Inactive Yeast Was Found Effective Material for Removing Lead Contamination From Drinking Water Supply

Inactive yeast might be successful as an affordable, plentiful, and simple material for eliminating lead pollution from drinking water sources, according to new research from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA).

The study revealed that this method can be effective and cost-effective even at part-per-billion contamination levels.

Even at very low levels, serious harm to human health is known to occur.

Using inactive yeast for removing lead

(Photo : GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)

The technology is so effective that the researchers determined that leftover yeast from a single brewery in Boston could treat the whole city's water supply, as per ScienceDaily.

Not only would such a totally sustainable system cleanse the water, but it would also redirect what would otherwise be a waste stream that needed to be disposed of.

The findings were published today in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment in a paper co-authored by MIT Research Scientist Patritsia Statathou, Brown University postdoc and MIT Visiting Scholar Christos Athanasiou, MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld, the director of CBA, and nine other researchers from MIT, Brown, Wellesley College, Nanyang Technological University, and the National Technical University of Athens.

Lead, as well as other heavy metals in waters, are a major global concern that is only becoming worse due to technological trash and mining emissions.

Acidic mine-drainage water high in heavy metals, the country's greatest cause of water pollution, affects almost 12,000 miles of streams in the United States alone.

Heavy metals, unlike organic contaminants, which may be broken down over time, do not biodegrade, but instead, exist permanently and bioaccumulate.

By using traditional procedures like chemical precipitation or membrane filtering, they are either impossible or highly expensive to remove altogether.

Lead is extremely poisonous, even in trace amounts, and it has a particularly negative impact on children as they develop.

The European Union has cut the permitted lead concentration in drinking water from 10 to 5 parts per billion.

The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States has ruled that no level in water sources is safe.

In addition, average levels in bodies of surface water throughout the world are ten times greater than they were 50 years ago, ranging from ten parts per billion in Europe to hundreds of parts per billion in South America.

According to Stathatou, they need to eradicate lead from drinking water, not only reduce its presence.

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Lead poisoning

Lead poisoning can have major health implications for children.

Lead poisoning damages the brain and central nervous system at large doses, resulting in unconsciousness, convulsions, and even death, as per Britannica.

Children with severe lead exposure may have intellectual disabilities and behavior problems. Lead is now recognized to induce a spectrum of harm across various physiological systems at low levels of exposure that create no evident symptoms.

Lead, in particular, has been shown to impair children's brain development, resulting in lower IQ, behavioral changes, such as decreased attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and worse educational achievement.

Anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity, and toxicity to the reproductive organs are among the symptoms of lead poisoning.

Furthermore, lead is thought to have permanent neurological and behavioral consequences.

There is no such thing as a safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 g/dL have been linked to lower intellect, behavioral issues, and learning difficulties in children.

The variety and severity of symptoms and consequences grow as lead exposure rises.

In most nations, the effective phase-out of leaded gasoline, along with other lead control measures, has resulted in a considerable reduction in population-level blood lead concentrations, which is encouraging.

Leaded gasoline for vehicles and trucks is no longer available anywhere in the globe as of July 2021.

However, more has to be done to phase out lead paint: just 41% of nations have implemented legally enforceable lead paint regulations.

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