GENESIS: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICAL ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submitted a report on indoor air quality to the U.S. Congress. This report stated that “sufficient evidence exists to conclude that indoor air pollution represents a major portion of the public’s exposure to air pollution and may pose serious, acute and chronic health risks.”1 The EPA also states that “the potential economic impact of indoor air pollution is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars per year”.2

One very important issue that the report failed to address was a cost effective solution to indoor air pollution.

The Solution: A high order ecosystem

1Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress on Indoor air Quality, Executive Summary and Recommendations. EPA/4–/1989/001A.
2Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress on Indoor air Quality, Executive Summary and Recommendations. EPA/4–/1989/001A.

More and more employees are complaining that they’re beset during deskbound hours by a panoply of miseries from stuffy heads to watery eyes, nosebleeds, headaches, and that “just plain lousy” feeling. These symptoms are considered a signal to a real problem: indoor air pollution or sick building syndrome.

The EPA found that the concentrations of some contaminants, (e.g. formaldehyde, benzene, trichlororethylene), in homes and office buildings exceed outdoor levels by 200% to 500%!  In 1973, NASA found that the air in the Skylab 3 was contaminated with over 100 chemicals.  It was then that Dr. Bill Wolverton began his work.  During the last three decades, Wolverton has worked to demonstrate that indoor pollution can be solved by using houseplants.3 He has tested the effects of plants on three common indoor air pollutants.

  • Formaldehyde is emitted by plywood, carpeting, foam insulation, furniture made with particle board and some household cleaners. Formaldehyde is associated with the following health risks:
  • Headaches
  • Irritation of eyes and/or upper respiratory tract
  • Asthma
  • Throat cancer
  • Benzene, a carcinogen, represents a family of solvents that come from paints, varnishes, lacquers, tobacco smoke, gasoline, some plastics, inks and even detergents. Health risks associated with benzene include:
  • Irritation of skin and eyes
  • Headaches
  • Loss of appetite
  • Drowsiness
  • Leukemia, and other blood diseases
  • Trichloroethylene comes from dry cleaning, ink and paints, varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, and is believed to be a cause of liver cancer.
  • Anesthesia – The loss of feeling and nerve responses
  • Leukemia
  • Kidney cancer
  • Cardiac dysrhythmia – An irregular heart beat (In this case would be a higher than normal heart beat – tachycardia)

        3Wolverton, B.C. 1990, Interior landscape plants and their role in improving indoor air quality. Report WES/100/4-1990/001

        Dr. Wolverton’s experiments with plants (planted hydroponically so that soil breakdown did not cause more contamination) showed that plants were found to remove as such as 87% of toxic indoor pollution witin 24 hours.

        His experiments found that

        • Formaldehyde was reduced by philodendron, spider plants, golden pothos, corn plant, chrysanthemum, and mother-in-law’s tongue.

        • Benzene was reduced by English Ivy, marginata, chrysanthemum, gerbera daisy, warneckei, and peace lily.

        • Trichloroethylene was reduced by gerbera daisy, chrysanthemum, peace lily, warneckei, and marginata.

        The implications of Wolverton’s research would believe that the specific plants if used will reduce these pollutants, however Wolverton’s experiments were based on aeroponic applications and the same results are not produced when introduced to soil. Furthermore the high-order rainforest ecosystems of Genetron Systems out performs any specific monoculture application of the above listed plants/or combination of the above by many orders of magnitude (even if none of the above plants are used at all).

         

        Genetron provides a real world solution with real world applications, working more harmoniously with existing patterns of nature and their response to such challenges (science and seperational “silver bullet responses” are not in harmony with natural responses). Theory is logically expected to work when scientifically proven: but it doesn’t work. It is unsustainable and is unable to connect to nature’s pattern (it finds itself in opposition to nature itself).

        Wolfgang Amelung, of Genetron Systems Inc., has taken this research further by leaps and bounds. He has designed an indoor, high order ecosystem using the primordial elements: plants, water, rocks, fishes and animals – the “Breathing Wall” (Canadian and USA patented). Genetron Systems Inc. is an ecological engineering firm that continues to develop and design these ecological systems.

        The ‘breathingwall’ is not only aesthetically pleasing, it captures the sounds and smells of nature, as well as cleaning the air.  The University of Guelph, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, has tested one of Genetron’s Breathing Walls for its ability to reduce CO2, formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene and has found that it reduces levels of all of these more efficiently than any mechanical system.

        Genesis: International Foundation for Ecological Atmosphereic Research was inspired by Genetron’s Breathing Wall. Genesis is a not-for-profit foundation which was created to study the impact of healthy ecosystems on the human environment.

        Genesis is planning to conduct further study on the impacts of a ‘breathingwall’ ecosystem unit at schools in the future. The focus of the study is to research the effects of the ecosystem on students’ learning, attention spans, happiness and how they and the teachers feel the unit has affected the attractiveness of the space in which it is located.