Use of Biosensors for Pollution Control

1 Introduction: Pollution of air, water, soil, food, human beings and the total biosphere, all are inter-related. One needs to understand pollution in totality. Otherwise we often end up converting one form of pollution into another, spending valuable resources at each stage, and pollution keeps on increasing by this amount. We need to understand the root-cause of pollution and fight with this root-cause, instead of fighting with pollution. Pollution is, after all, only an indication that something is wrong. It is a warning bell, not to be suppressed.

2 Conventional Monitoring of Pollution: Conventional pollution monitoring is achieved through sampling of polluting material, analyzing the samples in a laboratory using physico-chemical methods and interpreting the results. There are only a few biological methods and these have limitations because biology cannot be simulated in a laboratory. Laboratory techniques are also liable to errors because the samples may not truly indicate the polluting stream and can change during the transport and storage. There could also be errors in the laboratory procedures. One needs simple, cheap methods and use of natural biosensors is one such upcoming method. In fact, common man understands pollution only through the use of natural biosensors.

3 Principle of Biosensors: Ecology tells us that each organism grows in specific set of conditions (niche) that can be defined in terms of food, temperature, moisture, pH, etc. One can thus use each organism as a biosensor for a set of conditions. After we learn to read these biosensors, pollution monitoring becomes a simple and quick job. We give below, a few guiding principles that one can use while learning this technique:

1 Pollution is a result of waste of resources, or in other words, waste is a misplaced resource.

2 Signs of pollution are visible and unpleasant, of varying degree, and only serve as warning signals. It is necessary to read this message and not fight with these signs of pollution (such as odour, pathogens, pests and several other unpleasant natural phenomena).

3 Biosensors inform us of the band or degree of pollution. This is quite enough to guide us towards an appropriate action.

4 Appropriate action not only stops the signs of pollution, but display signs of prosperity. These are clean air, clean water stream, flourishing vegetation, singing birds, etc. and absence of visible nuisance-causing organisms (pests).

4 Nitrate Theory: Above guiding principles arise from the study of ecology and when these were applied to analyze diverse forms of pollution, Dr. Uday S. Bhawalkar arrived at the “Nitrate Theory” that can be outlined as below:

1 Nitrates (and related compounds such as ammonia, nitrites or non-protein-nitrogen compounds, in general) are a resource for plant growth. These are produced in situ, by the earthworms in the soil, with the help of appropriate bacteria. Earthworm’s role is as a regulator, like all other big, visible animals on the earth. In fact, one can use visible plants and animals as biosensors that define classes of microorganisms.

2 Nitrates in air (as nitrogen oxides), water, soil, food, solid wastes and wastewater indicate overuse and waste of nitrates and nature indicates this to us through signs of pollution.

3 Man also shows signs of pollution, in the form of his spoiled behaviour when he consumes food, water and air that is polluted with nitrates.

4 Natural calamities such as droughts, floods, epidemics, cyclones, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. also result when nitrates are wasted on a large scale. This is common in modern times and nature warns and also punishes us for this. These events reduce human population that can support itself with its wasteful habits.

5 Other inorganics, too, are resources for plant production and their waste also leads to pollution. In general, plants convert inorganics into organics that fulfill our needs of food, energy, building and clothing material, medicines, etc. Waste of inorganics and allowing their increase in wrong places such as air, water and food amount to waste of valuable resources.

6 SUJALA BIOSANITIZER is a naturally derived catalyst that prevents this waste and stops the signs of pollution, creating prosperity as a bonus. It turns pollution into profit. Once this is demonstrated, one can control all forms of pollution without using law and punishment. Man, after all, is a sensible animal and understands the necessity to turn pollution into profit, if the techniques are simple and cost-effective.

5 Human Pollution: This is the most serious form of pollution today. Man spoils his behaviour when he consumes food, water and air that is polluted with nitrates. One can thus use human behaviour to monitor human environment.

1 With increasing pollution, humans exhibit behavioral patterns such as sex, anger, greed, temptation, jealousy and violence, respectively. These are overlapping, that is, the next pattern starts before the previous pattern is over, thus producing mixed patterns. One thus can have healthy sex, with minimal production of offsprings with nominal pollution (this is difficult to stop). Human population, in fact, started rising fast, only after the increasing trend of pollution during this century! Increase in population is only a preparation for impending disasters that will lower the population. Nature knows how to control population of not only humans, but all the creatures that breed much faster than man.

2 With increasing pollution, humans in fact, reduce their fertility. This is happening now, but the credit goes to the government-sponsored family welfare program. It is interesting to discuss why people listen to government only in one aspect and not in all.

3 With reducing fertility, pollution also causes sex problems, medical and legal. One sees angry sex, greedy sex, jealous sex and violent sex. Increasing number of cases of killing of girls, because of one-way love indicate the pollution of human environment. Punishing the criminals is not enough; one needs to go to the root cause.

4 AIDS is considered as a sex-derived problem. One needs to use sex to remove nitrates from our body. This is why, the AIDS-control program harps upon use of condoms, not on no-sex. One can control AIDS only by controlling nitrates in food, water and air and SUJALA BIOSANITIZER can help in this task. Prof. Duesberg, a virologist from the University of California, Berkeley, has published several papers relating nitrates and AIDS (http://www.duesberg.com/).

5 In fact, HIV is a fire-fighter, cleaning our body of nitrates and not the cause of AIDS. Vaccine against HIV is difficult to develop because HIV mutates faster than the speed of research. This is good for us because, use of HIV vaccine will only increase human behavioural problems in the band of violence.

6 AIDS is an advanced form of TB, the wasting disease that bothered us when there were no antibiotics available. Shifting the patient to a clean environment (where the sanitariums were situated) was one option. Now, the antibiotics do not work because their band of operation has been crossed by today’s pollution. It is the failure of antibiotics, not the failure of human immune system, which causes AIDS today.

7 Cancer, too, is linked to consumption of food, water and air having nitrates. Nitrates reduce the oxygen level in human tissues. Dr. Otto Warburg who received the Nobel Prize in medicine in the years 1931 and 1944, states that cancer cells are anaerobic. According to Dr. Stephen Levine, a renowned molecular biologist, hypoxia is the fundamental cause of all degenerative diseases.

8 Increasing health problems, such a cancer and AIDS, and increasing behavioural problems in the society, thus indicate increasing pollution of human environment. It is necessary to note that physical health problems are meant to arrest the potential criminals and keep them at home or in the hospital so that these potentially dangerous people (with high levels of nitrates) do not cause harm to the society and to nature. All physical health problems also clean the body of nitrates and thus prevent behavioural problems. Suppressing the symptoms of diseases only results in increase in the behavioural problems that we see today.

9 How to assess the overall status of the society? By noting which books, TV channel programs or movies gets popular in a society, one can arrive at the overall picture of pollution. A movie becomes popular only when people relate it to their feelings and these in turn, are related to the pollution levels. “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun” or “Lagaan” getting popular indicates a healthy society, which is why, the government reduces the entertainment tax on these movies. A violent movie getting popular is not a good sign. The officers of the Pollution Control Boards should be encouraged to see the popular movies as a part of their office duty, to help them monitor environmental pollution!

10 Consumption of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, too, is linked to nitrates in the environment.

6 Sound Pollution: It is found that people enjoy higher decibels of sound as their nitrate level increases in lower band.. One can thus use sound level as a biosensor for monitoring nitrate levels. The wattage of the sound system may be used as a measure of the sound level, instead of the decibel level, which requires special instruments.

7 Pollution of Organics: Solid organic wastes or wastewaters, both create pollution due to the nitrates. Faulty food production system, for example, use of chemical fertlisers, pollutes the food with nitrates. This food is bad for human health and nature destroys this food only to protect our health. Garbage and sewage arising out of such food will have nitrates. Garbage and sewage create odour, pathogen and pest problems only to indicate the nitrate problem. The treatment of garbage and sewage, thus, should focus on removal of nitrates rather than on organics. Organics are food for the soil and thus serve as organic fertlisers. These must be conserved to reduce the necessity of chemical fertlisers. Chemical fertlisers cause excess nitrate levels in the crop and pests come to consume the nitrate-rich food. Fighting the pests with pesticides only results in the production of food, that is polluted with nitrates and pesticides.

One can monitor the garbage quality by noting which animal is eating the garbage. Cows will eat garbage with lowest nitrates and cow products (milk, dung and urine) are free of nitrates. This is the reason why the cow is considered a holy animal in our culture. Cow products, in fact, have medicinal value. We use cow dung to plaster our house, temple and food-storage bins, to ensure a healthy atmosphere. Now processed cow urine has been patented in the USA (see patent no. 6,410,059 B1 at http://www.uspto.com/) to increase the efficacy of antibiotics. Processing is necessary now because of the environmental pollution. If pigs are seen to prosper, it indicates spoilage of the food quality. If rats are seen in garbage dumps, it is more serious. Rats are not a problem in themselves; they are reducing the nitrates in the garbage. When the nitrates are higher than what they can tolerate, they start dying of plague. Plague also kills humans with high nitrates. Rats are not the cause of plague, but are victims of plague. Plague is caused by very high levels of nitrates in garbage/food/sewage. Incidences of plague were found in India for 40 years, at the beginning of this century. It used to be active only during October and November when the high temperature after the monsoon rains caused the nitrates to act. Why is it that plague is not so common these days? This is because human excreta, that used to be a part of garbage, in the old days, finds its place in sewage now. Plague, thus has been cleverly controlled by using drinking water to flush human excreta into rivers and lakes that supply our drinking water. Our water bodies now breed mosquitoes (aquatic rats) and mosquitoes die of malaria and dengue. Cause is again nitrates! A healthy water body is characterized by fish which convert nitrates into food. A polluted water body breeds frogs or ordinary mosquitoes. These have no food value, but warn us with sound or biting during the night. Mosquitoes are very selective in their biting habits. They only bite people with high nitrate levels! These people are potentially dangerous to the society! Mosquitoes, in fact, purify our blood by increasing blood turnover, a costly way indeed! Mosquito bites can be avoided by drinking water purified with SUJALA BIOSANITIZER. Malaria and dengue mosquitoes breed in water that has nitrates but has poor energy sources (organics). Rainwater and secondary-treated sewage are good media for breeding of malaria/dengue mosquitoes. These mosquitoes bite people in the violence band, that too, during the day. Using SUJALA BIOSANITIZER can prevent the firefighting services of these mosquitoes.

It thus, should be noted that aim of organic waste management should be to increase the food (nontoxic organics)/nitrate ratio. The table below shows the aquatic biosensors and their food/nitrate ratios. Pathogens grow if this ratio is less than 30.

8 Let us now discuss aquatic weeds such as water hyacinth. These grow if the food/nitrate ratio is from 30 to 10. Water hyacinth actually helps clean the water body by removing the nitrates and reducing mosquito breeding. If the dense growth of water hyacinth is not harvested regularly, the speed of nitrate removal becomes slow and ordinary mosquitoes start breeding. It is non-harvesting of water hyacinth, not the water hyacinth itself, which causes mosquito breeding. Below food/nitrate ratio of 10, water hyacinth cannot grow in the water bodies. One sees production of toxic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans, a problem more severe than the pathogens.

9 It should be noted that conventional methods of organic waste management actually reduce the food/nitrate ratio by burning away food molecules and contributing to global warming. The resultant material also becomes a better medium for pathogen growth. Composting does destroy the pathogens due to the temperature rise, but the same compost can re-grow the pathogens after it cools down.

10 Hospital waste is incinerated to destroy the pathogens. This compounds the problem by producing more nitrogen oxides from the proteins that are invariably present in the hospital waste. Incinerators that burn hospital waste and dead bodies, actually contribute to production of toxic rain (with nitrates) that produces higher number of patients in the society. SUJALA BIOSANITIZER has been used to sanitize the hospital waste and produce manure that is free of the pathogens. The system has been monitored by the Dept. of Microbiology of B J Medical College, Pune, for the past four years.

11 Air Pollution: Major source of air pollution is burning of fossil fuels, biogas and producer gas. These fuels are produced in polluted environment and need to be processed first with SU-JWALA BIOSANITIZER before they could be used.

Visible smoke indicates a low band of air pollution. More serious is the higher band that produces less smoke and higher amount of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur. The exhaust appears clean, but actually is more dangerous. Use of biogas, producer gas, LPG and CNG is considered safe, but is actually more hazardous from this point of view. The Asian Brown Cloud, actually indicates low band pollution, as compared to Europe and North American sky that has invisible high band pollution. Major contribution of air pollution is from the developed countries that use higher per capita and also absolute quantity of fossil fuels. Traditional fuels such as cowdung pats, firewood, ghee, vegetable oils and candles made from natural fat are cleaner fuels. Cleanest of all are ghee and cowdung pats prepared from desi (brahmin) cow. These, in fact, clean the polluted air, like smoke produced during traditional yadnyas.

12 Rain Pollution: Rain gets polluted after falling through polluted air. Rainfall is regular (good for agriculture in terms of quality and distribution) only when the air pollution is mild. At higher air pollution (higher levels of oxides of C, N, S, etc.), rain becomes irregular, with peaks of high and low rain, with large gaps. This is bad for agriculture and also causes floods and dry periods. With excessive air pollution, rain just gets reduced. One can thus monitor the band of air quality from the rainfall pattern. In the ideal condition of no air pollution, again there will be no rain. How would we survive then? Plants grow very fast in healthy air, producing more water than what they need. This water contributes to the groundwater. Springs flow round the year and this keeps rivers flowing round the year. Water vapour in air also produces dew during the night. This can be a good source of water. One can note that rain does disturb our routine and thus gives us a warning signal about air pollution. Increasing nitrogen oxides in air produces nitrate-rich rain that in turn produces malaria. The word “malaria” means “bad air” and presents a better picture than the common belief that “mosquitoes cause malaria – that gave a Nobel to Sir Ronald Ross”. Polluted nitrate-rich rain also does not seep into the ground readily, a natural mechanism to protect the groundwater quality. We then have to spend on digging trenches in the ground, bunding the nallas, constructing dams and collecting rain on the roofs. Henceforth we should focus on nitrate levels in water. In fact, roof water harvesting was discontinued in many areas because of high nitrate levels. One way to control air pollution is to use SU-JWALA BIOSANITIZER in the fuel tank. This is a natural catalyst that gives 20 percent higher mileage/pick-up and produces clean exhaust. It also reduces heating, corrosion and maintenance problems.

13 Water Pollution: Water gets polluted primarily due to inorganics. Mild level of pollution is indicated to us by turbidity. Second level is indicated by presence and growth of pathogens. Third level is indicated by presence of toxic compounds. At the fourth level, water has so much of inorganics that there is no warning, water becomes unusable for drinking and for agriculture. Seawater is one example. After knowing this one can see how using alum/polyelectrolyte to control turbidity and use of chlorine to kill the pathogens, actually increases water pollution. One can use SUJALA BIOSANITIZER to solve all sorts of water quality problems and get water that becomes an asset for drinking, cleaning and for agriculture.

14 Natural Calamities: Cyclones result when nitrates are wasted into the sea. The message is that nitrates should not be allowed in water. They can produce 100 times higher food on land than in water. Food in river (fish), at least, can be captured without much energy expenditure. Capturing fish from the deep sea involves more expenditure than the energy in fish. Nature gives us this warning through the cyclones. The Orissa cyclone was near the Paradeep Port where the Maha River meets the sea, pouring nitrates into the sea. Earthquakes and volcanoes are due to reaction of nitrates (in groundwater) and the rock, building up the pressure that causes these calamities.

15 Conclusion: One can learn to read the “books of nature” and solve the problems facing mankind. Our biology is different from that in the developed world and hence they are not in the best position to solve our problems. In fact, not knowing the hazards of burning polluted fuels such as coal, petrol and diesel, the developed countries spoiled the world atmosphere. We suffered more because of high temperature. This is why the nitrate hazards were not discovered in the West. Sir Alfred Nobel used the nitrate chemistry to develop the explosives, without realizing the bad effect on air. Explosives helped mining of coal and oil. British could rule India only because of the guns. Nobel prizes also decided the path for scientific research. It is time now, to understand the nitrate chemistry with respect to life, control the greed and terrorism that is due to nitrates and develop peaceful life that satisfies the genuine needs of all and greed of none. Biosanitizers should be of help in this pursuit.