Happy to clear up issues: We are presently proposing only one gene in hous= eplants: the mammalian cytochrome P450 2E1, which attacks and degrades ben= zene, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, dichlorobenzene, and several other = volatile organic compounds that frequently exceed health standards in home = air. Formaldehyde is a desirable target of course, but 2E1 does not degrade= formaldehyde. We are looking at other formaldehyde degrading genes for fu= ture work, but so are other groups in China and Japan, especially. =20
Of course we don't propose to use transgenic tobacco as a houseplant, that = would be impractical for a variety of reasons. But since tobacco is easily = transformed we transformed it as a proof -of-concept. Tobacco transformed = with 2E1 degraded benzene and the other pollutants more than 20x faster tha= n untransformed tobacco in small scale experiments. We expect that transfor= med pothos ivy will have the same increased pollutant destroying capability= . We think we are already close to having a 2E1 transformed pothos and will= have confirming data this week.
As for the pollutant levels that are present in homes, the little review I = wrote gives a good summary of the current literature.=20 =20
As far as getting rid of sources, that is certainly the best mitigation act= ion, but it is not easy. Benzene is emitted from fuel storage in attached = garages, so you would need to find another place to park your car and store= your lawn mover, no smoking, no indoor fires, including perhaps cooking. C= hloroform is present in all chlorinated water, so, unless you use your own = well, you will need a whole house activated carbon filtration, with frequen= t and costly switching out of the filter. Carbon tet comes from outside (as= does a lot of benzene), so that is a problem. We think our superpothos wo= uld make a good alternative and could result in a decrease in the levels of= these carcinogens, which even if the reduction is only partial would decre= ase cancers in the US.