Archive for the 'Pharaceutical Contamination' Category

Contaminants of Emerging Concern

Published on March 8, 2010 in Pharaceutical Contamination and Waste Discharge. 0 Comments

The Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has requested Utilities staff to present an annual update to the Board on contaminants of emerging concern – a topic that has become an area of focus in the water/wastewater industry. Presentations were made to the BPU in April 2007 and July 2008, and a third presentation is scheduled for April 1, 2010.

In the past year, Oregon State University received a federal grant to analyze illicit and legal drugs in municipal sewage. This is the first time this analysis had been performed on raw sewage within the United States to the best of our knowledge. The City of Santa Rosa Utilities Department participated in this study in an effort to guarantee the high quality of its recycled water and support research on these particular analytical methods. The drugs included in the analysis were:

Drugs/Metabolites/Biomarker
Methamphetamine*1
Amphetamine*1,3
p-Hydroxy methamphetamine*3
Cocaine*1
Benzoylecgonine*4
Hydrocodone*5,2
Hydromorphone*6
Oxycodone*7
Methadone*7
Phencyclidine (PCP)*1
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)*1
2-oxo-dydroxy-LSD*8
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)*9
Nicotine*10,11
Cotinine*10,12
Caffeine*10
Class
1 illicit drug
2 legal drug
3 metabolite of meth
4 metabolite of cocaine
5 precursor of meth
6 metabolite of hydrocodone
7 prescription opiod
8 metabolite of LSD
9 rave drug
10 human urinary indicator
11 smoking biomarker
12 nicotine metabolite

Take Action on Wastes

Published on February 8, 2010 in Environmental Impacts, Pharaceutical Contamination and Waste Discharge. 0 Comments

To All,

The problem of “waste” in the U.S. is both a local and a federal issue, with the Environmental Protection Agency providing the scientific veneer, among others, for the nation’s profit-at-any-cost, multibillion dollar sewage sludge, garbage, and chemical fertilizer industries. Several decades ago, after public pressure forced corporations and municipalities to stop dumping toxic sewage sludge into the oceans and waterways (it was killing all the fish and marine life and polluting beaches), the EPA decided it was time to rename this hazardous waste “organic fertilizer” (or “biosolids”) and to begin to spread municipal sewage sludge on millions of acres of non-organic farmland and rangeland. Emboldened by their success, EPA and the sludge industry then tried to tell us in 1998 that it would be OK to spread sewage sludge on organic farms as well. Fortunately OCA and the organic community beat them back as part of a massive nationwide grassroots campaign called Save Organic Standards (SOS).

A steady stream of greenwashing and false solutions that encourage waste production instead of waste reduction are coming at us from corporate marketing departments and the federal government. OCA believes that positive action to encourage waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting (real organic composting, not renaming sewage sludge or industrial waste as compost) is most likely to arise at the local level. Several cities have taken positive actions in the direction of zero waste, but the devil is in the details.

Take household and industrial sewage sludge for example. For decades sewage sludge (the end product of the nation’s thousands of Wastewater Treatment Plants) was dumped in the oceans and rivers, now it is spread on non-organic farms and rangelands, while current industry plans include burning it and turning it into an energy source; but the fundamental problem isn’t what to do with billions of pounds of toxic sewage sludge produced every year (obviously we must isolate and contain it as hazardous waste), but rather how can we stop producing it in the first place. Household sewage, contaminated as it is with chemical cosmetics, toxic household cleaners and any number of pharmaceutical drugs poured into toilets and kitchen sinks, isn’t pristine; but, to paraphrase Bob Hope, it’s not the shit, it’s what we’ve done to it. After the toilet is flushed or the drain is emptied, household waste is funneled into a vast underground sewage system, where it joins a toxic stew of industrial and hospital wastes and rainwater runoff from our streets and highways. Allowing corporations to flood the environment and the waste stream with 100,000 synthetic, mostly toxic chemicals, (most of which end up in sewage sludge), less than 1% of which have ever been proved to be safe for the environment and public health, is a form of insanity. Besides contaminating the water and soil, this irrational so-called “sewage treatment” process wastes enormous amounts of potable water.

At a certain point, cities and towns must come to the realization that using clean water to flush away household waste; engineering rooftops, roadways and streets to funnel rainwater into our sewage systems (instead of capturing it or percolating it back into the soil); and allowing industry and hospitals to discharge toxic chemicals into our wastewater stream just doesn’t make sense. Composting (non-water) toilets, rooftop water catchments and cisterns, and zero discharge of synthetic chemicals potentially or actually proven to hazardous to human health and the environment (the “precautionary principle”) are not fringe ideas, but rather the wave of the future. That is if there is a future.

Human and animal manure, (separated from and free from chemical and pharmaceutical residues), throughout the centuries, and in the present time can and should be safely composted and utilized as a fertilizer on fields, farms, and forests. Although current organic standards prohibit the use of compost derived from human manure (properly composted animal manure is allowed) on food crops, feeding the soil with properly composted “humanure” (or producing methane gas for energy use through bio-digesters) will no doubt become the norm in the future as fossil fuel and water supplies dwindle and chemical fertilizer costs become prohibitive.

Tune in to future issues of Organic Bytes for OCA’s ideas on how we can and must reform our garbage, sludge, and chemical fertilizer industries and put an end to the rampant consumerism that is literally poisoning the planet with garbage and toxic chemical

–Larry

More information coming out about pharmaceuticals…

Published on January 16, 2010 in Groundwater, Pharaceutical Contamination and Waste Discharge. 0 Comments

To All,

More information coming out about pharmaceuticals…

In recent weeks, federal regulators have changed course on regulating pharmaceuticals in public water supplies, taking a critical first step toward acknowledging that they may pose threats to human health.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering pharmaceuticals as candidates for regulation in drinking water and examining drug concentrations at water treatment plants across the nation.  The Food and Drug Administration is working to reduce the flushing of unused drugs and expand medicine return programs.  In California, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) is working to provide the State with recommendations on emerging contaminants in coastal and marine ecosystems and will convene a panel of experts in public workshops on this topic in January.  SCCWRP is also coordinating research with an expert panel that will answer key questions with regard to theseemerging contaminants and recycled water, pursuant to the State Water Board’s Recycled Water Policy.

See the link:  http://www.cacoastkeeper.org/

–Larry

Toxic Chemicals in Your Blood

Published on October 14, 2009 in Environmental Impacts, Pharaceutical Contamination and Waste Discharge. 0 Comments

There are more than 80,000 man-made chemicals in use in the U.S. BUT only about 200 have been required to be tested for safety.
Every American alive today, including newborn babies, has hundreds of chemicals flowing through our blood. Some of these substances may cause prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, heart disease, lowered sperm counts, early puberty and other diseases and disorders.
But current laws are tilted drastically in favor of the manufacturers. The burden of proving that a chemical is harmful is so extreme that only one group of chemicals, PCBs, has ever been banned.
It’s time to reform and strengthen America’s toxic chemical regulations.
Please take action to support legislation to protect our families from dangerous toxic chemicals.
Background:
Thousands of chemicals that have not been tested for safety are used in common items found in homes across America: in children’s toys and bottles, in food cans and soda can linings, in our mattresses, computers, shampoos, lotions and more.
Reflecting decades of unchecked exposure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found toxic chemicals in the bodies of virtually every American.
Babies are born with hundreds of chemicals in their blood, some of which are linked to prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, heart disease, lowered sperm counts, early puberty and other diseases and disorders.
Unlike every other major environmental law, the nation’s main chemical safety law, TSCA, has never been significantly amended since it was adopted, in 1976.
TSCA has serious flaws that impede it from ensuring chemical safety in the U.S. Specifically, TSCA:
Has failed to deliver the information needed to identify unsafe — as well as safer chemicals; Forbids the federal government from sharing much of the limited information it does obtain; Imposes an unreasonable burden on government to prove actual harm in order to control or replace a dangerous chemical; and Thereby perpetuates the chemicals industry’s failure to innovate toward inherently safer chemical and product design. It’s time to reform America’s toxic chemicals law.
Please take action to support reform.
Thanks for your activism and support, Richard Denison Senior Scientist, EDF

Dear Activist,

There are more than 80,000 man-made chemicals in use in the U.S. BUT only about 200 have been required to be tested for safety.

Every American alive today, including newborn babies, has hundreds of chemicals flowing through our blood. Some of these substances may cause prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, heart disease, lowered sperm counts, early puberty and other diseases and disorders.

But current laws are tilted drastically in favor of the manufacturers. The burden of proving that a chemical is harmful is so extreme that only one group of chemicals, PCBs, has ever been banned.

It’s time to reform and strengthen America’s toxic chemical regulations.

Please take action to support legislation to protect our families from dangerous toxic chemicals.

Background:

Thousands of chemicals that have not been tested for safety are used in common items found in homes across America: in children’s toys and bottles, in food cans and soda can linings, in our mattresses, computers, shampoos, lotions and more.

Reflecting decades of unchecked exposure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found toxic chemicals in the bodies of virtually every American.

Babies are born with hundreds of chemicals in their blood, some of which are linked to prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, heart disease, lowered sperm counts, early puberty and other diseases and disorders.

Unlike every other major environmental law, the nation’s main chemical safety law, TSCA, has never been significantly amended since it was adopted, in 1976.

TSCA has serious flaws that impede it from ensuring chemical safety in the U.S. Specifically, TSCA:

Has failed to deliver the information needed to identify unsafe — as well as safer chemicals; Forbids the federal government from sharing much of the limited information it does obtain; Imposes an unreasonable burden on government to prove actual harm in order to control or replace a dangerous chemical; and Thereby perpetuates the chemicals industry’s failure to innovate toward inherently safer chemical and product design. It’s time to reform America’s toxic chemicals law.

Please take action to support reform.

Thanks for your activism and support, Richard Denison Senior Scientist, EDF

Take action to reform America’s toxic chemicals standards.

More Hermaphrodite Fish in U.S. Rivers

Published on October 7, 2009 in Environmental Impacts, Lakes and Resevoirs, Pharaceutical Contamination, Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Streams and Wetlands. 0 Comments

Emily Sohn, Discovery News, September 15, 2009

Male fish with female body parts have been showing up in our nation’s rivers for a while now, but a new study found a surprising number of mixed-up fish.

Hermaphrodite Bass Fish

From the Mississippi to the Rio Grande, from the Appalachia to the Colorado, researchers found large numbers of river fish with egg cells in their testes, particularly in two species: smallmouth and largemouth bass.

At some sites, more than 70 percent of males from these species were intersex, a condition that has been linked to lowered sperm production, trouble reproducing and other negative health consequences.

Scientists don’t yet know what’s causing the problem or whether intersex conditions are becoming more common in these bass. For now, the study is simply the first one to take a broad geographic look at how common intersex fish are in the United States.

“The occurrence was more widespread than we anticipated,” said Jo Ellen Hinck, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Columbia, Mo. “When you have the majority of fish at a site showing up intersex, that’s worrisome. We think that’s enough reason to try to find out what’s the cause of this and if it has implications for ecosystem health.” Hinck’s study began in 1995 as an attempt to monitor fish health in response to “legacy” chemicals — such as DDT, PCB’s, pesticides and mercury. These contaminants get into rivers, where they linger long after they’ve been banned.

For nearly ten years, Hinck and colleagues collected 16 species of fish from 111 sites in nine major river basins around the U.S. After analyzing fish carcasses for both chemicals and related health conditions, the researchers found that male smallmouth bass and male largemouth bass had female parts in close to half of the sites and in all but one of the basins sampled.

The Yukon River was the only basin that appeared to be free of intersex fish, the scientists reported in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. In the southeastern United States, on the other hand, the condition was extremely common, particularly in largemouth bass. In the Pee Dee River at Buckport, S.C., for example, 91 percent of male largemouth bass had female parts, along with 60 percent of males in the Apalachicola River at Blountstown, Fla., and 50 percent in the Savannah River at two sites in Georgia.

More than 65 percent of male smallmouth bass were intersex in parts of Minnesota, Idaho and Colarado. No patterns turned up to finger particular chemicals or environmental conditions that might cause the high rates in some places. It’s also not clear why bass might be especially prone to intersex conditions.

In fact, most intersex research has focused on neither bass nor legacy chemicals, said Alan Vajda, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Colorado, Denver. Instead of answering questions, he said, the new study raises a host of new ones.

“This study reminds us that we’re dealing both with chemicals that have been introduced into the environment over the decades,” Vajda said, “And we’re continuing to produce new chemicals despite their thoroughly documented ability to affect our brains, our reproduction and our metabolism.”

Fish aren’t the only animals whose hormonal systems appear to be going haywire, he added. There is growing evidence for similar conditions in birds, mammals and even people. Studies like this one emphasize the need to do something about it.

“I’m glad there’s some renewed spotlight” on the topic of intersex fish, Vajda said. “We’ve known about this stuff for over 20 years, and there’s still very little done policy-wise to address these issues.”

Top 11 Compounds in US Drinking Water

Published on October 7, 2009 in Pharaceutical Contamination and Waste Discharge. 0 Comments

Rowan Hooper, New Scientist – 1/12/09

A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Little was known about people’s exposure to such compounds from drinking water, so Shane Snyder and colleagues at the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas screened tap water from 19 US water utilities for 51 different compounds. The surveys were carried out between 2006 and 2007.

The 11 most frequently detected compounds – all found at extremely low concentrations – were:

  • Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease
  • Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union, but still used in the US, which has been implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behaviour
  • Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilising drug used to treat bipolar disorder, amongst other things
  • Estrone, an oestrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing gender-bending changes in fish
  • Gemfibrozil, an anti-cholesterol drug
  • Meprobamate, a tranquiliser widely used in psychiatric treatment
  • Naproxen, a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to increases in asthma incidence
  • Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant that has been used to treat epilepsy
  • Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used against the Streptococcus bacteria, which is responsible for tonsillitis and other diseases
  • TCEP, a reducing agent used in molecular biology
  • Trimethoprim, another antibiotic

The concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water were millions of times lower than in a medical dose, and Snyder emphasises that they pose no public health threat. He cautions, though, that “if a person has a unique health condition, or is concerned about particular contaminants in public water systems, I strongly recommend they consult their physician”.

Christian Daughton of the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory says that neither this nor other recent water assessments give cause for health concern. “But several point to the potential for risk – especially for the fetus and those with severely compromised health.”

Daughton says the contamination surveys help people realise how they are intimately and inseparably connected with their environment. “The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment also serves to make us acutely aware of the chemical sea that surrounds us,” he says.

Modern life While the US government regulates the levels of pathogens in US drinking water, there are no rules for pharmaceuticals and other compounds, apart from one: the herbicide atrazine. The atrazine levels measured by Snyder and colleagues were well within federal limits.

Snyder says water utilities could make drinking water purer. But the costs of “extreme purification” – far beyond what is needed for safety alone – are huge in terms of increased energy usage and carbon footprint. Ultra-pure water might not even be safe, adds Snyder.

The widespread occurrence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors reflects improved detection techniques, rather than greater pollution, says Snyder. Contamination is a fact of modern life, he adds.

“As we continue to populate and aggregate, our wastes will certainly accumulate where we live,” he says. “We as a species have decided to live a modern life, with pharmaceuticals, plastics, transportation – therefore we must accept that there will be a certain degree of contamination.”

It’s Time to Learn From Frogs

Published on July 6, 2009 in Environmental Impacts, Pesticide pollution, Pharaceutical Contamination and Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts. 0 Comments

June 28, 2009
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Some of the first eerie signs of a potential health catastrophe came as bizarre deformities in water animals, often in their sexual organs.

Amphibian images

Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians began to sprout extra legs. In heavily polluted Lake Apopka, one of the largest lakes in Florida, male alligators developed stunted genitals.

In the Potomac watershed near Washington, male smallmouth bass have rapidly transformed into “intersex fish” that display female characteristics. This was discovered only in 2003, butthe latest survey found that more than 80 percent of the male smallmouth bass in the Potomac are producing eggs.

Now scientists are connecting the dots with evidence of increasing abnormalities among humans, particularly large increases in numbers of genital deformities among newborn boys. For example, up to 7 percent of boys are now born with undescended testicles, although this often self-corrects over time. And up to 1 percent of boys in the United States are now born with hypospadias, in which the urethra exits the penis improperly, such as at the base rather than the tip.

Apprehension is growing among many scientists that the cause of all this may be a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. They are very widely used in agriculture, industry and consumer products. Some also enter the water supply when estrogens in human urine — compounded when a woman is on the pill — pass through sewage systems and then through water treatment plants.

These endocrine disruptors have complex effects on the human body, particularly during fetal development of males.

“A lot of these compounds act as weak estrogen, so that’s why developing males — whether smallmouth bass or humans — tend to be more sensitive,” said Robert Lawrence, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s scary, very scary.”

The scientific case is still far from proven, as chemical companies emphasize, and the uncertainties for humans are vast. But there is accumulating evidence that male sperm count is dropping and that genital abnormalities in newborn boys are increasing. Some studies show correlations between these abnormalities and mothers who have greater exposure to these chemicals during pregnancy, through everything from hair spray to the water they drink.

Endocrine disruptors also affect females. It is now well established that DES, a synthetic estrogen given to many pregnant women from the 1930s to the 1970s to prevent miscarriages, caused abnormalities in the children. They seemed fine at birth, but girls born to those women have been more likely to develop misshaped sexual organs and cancer.

There is also some evidence from both humans and monkeys that endometriosis, a gynecological disorder, is linked to exposure to endocrine disruptors. Researchers also suspect that the disruptors can cause early puberty in girls.

A rush of new research has also tied endocrine disruptors to obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, in both animals and humans. For example, mice exposed in utero even to low doses of endocrine disruptors appear normal at first but develop excess abdominal body fat as adults.

Among some scientists, there is real apprehension at the new findings — nothing is more terrifying than reading The Journal of Pediatric Urology — but there hasn’t been much public notice or government action.

This month, the Endocrine Society, an organization of scientists specializing in this field, issued a landmark 50-page statement. It should be a wake-up call.

“We present the evidence that endocrine disruptors have effects on male and female reproduction, breast development and cancer, prostate cancer, neuroendocrinology, thyroid, metabolism and obesity, and cardiovascular endocrinology,” the society declared.

“The rise in the incidence in obesity,” it added, “matches the rise in the use and distribution of industrial chemicals that may be playing a role in generation of obesity.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving toward screening endocrine disrupting chemicals, but at a glacial pace. For now, these chemicals continue to be widely used in agricultural pesticides and industrial compounds. Everybody is exposed.

“We should be concerned,” said Dr. Ted Schettler of the Science and Environmental Health Network. “This can influence brain development, sperm counts or susceptibility to cancer, even where the animal at birth seems perfectly normal.”

The most notorious example of water pollution occurred in 1969, when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire and helped shock America into adopting the Clean Water Act. Since then, complacency has taken hold.

Those deformed frogs and intersex fish — not to mention the growing number of deformities in newborn boys — should jolt us once again.

Study: Pesticide Mixtures, Endocrine Disruption, and Amphibian Declines: Are We Underestimating the Impact?

Published on July 6, 2009 in Environmental Impacts, Pesticide pollution, Pharaceutical Contamination and Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts. 0 Comments

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 114, Supplement 1, April 2006

Tyrone B. Hayes, Paola Case, Sarah Chui, Duc Chung, Cathryn Haeffele, Kelly Haston, Melissa Lee, Vien Phoung Mai, Youssra Marjuoa, John Parker, and Mable Tsui

Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology, Department of Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Group in Endocrinology, and Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Abstract
Amphibian populations are declining globally at an alarming rate. Pesticides are among a number of proposed causes for these declines. Although a sizable database examining effects of pesticides on amphibians exists, the vast majority of these studies focus on toxicological effects (lethality, external malformations, etc.) at relatively high doses (parts per million). Very few studies focus on effects such as endocrine disruption at low concentrations. Further, most studies examine exposures to single chemicals only. The present study examined nine pesticides (four herbicides, two fungicides, and three insecticides) used on cornfields in the midwestern United States. Effects of each pesticide alone (0.1 ppb) or in combination were examined. In addition, we also examined atrazine and S-metolachlor combined (0.1 or 10 ppb each) and the commercial formulation Bicep II Magnum, which contains both of these herbicides. These two pesticides were examined in combination because they are persistent throughout the year in the wild. We examined larval growth and development, sex differentiation, and immune function in leopard frogs (Rana pipiens). In a follow-up study, we also examined the effects of the nine-compound mixture on plasma corticosterone levels in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Although some of the pesticides individually inhibited larval growth and development, the pesticide mixtures had much greater effects. Larval growth and development were retarded, but most significantly, pesticide mixtures negated or reversed the typically positive correlation between time to metamorphosis and size at metamorphosis observed in controls: exposed larvae that took longer to metamorphose were smaller than their counterparts that metamorphosed earlier. The nine-pesticide mixture also induced damage to the thymus, resulting in immunosuppression and contraction of flavobacterial meningitis. The study in X. laevis revealed that these adverse effects may be due to an increase in plasma levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. Although it cannot be determined whether all the pesticides in the mixture contribute to these adverse effects or whether some pesticides are effectors, some are enhancers, and some are neutral, the present study revealed that estimating ecological risk and the impact of pesticides on amphibians using studies that examine only single pesticides at high concentrations may lead to gross underestimations of the role of pesticides in amphibian declines. Key words: amphibian declines, amphibians, atrazine, corticosterone, development, endocrine disruption, growth, immunosuppression, mixtures. Environ Health Perspect 114(suppl 1):40-50 (2006). doi: 10.1289/ehp.8051 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 24 January 2006]

Pollution Experts: Save Fish from Drugs in Water

Published on June 24, 2009 in Pharaceutical Contamination and Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts. 0 Comments

Jeff Donn, San Francisco Chronicle
June, 2009

Pollution experts on Tuesday pressed a congressional panel for stronger action to keep pharmaceuticals and other contaminants out of the water, saying they are hurting fish and may threaten human health.

Thomas P. Fote, a New Jersey conservationist who sits on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said the pollutants are damaging commercial fisheries. He told congressmen not to “study a problem to death and never do anything.”

Fote appeared in a lineup of witnesses Tuesday before the subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife of the House Natural Resources Committee.

The witnesses pointed to research showing damage to fish and other aquatic species from pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other industrial chemicals, especially those that alter growth-regulating endocrine systems. Some scientists worry about the potential of similar harm to humans.

“Hundreds of peer-reviewed publications … demonstrate that numerous ubiquitous chemicals in the environment can interfere with development via the endocrine system, but there appears to be no will or authority to remove those chemicals from the supply chain,” said zoologist Theo Colborn, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida, who founded the nonprofit Endocrine Disruption Exchange.

The witnesses appealed for Congress to promote consumer take-back programs for unused drugs, to encourage industry financing of disposal, and to do more to keep discards from waterways and landfills.

Continue reading ‘Pollution Experts: Save Fish from Drugs in Water’

One Step Closer to Understanding Fish Health in Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers

Published on June 24, 2009 in Pharaceutical Contamination, Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Watershed Related. 0 Comments

USGS, Fish & Shellfish Immunology, 6/3/2009

Estrogen Linked to Lowered Immunity in Fish Exposure to estrogen reduces production of immune-related proteins in fish. This suggests that certain compounds, known as endocrine disruptors, may make fish more susceptible to disease.

The research may provide new clues for why intersex fish, fish kills and fish lesions often occur together in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The tests were conducted in a lab by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study, led by USGS genomics researcher Dr. Laura Robertson, revealed that largemouth bass injected with estrogen produced lowered levels of hepcidin, an important iron-regulating hormone in mammals that is also found in fish and amphibians. This is the first published study demonstrating control of hepcidin by estrogen in any animal.

Besides being an important iron-regulating hormone, researchers also suspect that hepcidin may act as an antimicrobial peptide in mammals, fish and frogs. Antimicrobial peptides are the first line of defense against disease-causing bacteria and some fungi and viruses in vertebrate animals.

“Our research suggests that estrogen-mimicking compounds may make fish more susceptible to disease by blocking production of hepcidin and other immune-related proteins that help protect fish against disease-causing bacteria,” said Robertson.

Continue reading ‘One Step Closer to Understanding Fish Health in Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers’