Expert: Walter Hintz - 1/5/2007

Question

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I am an 8th grade student doing a science project called do household products effect the environment. In my ppoject isee if 3 different household cleaning products affect plants. There is only one problem. I cant find out what chenmicals in the household products are the reason why they are considered pollutants and why they hurt plants and the environment. i used bleach, detergent and window cleaner. i really need help an i hope you can answer my question!! Thank you
-----Answer-----
Hi Nicole;  You have two different problems to solve here.  One is how these products affect plants and the other is why they affect plants.  I think you should just conduct an experiment to find out how these products affect plant growth. Then you can discuss the why part.  You are studying these products on a small scale with a plant study.  On  a large scale (in the environment) bleach and window cleaner are not really pollutants because the amount that gets into the environment is too little.  Detergents however leave phosphorus in water supplies.  Let me know how you have designed your experiment. (Kinds of plants, treatment etc) and let me know your hypothesis.  I can then help you.

Thanks so much for your reply. For my project I am using 4 plants ( bean plants) one will be watered with regular water, the second with detergent solution mixed in with water and so on. My hypothesis was that the plants would die from the chemicals. If such products as Windex and bleach do not get affect  the environment as much as detergent, should i change my other two household products and what should they be? Thanks again for your reply and i hope you can help me with my project

Answer
The problem with this study Nicole is that you are  affecting the environment of the plant only by applying chemicals to the roots only.  And that is ok as it will give you information.  But you cannot conclude that what happens to the plants will also affect the total environment.  I think that you should change your hypothesis to "Household Chemicals can affect the growth of bean plants"  Do not state that the plants will die because if the chemicals are concentrated enough the plants dying is a foregone conclusion. In other words you do not want to just kill the plants but you want to see if the chemicals affect the growth. In this case you can still use the three chemicals. Be sure you control the concentrations and the amounts.
 Now when you get to your conclusions you can discuss the possible effects of household chemicals on the environment based  upon what you found out.
 Do you understand what I am saying here Nicole.  If not get right back to me.  I think you are doing a good job.