Or suppose a bug is created to degrade oily wastes but the bug degrades the oil that most mammals carry in their skin. Even the simplest bioremediation cannot be considered a proven technology. It should all be approached as an experiment. Although more than 100 chemicals have been degraded by bugs under laboratory conditions, this has not readily translated into field successes. And success at one site does not guarantee success at another.
Local conditions make all the difference.
Little is known about the fate of the chemicals that are remediated. These are questions that citizens should ask when bioremediation is proposed at a site. Bioremediation is a good idea and it should be tried, but it should be tried carefully and with proper controls. It seems inappropriate at this time to attempt to apply biotechnology to chemically complex sites such as landfills and open dumps where there are also many physical obstacles to effective biotreatment. If you get your name on the SITE mailing list, you can receive notice of new cleanup technologies as they become available.