Mushrooms could come to the rescue

Today Online 28 Apr 08;

FORT BRAGG (California) — On a warm April evening, 90 people crowded into the cafeteria of Redwood Elementary School here to meet with representatives of the State Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The substance at issue was dioxin, a pollutant that infests the site of a former lumber mill in this town north of San Francisco. And the method of cleanup being proposed was a novel one — mushrooms.

Mushrooms have been used to clean up oil spills, a process called bioremediation, but they have not been used to treat dioxin.

"I am going to make a heretical suggestion," said Ms Debra Scott, who has lived in the area for more than two decades. "We could be the pilot study."

Fort Bragg, which is in Mendocino County, was the first in the United States to legalise medical marijuana and to ban genetically modified crops and animals.

Using the mushroom method, Mr Paul E Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, said it is put in plots, strewn with straw and left alone with mushroom spawn. The spawn releases a fine, web called mycelium that secretes enzymes "like little Pac-Mans that break down molecular bonds." And presto: Toxins fall apart.

The proposal is not without critics.

"There still needs to be further testing on whether it works on dioxin," said Professor Edgardo R Gillera, a scientist for the State Department of Toxic Substances Control. "There has only been a handful of tests, in labs and field studies. I need to see more studies on a larger scale to consider it a viable option." — THE NEW YORK TIMES