Slashdot Mirror
Ozone As Pesticide
Makarand writes "Purdue University researchers in the search for
alternatives to insect fumigants that damage Earth's ozone layer
have found that
ozone gas can be used as a potent
pesticide without causing any environmental harm.
Farmers could use ozone generators to get rid
of insects in their grain bins by releasing ozone
in them."
Might be wrong here, but I thought high levels of ozone near the ground was toxic to humans?
"The school may file patent protections on its process.
A $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Research Initiative financed the Purdue team's latest wave of research."
I don't mean to be one of those people who freaks out at the mere mention of a patent, but something rubs me the wrong way about research at an educational institution which was funded by a government grant being patentable. Shouldn't it be public domain?
lysergically yours
Is producing more poison, esp that damage the nerve system like this, a good thing?
I don't know.
I'd rather see a decline in the monocultures that are vulnerable to insect attacks. Growing for example hemp alongside your other crops helps against pests and is a lot less harmful to the environment.
Growing a single crop is almost begging for trouble, and using pesticides is not going to the root of the problem. The insects will evolve.
"Farmers could use ozone generators to get rid of insects in their grain bins by releasing ozone in them."
Right, or we could, you know, fix the hole in the ozone layer.
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
Seems like grain silos and smog tend to be in different areas. I think smog comes from reacting ozone with unburned hydrocarbons.
Then it was totally banned, for political reasons, and due to the hysteria that had been whipped up against it.
As it says on this site:
That's a site with a political agenda, though, and only environmentalists are permitted to mix a political agenda with their science.
This is not necessarily a wonderful development. Ozone is a very chemically reactive molecule. Introduced into a grain silo, it is not going to be selective. It will not seek out bugs and pests first. What it will do is react with the organic molecules in the grain - generating all kinds of degradation products, many of which are going to be toxic, mutagenic, teratogenic, etc. Is that a good tradeoff for a few fewer beetle legs in your Cheerios?
n.b.: I buy Marcal paper goods, because they are trying to recycle and whiten their paper products using as many non-chlorinated oxidizing chemicals as they can. The paper industries use of chlorine and hypochlorite is a major source of the organochlorines in the environment.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Part of the problem with this is that O3 is denser than air, and will, for the most part, rise high enough into the atmosphere. O3 is also a very bad resperatory irritant, and inhaling large quantities could even cause death. Mild but prolonged exposure can also cause health problems.
Stangely enough, however, passing O3 thru something like olive oil before breathing is supposed to be theraputic for resperatory problems.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
It could be that farms are big, empty places, and the amount of ozone per cubic mile of atmosphere, coupled with the lack of high hydrocarbons per cubic mile of atmosphere, make it a non-issue. As farms tend not to be near major concentrations of pollutants, this small amount of ozone would be OK, and quite probably, less harmful to the environment than the pesticides. Plus, as an added bonus, the ozone won't leave a residue that may cumulatively be nasty for us to ingest.
Lemon curry?
Yes, but the reason I respect them is because of them, I get to eat :)
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.