Many toxic additives are added to building materials to enhance their properties. These chemicals often make their way into soils from wastewater runoff during the manufacturing process. The flame retardant brominated diphenyl ether (BDE), the plasticizer dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and non-stick compound perfluorooctanoic acid are three such toxins that bioaccumulate in the environment. These pollutants have been found to harm human health, which leads to the necessity to clean them from the environment. White rot fungi are decomposers that degrade strong 6-ring carbon structures in wood. The enzyme pathway they use is non-specific allowing it to be applied to materials with similar structures. This study investigates the ability of white rot fungi P. ostreatus , P. chrysosporium , and T. versicolor to degrade BDE, DBP, and PFC in the soil.

To test this, fungi were grown for two weeks on rice and two weeks in soil. The pollutants were introduced to the fungi growing in soil for a time period of either 9 days or 12 days. To determine whether the pollutants were degraded two ecotoxicity assays were performed: a V. fischeri bioluminescence assay, where the luminosity of the bacteria was measured using FIJI image analysis, and an onion seed germination test.

Results showed that the three pollutants did not significantly decrease the luminosity of the bacteria or the seed germination rate suggesting that the pollutant concentrations are not toxic. This renders the study inconclusive as to whether the fungi can degrade these three pollutants in the soil; however, this study shows that the rice was toxic and that a larger amount of fungi decreased the toxicity of the rice demonstrating that fungi is helpful for soil health.