[Pharmwaste] FW: It's Time to Learn From Frogs

[Tenace, Laurie]

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From: DeBiasi,Deborah [mailto:Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov] 
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:38 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: It's Time to Learn From Frogs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/opinion/28kristof.html?th&emc=th

June 28, 2009

It's Time to Learn From Frogs 

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.

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, but the 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. 




Deborah L. DeBiasi 
Email:   Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov (NEW!)
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov 
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 
Office of Water Permit Programs 
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program 
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents 
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!) 
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219 
PH:         804-698-4028 
FAX:      804-698-4032