🤓 Geek-out about moss with Jes🌱
Scientists at Oregon State University are analyzing lead levels in Portland neighborhoods using an air monitoring system that’s found in nature: tree moss. The plant collects all of its nutrients from the atmosphere and, in the process, absorbs pollutants. And because moss is pretty much everywhere, it’s relatively easy to test samples from hundreds of locations to track down sources of pollution.
The researchers found that lead levels in the moss samples from neighborhoods with lead-sheathed telecom cables were more than two times higher than samples from neighborhoods without them. Up until the 1950s, it was common practice to sheath telephone cables in lead to protect them from the elements.
The team has set up a website with a guide for identifying lead-sheathed cables.
To learn more about this discovery and other recent breakthroughs made by researchers in the Pacific Northwest with this roundup by Jes Burns, creator of OPB’s All Science, No Fiction. https://www.opb.org/article/2024/08/2...
📹 by Jes Burns, OPB
✂️ by Cameron Nielsen, OPB
🎧 from Audio Network
For more stories like this visit OPB online at https://opb.org
#pnw #environment #pollution #Portland #health #moss #didyouknow #science #PacificNorthwest #AllScienceNoFiction #OPB #Oregon #PollutionSolution #EnvironmentalScience #NatureTech #AirPurification #GreenTechnology #EcoFriendly #Biofiltration #SustainableLiving #UrbanEcology #ClimateAction #EnvironmentalInnovation #MossResearch #NatureBasedSolutions #PollutionControl