BRISBANE, Australia, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Australian scientists are developing what they call a world-first technology to warn people if their local water or air is contaminated by toxic metals.
Researcher Andrew McKay of Australia's Cooperative Research Council for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment is studying the changes that occur in a unique water microbe when it's exposed to such industrial and natural contaminants as arsenic, cadmium and lead.
"Our goal is to develop a simple field test that can warn people or environmental authorities if dangerous levels of toxic metals or metalloids are present in the environment to which they might be exposed," he said.
He said scientists have developed a water organism as an early warning tool for such contamination.
"We've found a number of readily observable changes, which take place in the organism when it is exposed to increased levels of toxic metals and metalloids," he said. "Their growth and reproduction rates slow down and their shape changes -- becoming star or V-shaped."
The current research challenge, he says, is to use the organisms to develop a sensitive enough test to discern whether contamination levels pose a risk to human health.
