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A polymer that sponges up dioxin has been developed in Britain. The hazardous
pollutant is linked with cancer and a severe form of acne. By tinkering with the
architecture of divinylbenzene polymers using a process called imprinting, Mike
Whitcombe and his colleagues at the Institute of Food Research in Reading,
Berkshire, introduced cavities into the material just the right size to trap
TCDD, the most notorious dioxin. The team also hopes the polymer might be useful
for detecting dioxins. “To be practical, it would need to detect more dioxins
than just TCDD, but this is a good start,” says Whitcombe. At present, dioxins
are extracted from samples using solvents, then subjected to painstaking
chromatographic analysis.