Baby Bottle Safety

Elysia Burke

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to determine, using duckweed, the detrimental effects that the chemicals in microwaved baby bottles can have on a living organism.

Hypothesis It is thought that the duckweed plants grown

in the water which is microwaved in the plastic bottles will produce less fronds than those grown in the water from the microwaved glass jars.

Additionally, it is hypothesized that the duckweed plants that are grown in water which is microwaved for longer periods of time will produce less fronds than those which are microwaved for a shorter period of time.

Background- Microwaves Form of electromagnetic radiation waves pass through containers and heat food Waves cause water molecules in food to

vibrate, producing heat Foods with a higher fat content produce more

heat The microwave heat can cause the plastic of a

container to leach some of its components

Background- HDPE HDPE- High Density Polyethylene Extensive research has proven that the

ingredients in HPDE migrate in small amounts into the contents of a container when microwaved

Found in common household objects Variables which affect chemical migration are

the length of time microwaved the heat which is applied to the container

Background- Duckweed Lemna Minor Asexual reproduction through budding grows new fronds from budding pouches pouches are located on either side of an axis

at the basal end of the cell Invasive species- significant growth can be

seen in 3 to 7 days Daughter plants detach when matured

Duckweed Structure

Materials 10 Nuby plastic baby bottles 5 glass jars 15 plastic dishes duckweed microwave growing lamp spring water beaker

Procedure 180mL of water are poured into each container. containers are labeledControl Five glass jars are microwaved for 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8

minutes. two minutes microwaved, two minutes rest

Cooled for 24 hours 10 mL of water from each container is placed into each of

four sections of a plastic dish five duckweed plants are placed in each section. The plants are left to grow for four days under a growing

lamp. the number of fronds of duckweed in each section are

counted and recordedVariableprocedure is repeated for trials A and B of the plastic bottles.

Results

Variables Independent variable- amount of time

container is microwaved Dependent variable- number of fronds grown

by each duckweed plant Control- the glass jars Constants- time microwaved, location in

microwave, amount of water in each container, amount of time left to cool, amount of time left to grow

Statistical Tests

Conclusion