Team:York/Survey

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Survey

In order to determine how the public would react to our project, we decided to conduct an international survey of 1000 people. The survey was designed not only to cover the principle aspects of the public’s view on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but also to see the level of knowledge the public had towards the waste water industry and how our organism would fit within the current methods used to treat wastewater. We also looked at how education level and age might affect the public's view of GMOs.

Survey Layout

Gender you associate with?

• Male
• Female
• Other

How old are you?

• Under 21
• 21-30
• 31-40
• 41-50
• 51-60
• 61-70
• 71+

Where are you from?

What is the highest level of education you have completed?

• General certificate of secondary education (e.g. GCSE)
• Higher education below degree (e.g. A levels, IB, SAT etc.)
• Bachelor's Degree
• Master's Degree
• Doctorate Degree (PhD)

Do you consider yourself to be religious?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure

Regardless of whether you consider yourself to be religious, do you feel that opinions towards Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) can be influenced by religion?

• Very positive influence
• Positive influence
• No influence
• Negative influence
• Very negative influence

Do you know what synthetic biology is?

• Yes
• No

How do you feel about biological methods being used over chemical methods for remediation (Remediation is the removal of pollutants from a specific environment)

• Very uncomfortable
• Uncomfortable
• Don't mind
• Comfortable
• Very comfortable

How do you feel about biological methods if they involved genetic engineering?

• Very uncomfortable
• Uncomfortable
• Don't mind
• Comfortable
• Very comfortable

Would you be happy to drink water after it has been treated using biological methods involving genetic engineering?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure
• Would prefer for it to be chemically treated

Some waste water plants already use bacteria in the process of filtering water. Now knowing this has your opinion changed on using genetically modified bacteria in waste water treatment?

• Yes
• No

What is your opinion of genetic engineering?

• Strongly oppose
• Discourage
• Neither oppose or support
• Support
• Strongly support

How do you feel about genetically modified bacteria being used in a contained environment?

• Very uncomfortable
• Uncomfortable
• Don't mind
• Comfortable
• Very comfortable

Would your opinions on the safety of using genetically modified bacteria change if you felt better informed?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure

Survey Results

First of all we wanted to determine the general awareness of synthetic biology and if the level of awareness was related to age. Figure 1 shown below is a graph showing the results of this comparison.

Figure 1

From the data we found that in the age ranges- under 21, 21-30 and 41-50, the number of people aware of synthetic biology was more than double the number of those who did not know what synthetic biology was. In the age ranges 31-40 and 51-60 the number of people aware of synthetic biology again outnumbered the number of people who were not but this difference was not as great as the age ranges previously mentioned. However, in the age ranges 61-70 and 70+ the number of people who were not aware of synthetic biology was greater than people who were aware of synthetic biology. The fact that the majority of people who are not aware of synthetic biology are 61+, we believe is due to the fact 60 years ago synthetic biology was a very new and developing field therefore they were not educated about it. However, out of the 1000 people who took the survey only 26 were 61+. Therefore we believe we need to survey a larger number of 61+ aged people to obtain a more reliable representation of these age ranges.

The next thing we aimed to determine was the general acceptation of genetically modified organisms if they were used in a controlled environment. Furthermore, we wanted to analyse the relationship between age and the acceptability of genetic modified organisms. Figure 2 below shows the data we collected from the survey related to these aims.

Figure 2

As you can see from Figure 2, 67% of the total number of people surveyed either strongly supported or supported the use of genetically modified bacteria in a contained environment. This is evidence that the public would accept the use of our engineered Escherichia coli in a bioreactor to remove phosphate in wastewater as it is processed in wastewater treatment sites and also give a positive response. Furthermore, in every age range the number of people who strongly support or support the use of GM bacteria being used in a contained environment have the majority and outweigh the number of people who discourage or strongly oppose the use of GM bacteria in an contained environment.

The idea that our engineered E. coli would be accepted by the public to remove phosphate from wastewater was also supported by the data collected from the question, ‘How do you feel about biological methods being used over chemical methods for remediation’. This data is displayed below in Figure 3.

Figure 3

There was an overall positive response to using biological methods of remediation with approximately 70% of the people saying that they were comfortable or very comfortable with biological methods used in remediation processes. This supports the findings from Figure 2 that using the engineered E. coli to removing phosphate from wastewater should be generally accepted by the public and the press. This is very positive as it should also encourage wastewater companies to switch from using ferric sulfate to using our "Engineered Bioreactors" product because their own customer base - the general public - is comfortable with the biological method being used. Furthermore, the wastewater treatment companies using bioremediation method can expect a positive press response.

We also took interest in determining the effect that level of education has on the public’s acceptability of genetically modified organisms. In Figure 4 you can see the results of this investigation.

Figure 4

From the results shown in Figure 4, we deduced that in all levels of education, except from secondary education, the majority of people either strongly support or support the use of genetically modified organisms. We believe the reason why people with a secondary school level education had a more even distribution in their opinions towards GMO’s is because they are not fully informed about synthetic biology and GMOs so they do not fully understand this field of biology. We believe that in secondary school education criteria there should be more information provided on synthetic biology and GMOs because GMOs are becoming more present in our everyday lives e.g food made from GM crops. This would ensure people with this level of education would have a more fulfilled understanding of synthetic biology so they do not fear it.

Conclusion

We believe that our survey was a great success and that we gauged the publics opinion on synthetic biology and GMOs. The survey results indicate that a majority of the population (no matter what age or education level) would accept the use of our engineered E. coli in the removal of phosphate from wastewater. We have also identified an area which we believe needs changing - secondary school level education on GMOs - to give the population at this level of education a greater understanding on synthetic biology.