Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
Crop & Soil Sciences
Non Technical Summary
Contact with urushiol (poison ivy/oak toxin) causes allergic response in 85% of the population. Plants are harvested and information on safe disposal is not available. These poisonous plants are conveyed to compost facilities.Compost research will determine the fate of urushiol during composting in large and small-scale settings; data will be analyzed in NY, PA and CA. Educational information will be developed and disseminated in English and Spanish.Poisonous plants are often added to compost piles as a feedstock but we don't know what the potency of the plant is as the plant decomposes and becomes part of the soil medium. Quality of compost is important for plant use and the people that apply it, or are in direct contact with it. Personal contact with poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, and poison oak, Toxicodendron rydbergii, at any time of the year can cause an allergic response in 85% of the U.S. population. Very little information is available on how to safely dispose of the plants, therefore by default it goes into home and municipal compost systems. The allergic reaction is caused by a family of organic compounds called urushiol. Urushiol is present in the sap, roots, stems, leaves and fruit of the plant and is released when the plant is damaged through cutting, mowing or brushing against it. Urushiol has been shown to remain on dead plants, clothing and contaminated objects for years. About 2 million cases of skin poisoning from poisonous plants are reported in the United States each year. Therefore, the question arises that if yard trimmings that contain poisonous plants are disposed of in compost piles, will urushiol degrade or still be active in the resulting compost? Cornell Waste Management Institute (CWMI) and others routinely get questions pertaining to this subject. Research on the decomposition of urushiol during the composting process will help to answer questions about how to dispose of the plant and how it would affect agriculture workers, gardeners and others that are in contact with compost. With this information, recommendations can be made on how to manage the disposal of poison ivy and poison oak without affecting human health and also how to manage the composting process when these plants are present.There are 3 states that will collaborate in this research New York, Pennsylvania and California. Trials and research will be conducted in each and the data collected will be combined into one database analyzed cooperatively. The New York and Pennsylvania teams will work with poison ivy. The California group will work with conduct the lab analyses.Are there jointly planned and interwoven activities between applied Research and Extension?The research will be completed and analyses conducted for bench scale reactors, small low turned piles and larger windrows with different feedstock mixed with the plants containing urushiol. When answers are secured, a fact sheet will be compiled so that people have this information and can protect themselves accordingly. The urushiol also has an effect on those harvesting the plant (horticulture industry) and processing the plant with different disposal methods. The research will give us information to advise all who may be exposed to it.Non-Cornell Collaborators: Dr. Robert Rynk, Associate Professor, SUNY Cobleskill. Performing benchscale compost trials.Dr. Fatih Buyuksonmez, Associate Professor, San Diego State University. Detection analysis for urushiol.Eric Carr, Rodale Institute, Composting poison ivy with different feedstocks.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Evaluate the short- and long-term chemistry and bioavailability of nutrients, potentially toxic inorganic trace elements, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (TOrCs) in residuals, reclaimed water, and amended soils in order to assess the environmental and health risk-based effects of their application at a watershed scale. Specific tasks: (i) To develop and evaluate in vitro (including chemical speciation) and novel in vivo methods to correlate human and ecological health responses with risk-based bioavailability of trace elements and TOrCs in residuals and residual-treated soils. (ii) Predict the long-term bioavailability and toxicity of trace elements and TOrCs in residual-amended urban, agricultural and contaminated soils. (iii) Evaluate long-term effects of residuals application and reclaimed wastewater irrigation on fate and transport of nutrients, trace elements, TOrCs, and emergence/spread of antibiotic resistance in high application rate systems. (iv) Evaluate plant uptake and ecological effects of potentially toxic trace elements and TOrCs from soils amended with residuals and reclaimed wastewater.
Evaluate the uses and associated agronomic and environmental benefits for residuals in agricultural and urban systems. Specific tasks: (i) Evaluate the ability of in situ treatment of contaminated soil with residuals to reduce chemical contaminant bioavailability and toxicity. (ii) Determine the climate change impacts of organic residuals end use options (i.e., C sequestration, N2O emissions). (iii) Quantify sustainability impacts such as water quality (reduced N impairment) and quantity benefits (increased plant available water, increased drought tolerance) and soil quality improvements associated with a range of organic residuals end uses. (iv) Explore the potential for waste by-products to be used in urban areas including urban agriculture, stormwater infrastructure, green roofs, and in urban green space. (v)Evaluate ecosystem services of degraded urban soils amended with residuals. (vi) Use tools such as life cycle assessment to understand and compare the impacts of a range of residuals end use/disposal options.
Project Methods
Three laboratory reactors will be used concurrently to reduce the experimental time frame. The primary experimental variable during the laboratory phase will be temperature (low - 35-40°C, moderate 40-60°C and high - 60-70°C). Otherwise, commonly recommended values will be established for other composting parameters (e.g. moisture, nutrient content). A designed feedstock mix will be used, including measured proportions of poison ivy. Forced aeration will be used to control airflow and temp. Reactor contents will be sampled at day 21, 28, 42, 56. Raman spectroscopy offers an effective way to detect quality and presence of other oils (Vaskova, H., Buckova, M., 2014) and fatty acid composition was also studied using GC-MS analysis. (Pereria, M, et al., 2006).Set up 3 compost piles with poisonous plants as part of the feedstock. Poisonous plants will be mixed with carbon feedstock. Plants will also be seeded into the piles in containers with holes so that compost microbes can access the plants so they can be removed and tested periodically. Samples of plant tissue, mixture and composted material will be taken and analyzed on day 0, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180 to determine if and how urushiol is reduced to other compounds or consumed by microbes through the compost process. Results will be analyzed, recommendations made and publicized through articles, a fact sheet and presentations. Recommendations based on science can then be made for both homeowners and municipalities. Results from this will be publicized and put into fact sheets and posted on Cornell eCommons and CWMI's website.