[Pharmwaste] Polar Bears...

[Tenace, Laurie]

Organohalogens as a source of hormone disruption - making the pharmaceutical
waste issue a little muddier.

"These organohalogens can act like hormones."

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060823_polar_bears.html


Study: Polar Bear Genitals are Shrinking

By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 23 August 2006
12:04 pm ET
 
 

The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of
polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to
industrial pollutants.

Scientists report this shrinkage could, in the worst case scenario, endanger
polar bears there and elsewhere by spoiling their love lives and causing
their numbers to peter out.

In fact, all marine mammals could get affected by these pollutants,
"especially the Arctic fox, killer whale and pilot whales," wildlife
veterinarian and toxicologist Christian Sonne at the National Environmental
Research Institute of Denmark in Roskilde told LiveScience. These animals
bodies also carry extremely high levels of these contaminants.

Polar bears from northernmost Norway, western Russia and east Greenland are
among the most polluted animals in the Arctic, as they feast on ringed seals
and bearded seals. The blubber of these seals accumulates high levels of
organic pollutants loaded with halogens such as chlorine. These
organohalogens can act like hormones.

Sonne and his colleagues looked at formaldehyde-preserved genitals from 55
male and 44 female east Greenland polar bears, collected from 1999 to 2002 by
about 30 polar bear subsistence hunters regulated by the Greenland
government.

Harrowing expedition

The researchers experienced harrowing times on their expeditions with dog
sleds into the wilds of Greenland to study polar bears.

"One evening a bear came just next to us in the night when we were doing the
toilette," Sonne recalled. "They shot and it ran." Another time, "we almost
had to eat the dogs as we ran out of food and seals. It was cold sleeping in
-50 degrees C [-58 Fahrenheit] in five weeks with no heater."

The adult polar bear testicles the researchers examined were on average
roughly three inches across and 1.8 ounces in weight, although they could
dramatically enlarge during the height of sexual activity from January to
July. Their bacula, or penis bones, were on average nearly seven inches long.

The scientists found the higher the level of organohalogens in polar bear,
the smaller testicle and baculum size and weight likely were. Ovary size and
weight decreased as organohalogen levels rose as well.

Slow to mate

Polar bears have among the lowest reproductive rates for terrestrial mammals.
The scientists say reducing polar bear penis size would make sex less
successful, upsetting naturally slow-to-grow polar bear numbers. Testicle and
ovary shrinkage would upset polar bear reproduction too.

Future research should examine the effects of low levels of organohalogen
contamination, Sonne said. "How long do we have to go down in exposure levels
to obtain no-effect levels? Is it possible at all?" he explained.

Sonne and his colleagues reported their findings online Aug. 16 via the
journal Environmental Science & Technology.

 

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  
 
view our mercury web pages at: 
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm 

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