Given that 20% of the world’s population consists of smokers, cigarettes have become the single largest contributing factor to preventable and premature death around the world today. This is a fact that has been proven time and time again by numerous scientific studies, some of which have even been conducted by tobacco companies themselves.

The inhalation of nicotine-laced smoke into the lungs is harmful enough as it is; however, the true reason cigarettes are so especially detrimental to human health is the over 4,000 additional toxins and carcinogens the tobacco leaves are intentionally doped with for a heightened addictive effect.

Just to show how addictive cigarettes truly are, I offer the following, rather disheartening statistic: only 3-5% of quit attempts are successful based on willpower alone. I cite the above information solely as a reminder of just how deadly this, at first, seemingly harmless drug truly is. Fortunately, it seems that a research team headed by Neil C. Bruce has found at least one beneficial effect of one of the most deadly plants the world has come to known: tobacco.

Over 60 years after the end of WWII, TNT contamination continues to be a formidable threat to the local ecology of former battle sites, military training areas, and even explosives factories. To reduce this level of toxic TNT from the soil, recent research has led to the discovery that certain natural soil bacteria convert TNT to a nontoxic compound. Because these bacteria are not extremely abundant, they have done little to decrease this constantly growing problem.

Aiming to find a solution to this problem, Neil C. Bruce and his research team attempted to artificially inject the TNT fighting bacteria into tobacco plants with the hope that planting the modified tobacco in TNT infested areas would reduce the levels of this harmful explosive.

The results were positive. The soil TNT levels were reduced in the area in which modified tobacco plants were grown compared to TNT levels in soil supporting non-modified tobacco plants. The research team said of their study, “This is the first report to demonstrate that transgenic plants engineered for the phytoremediation of organic pollutants can increase the functional and genetic diversity of the bacterial community in acutely polluted soil compared to wild type plants. Our findings have important implications, not only for use of genetically engineered plants for TNT remediation, but for cleaning up other sources of contamination as well.”

While this news is good for increasing fertility of land damaged by war, this by no means undermines the fact that tobacco continues to intoxicate and kill billions worldwide. However, if pressures to reduce tobacco products succeed, tobacco farmers could find a new customer for their plants – those companies interested in phytoremediation!

Discussion Question: Given your knowledge of the root/shoot system of plants, what mechanism do you believe the altered tobacco plants mentioned in this article use to disperse the TNT fighting bacteria into the soil?
Article Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070813103354.htm
Scientific Link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es070507a?cookieSet=1