By Sid Perkins
From Baltimore, at the American Geophysical Union meeting
Lab and field tests hint that dairy whey, a lactose-rich by-product of the dairy industry, could be used to clean up underground water supplies tainted with the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreaser.
Consuming TCE or inhaling its fumes can cause liver and kidney damage, affect heart function, and possibly cause cancer (SN: 5/29/99, p. 343: https://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/5_29_99/fob6.htm). The chemical is in groundwater at more than half of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund sites.