(source)Estrogen in wastewater affecting ocean fish

LONG BEACH - A male fish off the Southern California coast is getting in touch with its feminine side.

And that has some scientists worried.

Kevin Kelley, a professor of environmental endocrinology at Cal State Long Beach, is part of a team studying a species of male flatfish in Southern California waters that has been found to have high levels of estrogen, which appear to be causing feminization.

Kelley and other researchers believe that the treated wastewater draining through underground pipes into waters off Santa Monica, Huntington Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula contains human estrogen hormones expelled in human urine.

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Gb: trovato tracce di Prozac nell'acqua potabile

UK: (ANSA) - ROMA, 8 AGO - Tracce dell'antidepressivo Prozac si trovano nell'acqua potabile in Gran Bretagna. Lo scrive oggi il domenicale Observer.Secondo un rapporto di un'agenzia per il monitoraggio dell'ambiente, e' talmente tanta la gente che prende il medicinale che esso si sta accumulando in fiumi e acque. Per il portavoce dei liberal democratici sta emergendo un quadro di cure di massa su un pubblico ignaro. In dieci anni, le ricette di antidepressivi sono salite da 9 a 24 milioni l'anno.

Londra, la cocaina scorre nel Tamigi

UK: LONDRA - La cocaina scorre nel fiume che attraversa la capitale britannica. Circa due chilogrammi di polvere bianca finiscono infatti attraverso il sistema fognario nelle acque del Tamigi. Di riflesso, si deduce che il consumo che della droga fanno i londinesi supera le 150mila "strisce" quotidiane.

Prozac and painkillers found in tap water

Canada: The federal government's first study of pharmaceuticals in drinking water will confirm traces of common painkillers, anti-cholesterol drugs and the antidepressant Prozac are ending up in the treated water that Canadians drink, CanWest News Service has learned. A study by researchers from the National Water Research Institute for Health and Environment Canada, designed to gauge how efficiently plants removed traces of drugs from drinking water, found nine different drugs in water samples taken near 20 drinking water treatment plants across southern Ontario.

Avanti:

Although wastewater treatment plants remove contaminants, they aren't equipped to remove estrogen, so the hormone is released into waters and attaches to sedimentary particles, Kelley said.

Kelley and other researchers say that the hornyhead turbot, which feeds on animals in the sediment, could be ingesting estrogen.

There are clear signs that male hornyhead turbot have been affected. Kelley and other researchers found that, probably due to high estrogen levels and other contaminants, some males are producing a protein that females make to build up egg yolk.

In another, more limited study by several agencies, scientists found 11 out of 82 male hornyhead turbot collected off the Southern California coast had small eggs growing in their testes.

How this feminization is affecting the life of the fish isn't yet clear, he said.

"We don't know all the impacts yet, but males aren't supposed to be producing this (protein)," he said. "And if nothing else, (the male fish) are expending inappropriate energy, making something that they can't use, and it may cause who knows what other kinds of physiological problems."

Kelley and CSULB students conducted chemical tests on the fish at a CSULB lab. They worked with investigators from the Orange County Sanitation District and the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation.

Researchers don't know exactly how much estrogen is being leaked into Southern California waters, he said. But other international studies have clearly shown that the human hormone can find its way into oceans in high enough quantities to induce feminization in male fish, Kelley said.

The CSULB lab has received a USC Sea Grant to measure estrogen flow into the area.

It's likely that Southern California waters contain naturally-produced estrogen as well as synthetic estrogen contained in birth control pills, he said.

Further contributing to feminization, the chemical fertilizer DDT acts like estrogen, he said.

The chemical was dumped into waters by industry decades ago, Kelley said. DDT has since been banned, but it persists in the environment, he said.

The big question, Kelley said, is whether there are elevated estrogen levels in other fish that humans eat (Hornyhead turbot are not consumed). Kelley and other researchers plan to study the pacific sand dab, which humans eat, to see if estrogen could be making its way into the bodies of human seafood lovers.

"We are only touching the tip of the iceberg right now," he said. "We don't know yet what the greater impacts are, but for the first time we have identified some serious changes in wildlife."

Eliminating estrogen and other hormones from the wastewater stream is a tough task, he said.

"It's very difficult to remove them, and it would come at an enormous public cost," he said. "But it may be something that people someday might want to look at."

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Fish near treatment plants found with male-female tissue

Fish with both male and female sex tissue have been discovered near wastewater treatment plants on the South Platte River and Boulder Creek. Scientist are trying to determine if chemicals that distrupt hormones, such as estrogen, are responsible for the gender-bending fish phenomenon. Colorado biologist John Woodling discovered the deformed fish, white suckers, about two years ago near two wastewater discharge pipes. Female fish far outnumber the male fish in the wastewater soup near the plants. "This is the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me," said Woodling, 58, a retired fisheries biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife now working with the University of Colorado.

Male fish becoming female?

BOULDER, Colo. - Researchers in Colorado have made a startling discovery. Fish, apparently male, are developing female sexual organs. Scientists believe it's the result of too much estrogen in the water and they're finding estrogen in rivers across the country. In Colorado's rivers and streams, scientists are waist-deep in ritual of the season, using electric currents to stun native fish to the surface where they're measured and checked. But what they discovered in the white sucker fish has got even veteran scientists concerned.

High estrogen levels in water raise health concerns

BOULDER, CO — Researchers in Colorado have made a startling discovery this week concerning high estrogen levels affecting some freshwater fish that have developed both male and female sexual organs, MSNBC reported. No one is certain what the impact is on humans, but since finding evidence that estrogen may be turning male fish into female fish, scientists are now looking at what it means for the nation's drinking water, the story said.

Plastics cause gender change

By Mark Townsend

Mother Nature is taking over. An extraordinary feminisation process has begun to affect Britain's wildlife — and scientists warn it could ultimately dismantle the evolutionary process that has existed for 3.5billion years. A trend first noted in whelks is starting to spread rapidly among other wildlife species in the food chain.

The first national survey of 42 rivers by the UK Environment Agency has just been completed and it found that a third of male fish are growing female reproductive tissues and organs. Effects were most pronounced in younger fish, raising grave implications for future stocks.

More species affected

Scientists now fear that seals, dolphins, otters, birds such asperegrine falcons and even honey bees are heading towards a unisex existence that would lead to extinction.

Blame has fallen on the increasing prevalence of a group of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. These are found in plastics, food packaging, shampoos and pesticides and accumulate in the environment.

They can mimic the female hormone oestrogen when ingested. A reduction in the size of male genitals, a lower sex drive and parts of the testes turning into ovary tissue are among the symptoms. As the effect of the chemicals starts to creep up the food chain, concern will mount over the potential effect on human health amid increasing evidence of falling sperm counts and infertility among men.

A very real concern

Charles Tyler, professor of environmental and molecular fish biology at the University of Exeter in south-west England, who is leading an international team studying the impact of so-called `gender-bending' chemicals, warns that a point where a species can no longer reproduce is a very real concern.

Others studying the phenomenon say the feminisation process is a warning from nature that a nightmare is about to unfold. Pressure will again resume soon on politicians to curb the use of `gender-bending' chemicals.

Environmentalists will point to research revealing that honeybees, so vital for the pollination of plants, were found to display a lower sex drive with fewer eggs laid by the queen after exposure to endocrine disruptors.

They also point to recent studies involving bottlenose dolphins in the North Sea. Again, the presence of chemicals has been linked to an increase in birth defects, most notable among male specimens, along with more infant deaths, which has resulted in an ageing of the population. So far the U.K. government has agreed to fund studies into suspicions that the otter's comeback after decades of decline will be hampered by the feminising effects of the chemicals.

Ignorance shows up

A separate study has just been funded into the dipper, a bird, which feeds on invertebrates taken from the rivers. Tyler is among those who have complained that the huge gap in scientific knowledge over gender bending pollutants has so far prevented any action in the outlawing of chemicals.

Toxicology expert Andreas Kortenkamp of the University of London's school of pharmacy, believes the government has `grossly underestimated' the chemicals' effects. He believes that current safeguards to protect wildlife are grossly inadequate. In particular, he warns that nothing is being done to calculate how cocktails of chemicals react in the environment. More than 100,000 synthetic chemicals remain authorised for use, with the European Union holding a list of 550 potential endocrine disruptors.

It is not yet known precisely which ones have altered the male reproductive organs of bream, carp, roach and gudgeon or caused hormone disruption among grey seal pups in the North Sea. Bees were found to be affected by chemicals used commonly on crops in the U.K. countryside.

The findings coincide with renewed concern over fertility levels among men. Sperm counts have fallen by a third between 1989 and 2002, according to some studies, while one in six British couples now experiences difficulty in conceiving.

Contaminated drinking water caused by the by-products of the contraceptive pill flowing back into the system is one of the explanations put forward.

Justin Woolford, a spokesman for the WWF (formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature), said: ``What we do to wildlife we ultimately do to ourselves.'' Yet almost two years have passed since the WHO urged governments to investigate the effects of gender-bending chemicals.

Hidden soya in fast food 'cutting men's fertility'

Britons' love of convenience food packed full of 'invisible' soya is a cause of declining sperm counts and a host of fertility problems, new research into its impact on Western diets reveals. Many healthy foods such as soya milk and soya yogurt are also implicated. A team led by Sheena Lewis, professor of reproductive medicine at Queen's University in Belfast, has conducted studies linking soya to reduced male fertility. Scientists believe chemicals in the soya bean mimic the female hormone, oestrogen. The research is disclosed in an investigation into the multi-billion dollar global soya industry published in today's Observer Food Monthly magazine. It reveals that soya is no longer eaten just by vegetarians but used as cheap protein in most processed and fast foods. Other research has linked the hormonal chemicals in soya to certain cancers, brain disease and developmental abnormalities in infants. Lewis said: 'Chemicals found in soya can lower sperm count... The results do give us concerns and there need to be further studies on a much larger scale.' One of his team, Dr Lorraine Anderson, said: 'If you alter the oestrogen that a man is exposed to, you can not only affect their sperm quality but you can get an increase in structural abnormalities like undescended testes.' She believes this could lead to other problems later in life, such as testicular cancer.

The Soya Protein Association, which represents food makers, said: 'We have seen no convincing evidence that soya causes any harm.'

They hailed it as a wonderfood

On a crisp winter morning in Belfast, Dr Lorraine Anderson was nearing the end of her doctorate research project. She had spent weeks hunched over a microscope looking at samples of sperm. Anderson was trying to figure out what made some sperm move slower than others. As a specialist in reproductive medicine at Belfast's Royal Maternity Hospital she was particularly interested in why some samples moved so sluggishly that they would have trouble reaching and fertilising an egg. Anderson knew that a sperm's 'motility' was one of the critical factors in fertility.

'It doesn't matter how many sperm a man's got; if they can't get from A to B then there's little chance of reproduction,' she says. Anderson's 'eureka' moment arrived when a complex analysis of the samples she was working on revealed that the seminal liquid surrounding the slower-moving sperm contained chemicals called isoflavones. These compounds are also known as phyto-oestrogens or plant-oestrogens because they mimic oestrogen, the powerful female hormone. These highly active compounds are found in large concentrations in soya.

Indeed such are the doses of these chemicals, a woman drinking two glasses of soya milk a day over the course of a month will see the timing of her menstrual cycle alter. It has been estimated that infants who are fed soya formula exclusively receive an amount of oestrogen equivalent to five birth control pills every day. For a growing number of scientists the question is this: if such a strong biologically active compound is found in soya, what is its effect on humans regularly eating or drinking products made from the bean?

Pill blamed for sexually deformed male fish

Scientists have found sexual deformities in male fish caught off the Californian coast, suggesting that gender-bending chemicals have reached alarming levels in the waters.

Of 64 bottom-dwelling fish caught along the coastline, 11 males were found to have ovarian tissue growing in their testes, Dan Schlenk, a marine toxicologist at the University of California, Riverside, told the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry meeting in Baltimore yesterday.

Scientists believe female hormones in sewage, such as oestrogen from the contraceptive pill, and chemicals are to blame.

Getting in touch with eels' feminine side

Scientists are investigating whether contaminants in Lake Ellesmere could be responsible for gender-bending among eels.

Environment Canterbury (ECan) has contracted Landcare Research to study the reproductive organs of eels and flounder.

The aim is to discover whether intensive dairying or other factors could be responsible for the disproportionately high number of female eels in the lake.

While the sex of other fish is determined by genetics, the sex of an eel is determined by its environment.

A high density of eels will naturally cause 99 per cent of them to be male.

Landcare Research ecotoxicology programme leader Louis Tremblay and scientist Dr Cara Lowe yesterday started taking blood samples from eels in the lake.

Tremblay said the issue of contaminants in the environment had sparked overseas studies where it was shown that industrial and farming effluent could manipulate the sex of eels and fish.

He said little information was available in New Zealand and hoped this study would throw some light on the effects of these "endocrine disrupters" - contaminants which inadvertently influence gender.

Tremblay said it was possible that large numbers of cattle grazing at the water's edge could leech estrogen into the lake and feminise the eels.

"We, as humans, have our waste treated but animals' is not treated and might be a potential source.

"The lactating status of the cows might mean a fair amount of hormones."

He said eels were a complicated species to work with. They did not sexually differentiate until they were 20 years old and could live up to 40 years.

ECan surface water quality scientist Shirley Hayward said the initiative came from questions raised by the community about effluents and the high concentration of chemicals in the lake.

Results from the $5000 study are expected early next year.

Gender-Bending Los Angeles Fish Raise Ocean Pollution Concerns

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Male fish living near sewer pipes in Los Angeles's coastal waters are developing female sex organs, renewing concern that contaminants dumped in the ocean 30 years ago pose health risks.

The gender bending, the first time observed in ocean fish, was discovered by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project in May. Eleven of 64 bottom-dwelling fish caught near sewage pipes from Santa Monica to Huntington Beach had ovary tissue in their testes, according to a study by the group.

DDT, a pesticide banned in the U.S. 30 years ago, may be causing the abnormalities, said Dan Schlenk, an aquatic ecotoxicologist at the University of California in Riverside and co-author of two of three papers on the Los Angeles-area fish. The studies are a reminder to local residents that consuming fish from the Santa Monica Bay may pose health risks.

"If a friend came back from fishing and offered me a fish from his boat, yeah I would eat it, but I wouldn't do it on a regular basis," said Matt Stein, chief seafood officer at King's Seafood Co., owner of Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica California. "Whether it's the mercury in the water or DDT, it's all about moderation."

Los Angeles sewers that drain into the Santa Monica Bay, which stretches from Point Dume in the north to the Palos Verdes peninsula in the south, served as a dumping ground for DDT, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, starting in the 1950s.

Pollution

In 2000, companies including Montrose Chemical Corp. of California, Aventis CropScience USA, Chris-Craft Industries Inc. and Atkemix Thirty-Seven Inc. agreed to a $73 million settlement with California and U.S. prosecutors to clean up ocean contamination around Los Angeles, the Environmental Protection Agency said on its Web site.

In a 1994 report, the U.S. Geological Survey identified elevated levels of DDT and PCBs in a 17 square-mile area around Palos Verdes, which lies about 20 miles south of downtown. Eating fish contaminated by chemicals such as DDT and PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, can increase cancer risk, harm the liver and affect the central nervous system, the EPA said.

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment currently has consumption warnings for species including white croaker, corbina, sculpin, rock fish and kelp bass, primarily due to concerns about DDT and PCBs in the Los Angeles area, department spokesman Allan Hirsch said.

Estrogen

DDT mimics estrogen in its effects on some animals, possibly causing the development of female characteristics in male hornyhead turbots and English sole, according to the study by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Other so- called estrogenic compounds that may cause female traits may also be found in sunscreen, Schlenk said.

"The most significant aspect of this study is that it's the first time that we have found these kind of symptoms in salt water fish," said Steve Weissberg, director at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Institute.

The studies, which will be followed by more research, don't address human health risks, Schlenk said. Some studies have linked hormone-mimicking chemicals to decreased sperm counts, altered genitalia in baby boys and premature puberty in girls.

"Exposure to DDTs and other persistent contaminants that show estrogenic activity can occur through dietary consumption of fish," Schlenk said. "The relative risk of adverse effects depends on the dose."

Treatment

While the government has banned dumping toxic chemicals into sewers, the practice left ocean outflow sites contaminated. Los Angeles County and city together process about 650 million gallons of waste water a day, the third-largest output in the U.S. behind Chicago and New York City.

The county's 11 treatment plants don't filter out all potentially harmful chemicals.

"There are some natural contaminants that treatment plants may not catch completely such as tannins," said Bob Horvath, head of Technical Services at the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. "These studies can't look at all of them so they focus on key things, like hormones."

The biggest source of ocean pollution in Los Angeles, which has a population 3.7 million, is rain runoff from city streets, said Hirsch of the state environment office.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plans for improving water quality include revitalizing the Los Angeles River and improving catch basins for storm water, said Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor for energy and the environment. The mayor doesn't have a specific plan for addressing DDT and pesticide pollution in the ocean, she said.

Causation

"The big picture for the few fish that are left is that they are slowly being poisoned," said Gordon Labedz, conservation committee chair at the local chapter of the Sierra Club. "Whether it's from sewage plants or from runoff. Our coastal ocean is at great risk in the long run."

Local charter-boat fishermen and their clients often keep their catch for dinner. Marina Del Rey Sportfishing hosts 20 to 40 customers a day, including customers who have returned for 15 years. Their regular catch includes rock cod, bass and halibut.

"We've been eating fish from these waters for years," said Rick Arnold, 36, who has worked at the company for 21 years and lives in Marina Del Rey. "I am 6'5 and 300 pounds. I eat our fish three times a week. I don't think there's anything wrong with me."

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'Gender-bending' chemicals found to 'feminise' boys

"Gender-bending" chemicals mimicking the female hormone oestrogen can disrupt the development of baby boys, suggests the first evidence linking certain chemicals in everyday plastics to effects in humans.

The chemicals implicated are phthalates, which make plastics more pliable in many cosmetics, toys, baby-feeding bottles and paints and can leak into water and food.

All previous studies suggesting these chemicals blunt the influence of the male hormone testosterone on healthy development of males have been in animals. "This research highlights the need for tougher controls of gender-bending chemicals," says Gwynne Lyons, toxics adviser to the WWF, UK. Otherwise, "wildlife and baby boys will be the losers".

The incriminating findings came from a study of 85 baby boys born to women exposed to everyday levels of phthalates during pregnancy. It was carried out by Shanna Swan at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York, US, and colleagues.

As an index of feminisation, she measured the "anogenital distance" (AGD) between the anus and to the base of the penis. She also measured the volume of each boy's penis. Earlier studies have shown that the AGD is twice in boys what it is in girls, mainly because in boys the hormone testosterone extends the length of the perineum separating the anus from the testicles.

Undescended testicles

In animals, AGD is reduced by phthalates - which mimic oestrogen - which keep testosterone from doing its normal job. At higher doses, animals develop more serious abnormalities such as undescended testicles and misplaced openings to the urethra on the penis - a group of symptoms called "phthalate syndrome" in animals.

When Swan's team measured concentrations of nine phthalate metabolites in the urine of pregnant women, they found that four were linked with shorter AGD in sons born to women showing high exposure levels.

Although none of the boys developed abnormal genitals, the quarter of mothers who were exposed to the highest concentrations of phthalates were much more likely to have had boys with short AGDs compared with the quarter of mothers who had the lowest exposures to the chemicals.

And although all the boys had genitals classified as "normal", 21% of the boys with short AGDs had incomplete testicular descent, compared with 8% of other boys. And on average, the smaller the AGD, the smaller the penis.

Changing masculinisation

Swan believes that at higher exposures, boys may suffer from testicular dysgenesis syndrome - the human collection of more serious abnormalities which corresponds to "phthalate syndrome".

"We're not exactly seeing testicular dysgenesis syndrome, but a cluster of endpoints consistent with it," said Swan on at an international conference on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in San Diego, US.

"If you see this, you're very likely to see every other aspect of masculinisation changed too," says Fred vom Saal, professor of reproductive biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, US.

Vom Saal says this could include behavioural changes like those seen in animals, including an aversion to "rough-and-tumble" play and a reduction in aggressiveness.

Criticising methods

Environmentalists say the results strengthen the case for a ban or restriction on some phthalates in baby toys, as has been proposed in Europe and California.

But phthalate manufacturers maintain that the chemicals have been thoroughly tested and are safe. They are also critical of aspects of the study. David Cadogan, director of the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates, points out that just one urine sample was taken from each pregnant woman, which cannot rule out drastic variations in exposure over time.

Also, he says that all AGD measurements should have been taken in babies exactly the same age, not in babies ranging from three to 24 months in age as in the study. The disparity in ages meant that complicated mathematical analyses had to be applied which may have made it more difficult to distinguish genuine differences in AGD from differences accounted for by age or weight.

Swan's results will appear in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

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Toxin in plastics harming unborn boys

Scientists in America have found the first evidence that common chemicals used in products as diverse as cosmetics, toys, clingfilm and plastic bags may harm the development of unborn baby boys.

Researchers have long known that high levels of substances called phthalates have gender-bending effects on male animals, making them more feminine and leading to poor sperm quality and infertility. The new study suggests that even normal levels of phthalates, which are ubiquitous, can disrupt the development of male babies' reproductive organs.

The discovery poses a huge problem for the chemical industry, which is already embroiled in a battle with the government over EU proposals on chemical safety.

Several types of phthalates, which are used to make plastics more pliable, and have been around for more than 50 years, have been banned, but many are still produced in vast quantities.

The study was carried out by scientists from centres across the US, including the University of Rochester and the National Centre for Environmental Health.

The researchers measured the levels of nine widely used phthalates in the urine of pregnant women and compared them with standard physiological measurements of their babies.

Tests showed that women with higher levels of four different phthalates were more likely to have baby boys with a range of conditions, from smaller penises and undescended testicles to a shorter perineum, the distance between the genitals and the anus. The differences, say the authors, indicate a feminisation of the boys similar to that seen in animals exposed to the chemicals.

Shanna Swan, an obstetrician at the University of Rochester, and lead scientist on the study, said researchers must now unravel what kinds of products are most to blame. One way that phthalates get into the bloodstream is when they seep into food from plastic packaging.

"It's going to take a while to work out which of these sources is most relevant to human exposure," she said.

Although the observed differences in body measurements were subtle, they indicate that what is generally regarded as the most ubiquitous class of chemicals is having a significant effect on newborns.

"Every aspect of male identity is altered when you see this in male animals," said Fred vom Saal, professor of reproductive biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Levels of aggression, parenting behaviour and even learning speeds were affected, he said.

Andreas Kortenkamp, an expert in environmental pollutants at the School of Pharmacy in London, said: "If it's true, it's sensational. This is the first time anyone's shown this effect in humans. It's an indicator that something's gone seriously wrong with development in the womb and that's why it's so serious."

He added: "These are mass chemicals. They are used in any plastic that is pliable, whether it's clingfilm, kidney dialysis tubes, blood bags or toys. Sorting this out is going to be an interesting challenge for industry as well as society."

The work, which is to appear in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is due to be presented at the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Forum in San Diego on June 3.

Gwynne Lyons, toxics adviser to the WWF, said: "At the moment regulation of the chemicals industry is woefully inadequate."

She added: "Right now the government is looking at how the regulation of hormone disrupting chemicals could be made more effective under new EU chemicals law, but the chemicals industry is lobbying very hard to water down this legislation.

"Political agreement on this legislation is not expected until later this year so it remains to be seen whether the UK government has the guts to stand up to industry lobbying. If they don't, wildlife and baby boys will be the losers."

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