fuel storage in the home, solvents, paints, even inks, woodstoves, and -- the big one -- second hand smoke.

Studies of volatile carcinogenic pollutants in the air in urban homes around the world including the US found levels that ranged into the regulated levels for benzene and chloroform and for formaldehyde (which our GMO does not degrade). for citations see the full proposal on our website. So most homes were below the workspace regulatory levels, but consider this: children and their adult caretakers spend nearly all of their time in these environments with these low level known carcinogens. These exposures are important..


There is a movement that says you can sell anything in the western world if

you invoke the boogieman of danger to children.

Our children are precious

This idea tells us to buy

special products to sterilise the inside of our toilet bowls and every

surface in our house and to have a machine on the wall that pumps out

perfume/insecticide/ bactericide all day at timed intervals.



Now I would much prefer to house full of plants to splashing chemicals

everywhere but I am doing neither until both the need and efficacy is

demonstrated. Your web site seems devoid of both.


Dear David, If you live with chlorinated water, when you shower you fill your home air with chloroform. If you store your snow-blower or lawnmower or park your car in your garage you "splash" benzene into the air that your family breathes. Please read our website, especially the FAQ, to really understand these important issues and how our new technology can provide some relief.

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 3:37:45 PM UTC-8, Frank wrote:
On 12/18/2012 4:25 PM, Stuart Strand wrote:

I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.



The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.



Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.

If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,



http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”





Not on my budget. I see on net that some plants are better than others.

I'd go for them if so inclined but I'm not. I'm not afraid of a ppb

of any common chemical in the air I breathe.

Yeah, Frank, but I'll bet that you're not as susceptible to those common known carcinogens as the babies that spend all of their time breathing those common home air pollutants.

Stuart Strand wrote:
On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 2:43:14 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott
wrote:
The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two
cancer

causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you

park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding

benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Please explain where the benzene and chloroform gets into my
showerhead and

what concentration in the house air might develop from this practice
and how

that relates to the safety standards.

The chloroform is in all municipal drinking water that has been
disinfected with chlorine to prevent water borne disease (such as
cholera). Chloroform is formed from the reaction of the chlorine
with natural compounds (humics) are present in almost all waters.
Chloroform is volatile, meaning that it comes out of the water into
the air when you use hot water in your home. So you and your kids
breathe this carcinogen.

Benzene comes from different sources in the home, not the shower
(please read the FAQ!): cars parked in attached garages, fuel storage
in the home, solvents, paints, even inks, woodstoves, and -- the big
one -- second hand smoke.

Studies of volatile carcinogenic pollutants in the air in urban homes
around the world including the US found levels that ranged into the
regulated levels for benzene and chloroform and for formaldehyde
(which our GMO does not degrade). for citations see the full proposal
on our website. So most homes were below the workspace regulatory
levels, but consider this: children and their adult caretakers spend
nearly all of their time in these environments with these low level
known carcinogens. These exposures are important.


There is a movement that says you can sell anything in the western
world if

you invoke the boogieman of danger to children.

Our children are precious

Exactly the same emotive motherhood and apple pie statement as any salesman
would make. I thought that you were a scientist.


This idea tells us to buy

special products to sterilise the inside of our toilet bowls and
every

surface in our house and to have a machine on the wall that pumps out

perfume/insecticide/ bactericide all day at timed intervals.



Now I would much prefer to house full of plants to splashing
chemicals

everywhere but I am doing neither until both the need and efficacy is

demonstrated. Your web site seems devoid of both.


Dear David, If you live with chlorinated water, when you shower you
fill your home air with chloroform.

I don't. But for those who do how much chloroform and how much is
dangerous? Your FAQ has no numbers.

If you store your snow-blower or
lawnmower or park your car in your garage you "splash" benzene into
the air that your family breathes. Please read our website,
especially the FAQ, to really understand these important issues and
how our new technology can provide some relief.

I read it and if you had read my questions you would know the FAQ doesn't
address them. Until you provide evidence that there is a significant risk
I won't be giving you money to develop a product to deal with it. So far
you are still in the same category as those who want to charge me money to
turn my toilet water blue.

D

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

Stuart Strand wrote:
On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 2:43:14 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott
wrote:
The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two
cancer

causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you

park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding

benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Please explain where the benzene and chloroform gets into my
showerhead and

what concentration in the house air might develop from this practice
and how

that relates to the safety standards.

The chloroform is in all municipal drinking water that has been
disinfected with chlorine to prevent water borne disease (such as
cholera). Chloroform is formed from the reaction of the chlorine
with natural compounds (humics) are present in almost all waters.
Chloroform is volatile, meaning that it comes out of the water into
the air when you use hot water in your home. So you and your kids
breathe this carcinogen.

Benzene comes from different sources in the home, not the shower
(please read the FAQ!): cars parked in attached garages, fuel storage
in the home, solvents, paints, even inks, woodstoves, and -- the big
one -- second hand smoke.

Studies of volatile carcinogenic pollutants in the air in urban homes
around the world including the US found levels that ranged into the
regulated levels for benzene and chloroform and for formaldehyde
(which our GMO does not degrade). for citations see the full proposal
on our website. So most homes were below the workspace regulatory
levels, but consider this: children and their adult caretakers spend
nearly all of their time in these environments with these low level
known carcinogens. These exposures are important.


There is a movement that says you can sell anything in the western
world if

you invoke the boogieman of danger to children.

Our children are precious

Exactly the same emotive motherhood and apple pie statement as any salesman
would make. I thought that you were a scientist.


This idea tells us to buy

special products to sterilise the inside of our toilet bowls and
every

surface in our house and to have a machine on the wall that pumps out

perfume/insecticide/ bactericide all day at timed intervals.



Now I would much prefer to house full of plants to splashing
chemicals

everywhere but I am doing neither until both the need and efficacy is

demonstrated. Your web site seems devoid of both.


Dear David, If you live with chlorinated water, when you shower you
fill your home air with chloroform.

I don't. But for those who do how much chloroform and how much is
dangerous? Your FAQ has no numbers.

If you store your snow-blower or
lawnmower or park your car in your garage you "splash" benzene into
the air that your family breathes. Please read our website,
especially the FAQ, to really understand these important issues and
how our new technology can provide some relief.

I read it and if you had read my questions you would know the FAQ doesn't
address them. Until you provide evidence that there is a significant risk
I won't be giving you money to develop a product to deal with it. So far
you are still in the same category as those who want to charge me money to
turn my toilet water blue.

D

If you have any information that that chloroform, or benzene reach toxic
levels in homes, you should share it.
http://www.hvchemical.com/msds/chlo.htm
11. === Toxicological Information ===

Toxicological Data:
Chloroform: oral rat LD50: 908 mg/kg; skin rabbit LD50: 20 gm/kg;
inhalation rat LC50: 47702 mg/m3/4H; irritation data: skin rabbit 10
mg/24H open mild; eye rabbit: 20 mg/24H moderate; investigated as a
tumorigen, mutagen, reproductive effector.
Reproductive Toxicity:
Birth defects have been seen in rats and mice exposed by inhalation of
chloroform at concentrations greater than 100 ppm in air. Ingestion of
chloroform by pregnant laboratory animals has resulted in fetotoxicity
but not birth defects, and only at levels causing severe maternal
effects.

--------\Cancer
Lists\------------------------------------------------------
---NTP Carcinogen---
Ingredient Known Anticipated IARC
Category
------------------------------------ ----- -----------
-------------
Chloroform (67-66-3) No Yes 2B
Ethyl Alcohol (64-17-5) No No None

From your presumed website:
http://faculty.washington.edu/sstrand/project5.html
[W]e have expressed mammalian cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) in plants,
achieving orders of magnitude greater oxidation of trichloroethylene in
transgenic poplar. We are presently engaged in testing trichloroethylene
degradation by wild-type and CYP2E1 transgenic poplar at field scale in
a test bed facility capable of mass balance measurements. We are also
studying the pathways and genetics of volatile organic compounds
metabolism in plants, and to developing new applications for genetically
modified phytoremediation.

It seems that you are far from your goals, and have over stated your
case.

--
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
or
E Pluribus Unum
Next time vote Green Party

Dear David (and Billy),

Sorry to be delayed in replying. I wanted to give you a summary of the latest research, so I had to bring myself up to speed with recent meta-analyses of the growing home air pollution literature. Also the holidays got in the way.

Anyway I have posted a short summary (pdf) with citations on the SuperPothos website (in the Gallery tab), titled "Levels and risks of indoor air pollutants"

http://d2oadd98wnjs7n.cloudfront.net...pdf?1357157806

http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”

In summary, the most common and highest level cancer-causing organic indoor air pollutants are 1,4-dichlorobenzene, acrolein, formaldehyde, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, acetaldehyde, naphthalene, acrylonitrile, carbon tetrachloride, and chloroform. In most or some homes, these pollutants occur in concentrations high enough to pose significant risk of cancer. Most of these pollutants can be degraded by the cytochrome P450 2E1 enzyme that we have expressed in lab plants and wish to express in SuperPothos enhanced houseplant.

On 12/18/2012 9:51 PM, Stuart Strand wrote:
On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 3:37:45 PM UTC-8, Frank wrote:
On 12/18/2012 4:25 PM, Stuart Strand wrote:

I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.



The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.



Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.

If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,



http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”





Not on my budget. I see on net that some plants are better than others.

I'd go for them if so inclined but I'm not. I'm not afraid of a ppb

of any common chemical in the air I breathe.

Yeah, Frank, but I'll bet that you're not as susceptible to those common known carcinogens as the babies that spend all of their time breathing those common home air pollutants.


Maybe. I'm a retired chemist and have been exposed to more of these
things then the average person and, so far, am cancer free.

I understand that we chemists live longer than average - must be all
those chemicals.

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 4:25:26 PM UTC-5, Stuart Strand wrote:
I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water.. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.



The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.



Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.

If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,



http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”

I wouldn't buy a GM'd anything.

Frank wrote:
....
Maybe. I'm a retired chemist and have been exposed to more of these
things then the average person and, so far, am cancer free.

I understand that we chemists live longer than average - must be all
those chemicals.

anyone who claims to be a scientist should understand
the errors in your statement.

on so many levels...


songbird

Stuart Strand wrote:
Dear David (and Billy),

Sorry to be delayed in replying. I wanted to give you a summary of
the latest research, so I had to bring myself up to speed with recent
meta-analyses of the growing home air pollution literature. Also the
holidays got in the way.

Anyway I have posted a short summary (pdf) with citations on the
SuperPothos website (in the Gallery tab), titled "Levels and risks of
indoor air pollutants"

thanks


http://d2oadd98wnjs7n.cloudfront.net...pdf?1357157806


This URL gives me a 403 error, security.

D

Not on my budget. I see on net that some plants are better than others.



I'd go for them if so inclined but I'm not. I'm not afraid of a ppb



of any common chemical in the air I breathe.



Yeah, Frank, but I'll bet that you're not as susceptible to those common known carcinogens as the babies that spend all of their time breathing those common home air pollutants.





Maybe. I'm a retired chemist and have been exposed to more of these

things then the average person and, so far, am cancer free.



I understand that we chemists live longer than average - must be all

those chemicals.

Frank, back in the day I knew chemists who routinely smoked in the lab; you could tell because there were lots of burn marks along the edge of the lab bench. And these were organic chemists, with flammable solvent bubbling away in the nearby hood! LOL! But they would assure me that, no worries: they hadn't been blown up yet.

If you are a scientist, you should read the literature on toxicology and not spout nonsense.

On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 6:34:43 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Stuart Strand wrote:

Dear David (and Billy),



Sorry to be delayed in replying. I wanted to give you a summary of

the latest research, so I had to bring myself up to speed with recent

meta-analyses of the growing home air pollution literature. Also the

holidays got in the way.



Anyway I have posted a short summary (pdf) with citations on the

SuperPothos website (in the Gallery tab), titled "Levels and risks of

indoor air pollutants"



thanks





http://d2oadd98wnjs7n.cloudfront.net...pdf?1357157806





This URL gives me a 403 error, security.



D

OK, sorry about the confusion. Two options:

1. Try this URL:
http://d2oadd98wnjs7n.cloudfront.net...pdf?1357159066

2. Go to the indiegogo website, click on the gallery tab and download the pdf labeled "Levels_of_indoor_air_pollutants"

http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 1:25:26 PM UTC-8, Stuart Strand wrote:
I’m Stuart Strand, Research Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 20 years, our lab, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dept of Defense, and the National Science Foundation, has successfully designed plants that clean up pollutants in contaminated soils and water.. Now we want to create house plants that can purify the air in your house.



The air in your home may have more benzene and chloroform (two cancer causing pollutants) than is allowed in the workplace. Every time you park your car in an attached garage or take a shower you are adding benzene and chloroform to your home air.



Rabbits have an enzyme in their liver (2E1) that grabs onto chloroform and benzene and gets oxygen from the air to burn up the pollutants. We have lab plants with the 2E1 gene that can remove chloroform and benzene 20 times faster than the untransformed plants. Now we want to take the rabbit enzyme and put it into a common houseplant, pothos ivy, making SuperPothos plants to protect your family.



Ordinary plants have some ability to clean the air, but the amount of foliage required to have a significant impact on pollutants would be hundreds of plants per room! SuperPothos plants could do the job with only a few plants per room.

If you’re interested, take a look at our project website,



http://www.indiegogo.com/SuperPothos/x/1889244?c=home”

or I could upload the pdf for the list. Is it possible to do that in google groups?