[Pharmwaste] Male fish with eggs in sewage off California coast

[Tenace, Laurie]

Male fish with eggs in sewage off California coast
Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:56 PM ET 
 
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-
11-14T235644Z_01_SCH486187_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-FISH.xml
 
By Nichola Groom

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Researchers have found male fish with eggs in their
testes and female sex traits off the coast of Southern California and believe
that chemicals in sewage may be the cause, an author of two studies said on
Monday.

The two reports found the changes in fish such as English sole and California
halibut, both of which are bottom dwellers, in water near where sewage is
released, said Dan Schlenk, an environmental scientist at the University of
California, Riverside.

High levels of estrogen, both natural and man-made formulations used in birth
control pills, are thought to cause such abnormalities in fish. Estrogen
makes its way into sewage water and then the ocean through women's
excretions.

Compounds that act like estrogen, found in certain industrial chemicals, have
also been blamed for such changes.

But in this instance, Schlenk said higher levels of the egg protein were
found in male fish in areas with lower levels of estrogen and estrogen-like
chemicals in the sediment. The cause of the female characteristics,
therefore, could be unknown chemicals in the sediment, he said.

"We might have other players in this game," Schlenk said in an interview on
Monday. "We would guess they are primarily coming from waste water."

He said the sewage contained natural and man-made chemicals that was
deposited in ocean sediment.

One of the culprits could be DDT, Schlenk said, a pesticide banned in the
United States in 1972 after it was shown to cause reproductive damage to
birds. DDT is no longer used but can remain in the environment for a long
time.

Los Angeles County's sewage outfall, Schlenk said, "has probably one of the
most contaminated DDT sites in North America, and these responses are fairly
consistent with that kind of exposure."


Laurie J. Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
PH: (850) 245-8759
FAX: (850) 245-8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
 
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