[Pharmwaste] Maine - UMD professor contends estrogen released into harbor is culprit in decline of crustaceans

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/01-07/01-14-07/01perspective.htm

Human hormones hurt lobsters
 
UMD professor contends estrogen released into harbor is culprit in
decline of crustaceans 
By AUTUMN SPANNE, Standard-Times staff writer 

When lobsters started disappearing from Buzzards Bay, UMass-Dartmouth
professor Yuegang Zuo thought he might know why.
 
He talked to area lobstermen, who suspected pollution, then collected
water samples from the Acushnet River Estuary and near the Fairhaven
Bridge and hurricane barrier. Back in the lab, he found a possible
culprit.
 
Using sophisticated equipment that separates the molecules of different
contaminants in the water, Dr. Zuo identified several types of natural
and synthetic estrogen hormones - most likely passed through human waste
and released into the river and bay from the nearby Fairhaven and New
Bedford wastewater treatment plants. 
Dr. Zuo and other scientists suspect that the naturally-occurring and
synthetic female estrogen in birth control pills and hormone replacement
therapy drugs could be hindering larval lobster development, as well as
shell growth and reproduction in adult lobsters. 

Estrogen, which mimics lobsters' own molting hormone, may interfere with
their molting process and make them more susceptible to the bacteria
that causes shell disease. 

While estrogen is not the only endocrine disruptor that researchers
suspect may contribute to shell disease and other marine life
abnormalities, the potency of its synthetic forms make it particularly
worrisome. 
"We can't say that it's definitely because of estrogen compounds, but
it's possible," said Dr. Zuo, who recently received UMass Dartmouth's
Scholar of the Year award for his research. 

Both male and female hormones are part of a broad, disparate group of
chemicals, including ingredients common in pesticides, cosmetics,
detergents and other pharmaceuticals, known as endocrine disruptors, so
called because they interfere with the endocrine system's ability to
regulate growth, development and reproduction in humans, fish and
wildlife.
 
Research has implicated endocrine disruptors in a wide range of health
problems, including cancer, reproductive defects, reduced sperm count
and immune system disorders. 

Knowledge of their environmental and health impacts is relatively new.
But amid the thousands of chemicals classified as endocrine disruptors,
studies have increasingly focused on hormones like estrogen as suspects
in emerging environmental problems. 

The presence of estrogen in rivers, lakes and streams has already raised
troubling questions about its potential impact on humans and other
marine life. For the past decade, studies of fish in rivers near heavily
populated urban and suburban areas have shown cause for concern. 

One of the most startling recent examples is the Potomac River in
Washington, D.C. Federal and state researchers found that at least 80
percent of male bass surveyed in major tributaries that feed the Potomac
were growing immature eggs. In the Potomac itself, roughly half of a
smaller sample of bass showed signs of so-called feminization.
 
Research elsewhere in the United States, Canada and Europe has exposed
similar phenomena.
 
"Gives us a start" 

To date, no studies have been conducted on whether lobster, fish or
other wildlife in SouthCoast's waters show such symptoms of feminization
or other abnormalities. 

"But this gives us a start," said David Casoni, science liaison for the
Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association, whose members want concrete
information on what might have contributed to a near 70 percent decline
in the local lobster population between 1998 and 2004. 

Dr. Zuo is eager to undertake that next stage of research locally,
saying concentrations of synthetic estrogens he collected from Buzzards
Bay and the Acushnet River - mere milligrams per liter - are still high
enough to potentially cause feminization in male fish, he said. He now
wants to partner with biologists to examine how development and
reproduction of lobsters in Buzzards Bay may be impacted by the potent
hormones discharged from nearby municipal wastewater plants.
 
"This is long-term research," said Dr. Zuo. "It can't produce results
right away. It may take a few decades. Once you see the effects, it may
be too late."
 
While scientists slowly zero in on which contaminants in which
combinations produce which problems, one thing is certain: wastewater
treatment plants are contributing to the contamination.
 
"What we know from the analytical studies that have been done is that
clearly downstream from wastewater treatment plants, when you test
waters, they tend to be estrogenic," said Dr. Elaine Francis, national
director of the Environmental Protection Agency's endocrine disruptors
research program. 

That's because most sewage treatment plants in the United States -
including those on the SouthCoast - are not designed to remove hormones
and myriad other endocrine disrupting chemicals. Each day, these
contaminants make their way into streams, rivers and groundwater, and
eventually into estuaries and oceans.
 
"We also know that fish living downstream from wastewater treatment
plants are showing signs of impact, and certainly male fish are being
feminized in estrogenic waters," said Dr. Francis. She added that the
EPA is studying several sewage treatment plants around the country to
determine which technologies are most effective at eliminating estrogen
from wastewater. 

"With the human population increase in the region over the past decade,
you reach a threshold that's like turning a switch," said Dr. James
Stuart, a University of Connecticut chemistry professor who has studied
how lobsters in Long Island Sound and Vineyard Sound are affected by
another suspected endocrine disruptor, alkylphenol, common in plastic
products. 

Dr. Stuart is trying to persuade state environmental protection agencies
to increase regulations for the use and disposal of substances
containing endocrine disruptors. Like Dr. Zuo, he is concerned that the
environmental consequences could be irreversible if policy makers wait
for irrefutable proof. 
"The effect is there. No one doubts it; it's just about the extent of
the problem," he said. 

Testing just starting 

Regulatory agencies are struggling to catch up. Ten years ago, Congress
ordered the EPA to undertake a screening program to examine thousands of
commercial chemicals and other substances - including human hormones -
suspected of interfering with the endocrine system. 

After a decade of planning, however, testing is just getting started.
Most of the first 50 to 100 chemicals slated for testing this year are
pesticides, since that's the group to which people have the most
exposure through both water and food, said Dr. Francis of the EPA. Her
team is now looking to expand the screening to common male and female
hormones. 

Even when scientists discover a correlation between an endocrine
disrupting chemical and a particular health problem, they face an
additional challenge because people are usually exposed to multiple
endocrine disruptors at the same time. 

That makes research projects like Dr. Zuo's important in beginning to
fill in the gaps about the effects of estrogenic hormones. 

"We don't know which parameters cause the problems, so we have to
isolate each one and then proceed," he said. 

"The most important thing is to discover the problem. If we don't
discover the problem, we can't find the best way to handle it." 

Discovering the problem is the first hurdle. But solving it will not be
easy, either. Limited funding makes for piecemeal research. Examining
one species' exposure to one chemical in one specific geographic area
creates pitfalls for regulation. That's a problem for the people whose
livelihoods depend on healthy oceans. 
 "I look at the ocean as a huge periodic table and we keep putting all
these compounds in that trigger other things," said David Casoni. "We
have no idea what will affect anything in the ocean. We know the
culprits, but where do we go from there?" 


Date of Publication: January 14, 2007 on Page B07 




Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
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