Science / Medicine : Nudge for PCBs Degradation

Environmental scientists at the General Electric Co. reported that they have found a way to speed up the degradation of highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by naturally occurring bacteria that live in the Hudson River and other waterways. PCBs were once widely used in capacitors, electrical transformers, inks, lubricants and other products until their manufacture and use was banned by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1979.

Industrial effluents from GE’s manufacture of PCBs heavily contaminated the Hudson River in New York, and both GE and the Environmental Protection Agency have been searching for ways to clean up the river. Chemist Daniel A. Abramowicz of GE’s Research and Development Center in Schenectady reported that researchers could double the rate at which bacteria from Hudson River sediments degrade the PCBs by the simple expedient of giving them a nutrient medium containing nitrogen, phosphorus and trace metals.

By varying the relative concentrations of the nutrients and trace metals, Abramowicz said, the bacteria can be targeted against any one of the 209 different PCBs. The researchers hope to begin tests in the river sometime in 1991.