Interrupted development. Even small concentrations — 1.5 parts per million — of a biocide used in cosmetics interrupted neurological development in tadpole brains. (Credit: Aizenman lab/Brown University)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2012) — A new study finds that low concentrations of the chemical methylisothiazolinone has subtle but measurable negative effects on the neural development of tadpoles. The chemical is found in some cosmetics, although the study does not provide any evidence that cosmetics are unsafe for humans.

Scientists, health officials, and manufacturers already know that a chemical preservative found in some products, including cosmetics, is harmful to people and animals in high concentrations, but a new Brown University study in tadpoles reports that it can also interrupt neurological development even in very low concentrations.

In the cosmetics industry, the biocide methylisothiazolinone or MIT, is considered safe at concentrations of less than 100 parts per million. Lab studies, however, have found that lower concentrations affected the growth of animal neurons. Picking up from there, the Brown researchers performed a series of experiments to investigate how 10 days of exposure at concentrations as low as 1.5 ppm would affect whole, living tadpoles as they develop. Their results appear in advance online in the journal Neuroscience.

“The lower concentrations we studied didn’t kill the animals or cause any big deformities or affect the behavior you’d see just by looking at them,” said Carlos Aizenman, associate professor of neuroscience and the study’s senior author. “But then we decided to do a series of functional tests and we found that exposure to this compound during a period of development that’s critical for the fine wiring of the nervous system disrupted this period of fine tuning.”

Aizenman emphasized that there is no evidence in the study that any products with MIT, such as shampoos or cosmetics, are harmful to consumers.

Neurotoxic effects

When Aizenman and lead author Ariana Spawn explored the consequences of exposing tadpoles to two nonlethal concentrations, 1.5 ppm and 7.6 ppm, they found some deficits both in behavior and in basic brain development.

In one experiment they shined moving patterns of light into one side of the tadpole tanks from below. As they expected, the unexposed tadpoles avoided the light patterns, swimming to the other side. Tadpoles that had been exposed to either concentration of MIT, however, were significantly less likely to avoid the signals.

In another experiment, Aizenman and Spawn, who was an undergraduate at the time and has since graduated, exposed the tadpoles to another chemical known to induce seizures. The tadpoles who were not exposed to MIT and those exposed to the lower concentration each had the same ability to hold off seizures, but the ones who had been exposed to the 7.6 ppm concentration succumbed to the seizures significantly more readily.

In these experiments, seizure susceptibility had nothing to do with epilepsy, Aizenman said, but was instead a measure of more general neural development.

After observing the two significant behavioral effects in the tadpoles, Aizenman and Spawn then sought the underlying physiological difference between exposed and unexposed tadpoles that might cause them. They performed an electrophysiological analysis of each tadpole’s optic tectum, a part of the brain responsible for processing visual information. They found evidence that the chemical seems to have stunted the process by which tadpoles prune and refine neural connections, a key developmental step.

“The neural circuits act like the neural circuits of a much more immature tadpole,” Aizenman said. “This is consistent with the previous findings in cell cultures.”

Aizenman said consumers should know about the study’s results and pay attention to the ingredients in the products they use, but should not become worried based on the basic science study.

Aizenman said one area where further studies may be warranted is in cases of repeated exposure in industrial or occupational settings, but the study’s broader message may be that chemical manufacturers and independent labs should test more for neurodevelopmental effects of even low concentrations of products. In the specific case of MIT in tadpoles, he noted, “It’s resulting in a non-obvious but real deficit in neural function.”

Brown University and the Whitehall Foundation funded the research.

“There are hundreds and thousands of drugs out there, and so it is a pretty fair assumption that some of the things emerging from treatment are a lot more toxic than we thought” ... Stuart Khan, one of the study’s authors.

TRACES of common pain-killing drugs are being transformed into toxic forms by waste water treatment plants, a new report from researchers at the University of NSW shows.

The study, which used samples from water treatment plants across Sydney and some interstate plants, showed that the organic sludge used to help destroy household chemicals can actually transform them into something else.

The altered chemicals from three widely-used household drugs were detected at very low levels, meaning that there is minimal risk to human health. But the consequences could be much larger for some aquatic environments where treated water is reused.

”There are hundreds and thousands of different drugs out there, and so it is a pretty fair assumption that some of the things emerging from treatment are a lot more toxic than we thought,” said one of the study’s authors, Stuart Khan, from the water research centre at the University of NSW.

Some drugs occur in two forms, called ”enantiomers”, which are very similar but not quite identical. ”Chemically, they are like a mirror image of each other; different in the same way a right hand and a left hand are different from each other,” Dr Khan said.

Sometimes pairs of enantiomers have different effects on living organisms, and when this happens, the enantiomer with a beneficial effect is separated from its toxic mirror image, and turned into a safe drug.

The key to the new findings is that careful testing of water samples from treatment plants were compared with fresh water and water containing raw sewage, including samples from the heavily-polluted Cooks River. The sewage contained the enantiomers associated with ordinary pharmaceuticals that are flushed down toilets or sinks across the city. But the treated waste water samples showed that the organic ”scrubbing” by bacteria in treatment plants had restored some of the toxic enantiomers.

The most infamous case of a chemical being transformed into a toxic chemical took place in the 1950s, when the drug thalidomide was administered to pregnant women but was changed to a toxic form in the human gut, causing birth defects.

”What this research means is that we really need to think about this question of measuring toxins a lot more broadly,” Dr Khan said.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Water Research, and follow-up work is now being done on the effects of waste water treatment on other chemicals.

Click here to read more.

U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic technicians collect a stream sample from Hallocks Mill Brook downstream of the outfall of one of the wastewater treatment plants investigated.

In a 2004-2009 study, USGS scientists found that pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities can be a significant source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Effluents from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that receive discharge from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (PMFs) had 10 to 1000 times higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals than effluents from 24 WWTPs across the nation that do not receive PMF discharge. The effluents from these two WWTPs are discharged to streams where the measured pharmaceuticals were traced downstream, and as far as 30 kilometers from one plant’s outfall.

This is the first study in the United States that assesses PMFs as a potential source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. The PMFs investigated are pharmaceutical formulation facilities, where ingredients are combined to form final drug products and products are packaged for distribution. While pharmaceuticals have been measured in many streams and aquifers across the nation, levels are generally lower than one part per billion (1 ppb). Concerns persist, however, that higher levels may occur in environmental settings where wastewaters are released to the environment.

In this study, 35 to 38 effluent samples were collected from each of three WWTPs in New York State and one effluent sample was collected from each of 23 strategically selected WWTPs across the nation. The samples were analyzed for seven target pharmaceuticals including opioids and muscle relaxants, some of which have not been previously studied in the environment. Pharmaceutical concentrations in effluents from two of the three WWTPs in New York State, which both receive more than 20 percent of their discharge from PMFs, were compared to the measurements made at the third plant in New York State and at the other 23 plants across the nation, which all do not receive discharge from PMFs. Maximum pharmaceutical concentrations in effluent samples from the 24 WWTPs that do not receive discharge from PMFs rarely (about 1 percent) exceeded one part per billion. By contrast, maximum concentrations in effluents from the two WWTPs receiving PMF discharge were as high as 3,800 ppb of metaxalone (a muscle relaxant), 1,700 ppb of oxycodone (an opioid prescribed for pain relief), greater than 400 ppb of methadone (an opioid prescribed for pain relief and drug withdrawal), 160 ppb of butalbital (a barbituate), and greater than 40 ppb of both phendimetrazine (a stimulant prescribed for obesity) and carisoprodol (a muscle relaxant).

The pharmaceuticals investigated in this study were identified using a forensic approach that identified pharmaceuticals present in samples and subsequently developed methods to quantify these pharmaceuticals at a wide range of concentrations. Additional pharmaceuticals, which may be formulated at these sites, also were identified as present in the effluents of these two WWTPs. Ongoing studies are documenting the levels at which these additional pharmaceuticals occur in the environment. Information on other contaminants measured in the outflows of these WWTPs during this study are presented in Phillips and others, 2008. The environmental data, a description of the methods used, information on quality-assurance methods and protocols, and quality-control data are available in an accompanying USGS Open-File Report.

This study is part of a long-term effort by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program to determine the fate and effects of chemicals of emerging environmental concern and to provide water-resource managers with objective information that assists in the development of effective water management practices.

References Phillips, P.J., Smith, S.G., Kolpin, D.W., Zaugg, S.D., Buxton, H.T., Furlong, E.T., Esposito, Kathleen, and Stinson, Beverley, 2010, Pharmaceutical formulation facilities as sources of opioids and other pharmaceuticals to wastewater treatment plant effluents: Environmental Science and Technology Phillips, P.J., Smith, S.G., Kolpin, D.W., Zaugg, S.D., Buxton, H.T., Furlong, E.T., Esposito, Kathleen, and Stinson, Beverley, 2010, Method description, quality assurance, environmental data, and other information for analysis of pharmaceuticals in wastewater-treatment-plant effluents, stream water, and reservoirs, 2004-2009: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1102, 2010. Phillips, P.J., Stinson, B., Zaugg, S.D., Furlong, E.T., Kolpin, D.W., Esposito, K.M., Bodniewicz, B., Pape, R., and Anderson, J., 2008, A multi-disciplinary approach to the removal of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewater treatment plans in New York State, 2003-2004: Clearwaters, v. 38, no. 3, p. 48-59.

Click her for more info.

Sewage effluent testing has shown high levels of estrogen and other pharmaceuticals that are likely to interfere with the reproductive cycle – and provide larger breasts for guys (as well as slower running and biking capabilities).

Sewage sludge has other issues – especially if handled improperly,

A way to beat up your sludge pumper up there? But then,I have a septic tank too. C

FYI,

Makes me wonder about biosolids waste from treatment plants that may be applied to land. Also, what’s in your septic tank?

T Yarish

“What’s surprising and shocking is how many compounds in effluent could be antiandrogenic,” says Louis Guillette Jr., an environmental toxicologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was not involved in the study. “If you combine such a large number of antiandrogens with estrogenic compounds, then you have a milieu that generates a more feminizing signal,” he says. “Researchers have to start thinking about the total hormonal signal arising from exposure to multiple compounds.”

Based on the concentrations of antiandrogenic compounds in the bile combined with their potency in the yeast screen, the researchers estimated that over half of the androgen blocking activity in fish bile came from chlorophene and triclosan, two germicides popular in consumer products like soap. This study is the first to show that chlorophene is antiandrogenic, Hill says.

From Chemical and Engineer News:

November 11, 2011 | Latest News Androgen Blockers Appear In Effluent

Water Pollutants: Popular germ killers could feminize male fish By Janet Pelley Department: Science & Technology Keywords: sewage effluent, antiandrogens, environmental estrogens, endocrine disruption, feminized fish, chlorophene, triclosan [+]Enlarge

Feminizing Soup Sewage effluent can contain a complex mixture of compounds that block male hormones Credit: Shutterstock Scientists have long blamed environmental estrogens in wastewater for feminizing male fish downstream of sewage plants. Instead of estrogens, however, a new study of treated wastewater identifies a wide range of antiandrogens–compounds that block male hormones– that can accumulate in fish (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/ es202966c).

“About 90% of the studies on endocrine disruption focus on environmental estrogens,” says Helmut Segner, a toxicologist at the University of Bern, in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study. These studies show that compounds in sewage effluent behave like estrogen and lead to low sperm counts and the genesis of eggs in the testes of male fish.

However, recent surveys have found that sewage effluent can also block testosterone. The same surveys linked the effluent to feminized male fish. Some scientists think they could affect human reproductive health, as well. But the surveys of antiandrogens didn’t nail down the identity of the compounds. Elizabeth Hill, an analytical chemist at the University of Sussex, wanted to know which compounds posed a threat to fish.

Hill and her team took advantage of the fact that bile ducts in fish livers concentrate environmental contaminants. The scientists exposed trout for 10 days to effluent from a domestic sewage plant in the U.K. They then extracted the bile and separated it into fractions, using reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography.

Using recombinant yeast containing a human androgen receptor, the researchers tested whether each fraction contained antiandrogens. The yeast also contained a reporter gene that produced a color change when the scientists exposed the yeast to androgens. If the researchers added a bile fraction to the yeast and saw no color change, they reasoned that it contained androgen blockers. Team member Pawel Rostkowski then analyzed the chemicals in the fraction using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. He identified each chemical by comparing its spectrum to those of known compounds. He then purchased commercially available standards for compounds he had found and confirmed that they blocked androgens using the yeast screen.

The research revealed 14 antiandrogenic compounds, and Hill thinks there were dozens more in the samples. The study is the first to show that fish take up antiandrogens from among the thousands of organic compounds in sewage effluents, Hill says.

“What’s surprising and shocking is how many compounds in effluent could be antiandrogenic,” says Louis Guillette Jr., an environmental toxicologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was not involved in the study. “If you combine such a large number of antiandrogens with estrogenic compounds, then you have a milieu that generates a more feminizing signal,” he says. “Researchers have to start thinking about the total hormonal signal arising from exposure to multiple compounds.”

Based on the concentrations of antiandrogenic compounds in the bile combined with their potency in the yeast screen, the researchers estimated that over half of the androgen blocking activity in fish bile came from chlorophene and triclosan, two germicides popular in consumer products like soap. This study is the first to show that chlorophene is antiandrogenic, Hill says.

Hill cautions that the study did not show that antiandrogens affect fish health. Her collaborators at the University of Exeter are currently testing these compounds to see if they feminize male fish.

A summary of available online stormwater resources which may be of interest to Citizen Monitors and Watershed Stewards. 

Agency Programs…BMP’s…Monitoring…Videos…Other…

Agency Programs:

EPA Stormwater Program

Stormwater runoff is generated when precipitation from rain and snowmelt events flows over land or impervious surfaces and does not percolate into the ground. As the runoff flows over the land or impervious surfaces (paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops), it accumulates debris, chemicals, sediment or other pollutants that could adversely affect water quality if the runoff is discharged untreated. The primary method to control stormwater discharges is the use of best management practices (BMPs). In addition, most stormwater discharges are considered point sources and require coverage under an NPDES permit.

http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=6

Stormwater Basic Information

http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/swbasicinfo.cfm

SWRCB Storm Water Program

http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/stormwater/

SWRCB Nonpoint Source Program

http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/nps/

Coastal Commission  Water Quality Program Statewide Nonpoint Source (NPS) www.coastal.ca.gov/nps/npsndx.html

Caltrans Statewide Stormwater Program

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/env/stormwater/

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/construc/stormwater/stormwater1.htm

Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies

BASMAA was started in response to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program for storm water in an effort to promote regional consistency and to facilitate efficient use of public resources.

http://www.basmaa.org/

BMP’s:

NEMO National Network

The Network was originally envisioned as a cooperative of educational programs that would assist each other in fulfilling their mission of educating local decision makers. But as the Network has grown, it has begun to demonstrate that it can be far more than the sum of its parts, helping to leverage federal and state information, programs and dollars in a unique and effective way.

http://nemonet.uconn.edu/hub/initiatives.htm

LID Atlas

http://clear.uconn.edu/tools/lidmap/

The International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database

The International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database project website, which features a database of over 400 BMP studies, performance analysis results, tools for use in BMP performance studies, monitoring guidance and other study-related publications. The overall purpose of the project is to provide scientifically sound information to improve the design, selection and performance of BMPs.

http://www.bmpdatabase.org/

Monitoring:

Industrial Stormwater Monitoring and Sampling Guide (EPA 832-B-09-003)

The Industrial Stormwater Monitoring and Sampling Guide (“guide”) is a how‐to primer for industrial facility operators on how to conduct visual and analytical monitoring of stormwater discharges.  The target audience is operators of facilities subject to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2008 Multi‐Sector General Permit (2008 MSGP) or a similar State‐issued industrial stormwater permit. The information presented will also be useful to anyone interested in industrial stormwater monitoring.  The procedures presented in this guide, specifically related to monitoring methodology and quality assurance, will help ensure that stormwater samples yield usable information.

http://itd.idaho.gov/enviro/storm%20water/MSGP/Monitoring%20and%20Sampling%20Guide.pdf

Urban Stormwater BMP Performance Monitoring

This manual provides targeted practical assistance in conducting water quality monitoring and reporting data that are useful for assessing effectiveness of stormwater best management practices (BMPs).

http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/stormwater/monitor.cfm

Developing a Project Assessment and Evaluation Plan

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans/paep/

How to do Stormwater Monitoring: A guide for construction sites (State of Washington)

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0610020.html

The Stormwater Manager’s Resource Center

The Stormwater Manager’s Resource Center is designed specifically for stormwater practitioners, local government officials and others that need technical assistance on stormwater management issues. Created and maintained by the Center for Watershed Protection.

http://www.stormwatercenter.net/

Video:

After the Storm

The show highlights three case studies—Santa Monica Bay, the Mississippi River Basin/Gulf of Mexico, and New York City— where polluted runoff threatens watersheds highly valued for recreation, commercial fisheries and navigation, and drinking water. Key scientists and water quality experts, and citizens involved in local and national

watershed protection efforts provide insight into the problems as well as solutions to

today’s water quality challenges. 

http://www.clu-in.org/search/t.focus/id/602/

http://water.epa.gov/action/weatherchannel/

Slow the Flow

Make Your Landscape Act Like a Sponge – A joint production of the Water Board Training Academy, Storm Water Program, brings to life practices and projects that individuals and communities have created to steward our watersheds and slow down the flow of storm water, one of the largest contributors of pollution into our waterways.

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/stormfilm/

Video Highlights of a Unique Effort to Eliminate Plastic Debris

“Nurdles may sound harmless, but these small plastic pellets can do great damage to waterbodies like San Francisco Bay,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “To protect our water resources, EPA is partnering with the State to require manufacturers to take steps to prevent pellet spills.”

http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/videos/video_pages/nurdles.shtml

Other:

California Stormwater Quality Association

Formed in 1989 as the California Stormwater Quality Task Force, the SWQTF was a quasi-governmental organization, which advised the State Water Resources Control Board on matters related to developing stormwater regulations – more specifically, it was intended to help California comply with the municipal and industrial National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater mandates of the federal Clean Water Act. The Task Force officially became CASQA in September 2002, when its formal 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization status was approved.  Today… CASQA holds bi-monthly meetings which are open to the public. Anyone can participate in committees and work groups.http://www.casqa.org/

Stormwater USA

Online stormwater training & certification

http://www.stormwaterusa.com/

National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies

http://www.nafsma.org/

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The next Regional Board meeting will be 11/03/2011
• Policy For Implementation of the Water Quality Objective for Temperature
• Public Comments on the Policy for Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration CEQA Scoping Document due November 8, 2011
• Citizen’s Guide to Working with the California Water Boards
• Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Non-industrial Timber Management Plans (NTMPs)
• Initial Staff Report for the 2011 Triennial Review – June 14, 2011
• Preliminary review draft of the Elk River TMDL Sediment Source Analysis for the Upper Elk River watershed
• California Department of Transportation – Confusion Hill Bypass Project
• The Klamath River TMDLs were approved by the USEPA on 12/28/2010 and are in effect
• Impaired Water Bodies – 303(d) List

CHE Alaska call: Toxic Chemicals that Disrupt Hormones: Impacts on Fish and People

August 24, 2011 at 9:00 am Alaska / 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern

RSVP: To join this free call and receive the dial-up instructions, please RSVP to Alaska Community Action on Toxics atdiana@akaction.org or (907) 222-7714.

Description: A one hour discussion with environmental biologist Dr. Frances Solomon about endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC). Dr. Solomon will discuss the toxic properties of EDCs, exposure pathways for fish and humans with a focus on routes of exposure for people living in the Arctic, why young humans and juvenile fish are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of EDCs, and how you can reduce your exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. We will also discuss the specific impacts of two groups of EDCs — phthalates and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and proposed regulatory reform including the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 and the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011.

Speaker:

Dr. Frances Solomon is an environmental biologist with a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Rochester (Rochester, New York), and a master’s degree in environmental health and a Ph.D. in fisheries from the University of Washington (Seattle, Washington). She has 25 years of experience in environmental agencies, focusing on the biological impacts of toxic water pollutants, pollution prevention and control, and cleanup of contaminated sites.

Dr. Solomon is passionate about bringing her work experience and knowledge to the classroom. She teaches short courses and gives lectures for environmental professionals, health care professionals, and the general public in Washington State, Alaska, and Canada about impacts of metals and persistent organic pollutants, including endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDCs), on aquatic ecosystems and human health. She teaches environmental pollution courses at Western Washington University and The Evergreen State College, Tacoma. She has also taught at University of Washington Tacoma, University of British Columbia, and Northwest University in Xi’an, China.

Sincerely,

Erika Sanders, Administrative Coordinator

Collaborative on Health and the Environment