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Showing posts with label water pollution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water pollution. Show all posts
Researchers found that perch (shown here) exposed to low levels of an antianxiety medicine were bolder, more antisocial and faster eaters. Photo courtesy: Bent Christensen via livescience.com
Drugs taken by humans can have unintended side effects — on fish, in the natural environment. Turns out, fish fed extremely low concentrations of an antianxiety drug eat more quickly, and act bolder and more antisocial than their un-medicated peers, a new study finds.
"We can see profound effects at the low levels that we find in surface water. Exposed fish are more bold," Jerker Fick, a co-author and researcher at Umea University in Sweden, said at a news conference here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The study looked at the effect of oxazepam (also known as Serax), used to treat anxiety and panic in humans, on the widespread European perch fish. Researchers gave the fish a concentration of drugs similar to that found in rivers and streams in Sweden and elsewhere, according to a study published in the journal Science.
Here's how the drugs make their way into fishy habitats in real life: They get excreted by humans, pass through wastewater treatment facilities, which are not designed to break down such compounds, and then flow into rivers, Fick told LiveScience.
In the lab, perch were exposed to oxazepam in aquaria meant to mimic the animals' natural conditions. Once exposed, the fish became more antisocial, distancing themselves from fellow fish and likely putting themselves at greater risk of predation, said co-author Tomas Brodin, also of Umea University.
Exposed fish also ate more quickly, a trait that could have profound effects on the environment. This quick gobbling of zooplankton (tiny floating animals) could perhaps lead to blooms of algae, which zooplankton eat. If perch devour more zooplankton, more algae could survive, and their populations could explode, Brodin said.
Drug-exposed fish also left the dark enclosures in their lab homes more quickly, venturing out into open areas of the aquaria to feed, Brodin said. Fish not given drugs lingered longer in their refuges, acting more cautiously. "But the exposed fish didn't care," Brodin said.
The authors said the drug in question works by relieving stress (in both humans and animals), but a certain amount of stress is needed to prevent animals from taking unwarranted risks. Concentrations of drugs in the muscles of the laboratory fish were similar to those found in Swedish rivers, suggesting the effects seen in the study are likely happening in the environment, Fick said.
Oxazepam is a type of benzodiazepine, a very widely prescribed class of antianxiety drugs. It is the most commonly prescribed such medicine in Sweden, and is also formed when humans metabolize other benzodiazepines such as diazepam, also known as Valium, Brodin said.
These drugs are found in waterways throughout the world, and they likely affect all fish since they act on a cellular receptor found in almost all vertebrates, or animals with backbones, Brodin said.
"It's a global issue," he said. "It's probable these behavioral effects are happening around the world as we speak."
"The 'Dodo Awards', are conferred on those governments, who have failed to evolve, and whose actions at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are contributing to, rather than preventing, biodiversity loss
'Canada is the clear leader, for breaching the moratorium on ocean fertilisation and geo-engineering adopted by the CBD in 2008 and 2010,' said Silvia Ribero of the ETC Group.
Canada was also selected for its strong stance on biofuels. The country insisted that the CBD is not the place to discuss food security, and so the impacts of biofuel expansion on food should not be considered."
Ribero's comment is in reference to recent media reports that say the world's largest ever geo-engineering experiment was conducted on the west coast of B.C. and contravened two UN conventions.
The UK's Guardian newspaper suggests the group — consisting of American businessman Russ George and the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp's John Disney — dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean, in July, as a means to create plankton to absorb carbon dioxide in the hopes to "create lucrative carbon credits."
The dump caused a 10,000 square kilometre bloom of phytoplankton — microscopic plant-like organisms at the base of the marine food web that remove carbon from oceans — which can actually be seen from space.
"All I am saying is everyone from the [Canada] Revenue Agency down to the National Research Council, and [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and Environment Canada, all these people, they have all known about this," he said.
Disney also disputes the Guardian's characterization of the experiment. He told CBC they dumped a ground dirt-like substance with only traces of iron into the ocean in order raise oceanic nutrient levels to revive salmon populations.
According to the Toronto Star, Environment Canada is investigating Disney's claims.
"If this [experiment] happened, it would be in violation of Canada's Environment Protection Act," environment minister Peter Kent said.
Regardless, the dump has put the Canadian government smack dab in the middle of an international environmental controversy and has resulted in us receiving a "Dodo."
Keep in mind that this isn't Canada's first Dodo award.
According to a CBC News report from 2010, Canada won the first ever iteration of the award two years ago because of the Harper government's record on resource "access and benefit sharing" with its indigenous populations.
Chinese fisherman displays a bountiful catch while consumers worry about possible contamination. Photo courtesy: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Fears about water quality are rocketing throughout Chinese cyberspace after a Beijing environmentalist disclosed that tap water in China is contaminated with contraceptive compounds.
Though officialdom rushed to downplay the risks, citizens have once again broached their ever-present worries about food safety.
Liangjie Dong, a former researcher in molecular biosciences and bioengineering at the University of Hawaii, blogged on May 16 that China has the highest consumption of contraceptive pills; they are not only taken by people, but are also used in fisheries and aquaculture.
Dong cited an article, titled “Assessment of Source Water Contamination by Estrogenic Disrupting Compounds in China,” which was published by the Journal of Environmental Science in February 2012. The article said that after screening estrogenic activities in 23 source water samples from six main river systems in China, the analysis showed that all samples showed significant estrogenic activity, with the highest level in the Yangtze River delta.
Dong also posted a table from the article which compared aquatic environments in China with those of Germany, Greece, Portugal, the United States, Australia and South Korea. The data shows that China’s six major water systems all contain higher level of estrogenic compounds than other countries.
According to the article, the detection of estrogenic-disrupting compounds (EDCs) in Chinese water supplies has led to rising concerns about the health risks associated with these compounds.
“Estrogenic activity has been detected in effluents of drinking water treatment plants in China, resulting in increased risks to human health. When these compounds enter the environment, they can cause male reproductive dysfunction in wildlife,” the article said.
According to an article published in Chemosphere on Sept. 18, 2006, “EDCs are contaminants that may be hormonally active at low concentrations and are emerging as a major concern for water quality… when organisms are exposed to them, these contaminants function as estrogens.” The article also said these compounds can negatively affect humans and wildlife.
Dong’s message has gone viral on the Internet. Some netizens fear that consuming tap water will cause infertility.
Soon afterwards, a number of Chinese media quickly published articles to refute Dong’s findings.
Deputy Director of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Zhongda Hospital at Southeast University, Peng Danhong, told Modern Express that the level of EDCs in tap water is so low that it is negligible, and there is no contraceptive effect at all.
A supervisor in the Shanghai Water Resources Bureau told the Shanghai Evening Post that there is no conclusion on whether EDCs are harmful.
However, an environmental expert from Nanjing University told Modern Express that it is difficult to handle new pollutants such as EDCs with current water treatment methods in China.
Dong also cited the Journal of Environmental Science’s article as saying that traditional water treatment processes, such as chlorination, coagulation, and sedimentation, do not adequately remove EDCs.
Many people are dissatisfied with the experts’ claims. An Internet user from Zhuhai city in Guangdong province said, “An expert says that the risk is negligible. I know eating this substance will not kill a person immediately, but its impact is long-term and destructive.”
Blogger “Fan Xiaoming” satirically describes how Chinese are consuming unsafe food on a daily basis: “I get up in the morning, buy a dough stick deep-fried with gutter oil and drink a cup of milk with melamine; at noon, I eat lean meat powder pork fried with pesticide-tainted chives. After work, I’ll then buy a fish that was fed contraceptive chemicals. At night, I’ll swig down a bottle of coke containing chlorine. But yet, since I swallow a few toxic capsules whenever I feel sick and find myself still miraculously live, I wonder when I became Superman!”
Shell have confirmed a leak in a pipeline serving one of their North Sea platforms. Photo courtesy: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Who would have guessed it? Yet another oil leak from a company which has made no significant changes to its drilling policies since the last catastrophe. And shame on the government officials who don't demand that changes are made and stricter safety precautions are put in place before issuing one more drilling permit.
Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to contain an oil leak at its Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea; but, in true CYA (cover your ass) fashion declined to specify the size of the leak. (If we don't tell them anything, maybe they won't notice the extent of the pollution.)
"We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Gannet Alpha platform. We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a subsea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area," a Shell spokesman said.
"We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurised."
Asked about the size of the leak, a Shell spokeswoman declined to say.
One of the wells at the oilfield 112 miles east of Aberdeen has been closed, but Shell did not specify whether output was reduced.
According to Argus Media, the Gannet field produced about 13,500 barrels of oil between January and April. The field is co-owned with US firm Exxon and operated by Shell.
A document available on Shell's website says the Gannet facilities have capacity to export 88,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Shell also said it had restarted its North Sea Brent Alpha and Bravo fields on Thursday after a seven-month shutdown, while two other fields remained shut.
The company shut all four of its Brent platforms, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, in January for repairs.
"Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo are producing gas for export via the Flags(far north liquids and gas line) to the St Fergus gas plant," Shell said.
"It is anticipated that Brent Delta will resume export in the near future and Brent Charlie will restart in early 2012."
The statement said that the work at the Brent fields was technically challenging and depended on the weather in the area.
Green party co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "It's too early to tell how serious this spill is, but it is imperative now that Shell act both urgently and efficiently.
"They must also keep the public and the authorities properly informed about progress, something BP failed to do during the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year.
"Whatever the outcome of this incident, it certainly underlines the need for the oil industry to publish proper response plans, as Greenpeace have been asking them to do. If they refuse to do so, ministers should act to make it a condition of their licences."
Before the shut-in, the four Brent fields produced about 4.5 million cubic metres a day of gas, less than 2 percent of current UK gas demand, and just 20,000 barrels per day of oil.
Brent was once Britain's largest oilfield, and still has global significance as one of the four key North Sea crude streams along with Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk.
The 700-plus-foot vessel leaked oil into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park near Great Keppel Island off the east coast of Queensland state. (Australian Maritime Safety Authority / April 4, 2010) Photo courtesy: Los Angeles Times
Easter Sunday, one of most sacred of all religious holidays found a Chinese-owned bulk coal carrier rammed into one of the most environmentally-sensitive coral reefs in the world. The Shen Neng 1 had run full speed into the Great Barrier Reef near Australia on Saturday, April 3, 2010. Australian officials are now racing to try to prevent as much of the cargo from escaping into surrounding waters as possible.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world and was selected as World Heritage Site in 1981. Peter Garrett, Environmental Protection Minister, says the Australian government is extremely concerned about the effect an oil spill would have on the reef.
Environmentalists are horrified at the possible damage the accident might cause to the ecosystem. This is no small ecosystem, it is more than 1,200 miles long and comprises more than 3,000 individual reefs, cays and islands, providing a habitat for countless sea species. Coral reefs are an incredibly rich source of marine species. While coral reefs cover slightly less than 1% of the oceans, they are home to approximately 25% of all identified marine species; and, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world.
The Great Barrier Reef is like any other coral reef in that it is built of small, colonial animals that grow one on top of the other building on the dead shells of each other. These skeletons of calcium carbonate fuse together into a rock-like formation that can cut through the hull of any ship like a hot knife through butter.
The real damage is not only what has been done to the reef; but, the potential damage the roughly 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil it carries will do to the environment and marine species it coats. The damage to the reef will take decades, if not centuries, to repair; as, coral is notoriously slow growing.
Shipping companies still bear the lions' share of the guilt when it comes to environmental disasters like this even if they have never run aground or spilled one drop of their fuel into the ocean. Why?
Shipping companies (and the powers that run them) have turned a blind eye to the type of fuel used in their ships. These companies favour (and use) a low-grade fuel that is cheap. However, it is also incredibly viscous (thick and sludgy) and needs to be heated before being injected into the engines. This alone should be a red flag AND a warning bell.
The gooey texture of the sludge they use for fuel makes this class of fuel an ecological and environmental nightmare if it escapes into the ocean. It coats birds, fish, and other wildlife causing almost certain death. It is difficult to clean up; and, therefore washes onto corals and beaches to be held for decades before the area finally returns to pre-spill status.
Great Keppel Island, about 340 miles north of Brisbane,is a major tourist destination on the Great Barrier Reef and has provided Australia with a source of both national pride and tourist dollars. The Shen Neng 1 has floundered about nine miles outside of a shipping lane. There appears to be an oil leak that has travelled into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park near Keppel Island.
Despite all the measures the government has taken in recent decades to protect this national natural treasure, the reef has suffered significant decline from overfishing, fertilizer runoff from agriculture, and coral bleaching from hotter water than usual associated with global warming.
Marine ecologists often talk about oil spills as the tipping point that can push coral reefs or other undersea areas past the point from which they can recover; particularly, if their resilience has been weakened by other chronic stresses.
"Climate change is a problem for virtually all coral reefs, and fishing has had some problem there," said Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "If you add into that a major oil spill, it tends to push the system past the tipping point."
What happens beyond that point, Halpern said, is the subject of much study. What's known is that corals tend to die and the reefs become overgrown with invasive algae. Then the fish and other marine life that rely on a living reef can no longer survive.
"This is a serious situation and we've mobilized air, sea and land resources in response," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.
"The situation remains serious as the extent of the damage means that there is a very real risk that the vessel may break apart. Every effort is now being made to limit the impact of this incident."
What hasn't been mentioned so far in this blog is that the Shen Neng 1 was in a restricted zone of the park. The impact sliced open the fuel tanks prompting Australian officials to activate a national oil spill response plant.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will be conducting a full investigation of how the incident occurred and why the Shen Neng 1 was in a restricted zone. The carrier ran aground on a shoal and is not expected to be moved without salvage assistance.
Capricorn Conservation Council, a national environmental group, said in a release that it was "horrified that a Chinese coal carrier has run aground near Great Keppel Island."
The group called for a marine pilot to be required for all vessels operating in the area.
"We can be certain that this is a sign of things to come," spokesman Ian Herbert said.
"Who knows what damage will be done to our local coral reefs and marine animals from the oil spill from the ship. We are outraged that no marine pilot is required on ships between Gladstone and Cairns. This will increase the likelihood of similar events."
The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has finally decided to look into regulating chemicals used in hormone replacement therapy and birth control pills. Unfortunately, 85% of the hormones in these medications are not used by the body they are prescribed for; but, instead are passed out the body via the urine. This chemical-laden toilet bowl water, of course, ends up in the waste water system.
Some scientists believe that these hormones can (and do) affect developing children even with very low counts of parts per trillion in the drinking water. Males have smaller penises, lower sperm count, defective sperm, bigger breasts, testicular cancer; and, a reduction in the number of males being born. Females suffer from obesity and early puberty.
As one scientist said on the program the Disappearing Male:
"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects."
A Canadian study, obviously done by someone who didn't care that they were poisoning an entire ecosystem, showed what happens when birth control pill hormones are dumped into a lake to the concentration of five parts per trillion. One of the results was that the entire population of Fathead Minnows that called that lake home crashed.
Fathead minnows are extremely hardy and survive where many other fish can't; but, they were no match for this unnatural attack on their systems.
Karen Kidd of the University of New Brunswick seeded the 34-hectare lake with 5 parts per trillion (ppt) 17∝-ethynylestradiol — the active ingredient in birth control pills - so she could study the results.
"Within weeks of the first doses, male minnows started making vitellogenin, an egg-yolk protein typically produced by female fish. Within 2 years, the protein concentration reached up to 10,000 times normal levels. The exposure delayed sexual development of both sexes and because minnows spawn for just one season during their 2-year life, this caused the population to plummet toward collapse in just 3 years. The minnow population took 2 years to recover after researchers stopped adding estrogen.".
The EPA is also looking at agricultural pesticides, microbes, commercial chemicals, and chemicals used in Scotchgard and Teflon. It comes as no surprise to bird owners that burning teflon pots and pans can (and has) killed our feathered friends.
It is quite the list, and includes many chemicals used in agriculture, industry and the military. This list includes perchlorate a key component in rocket fuel and critical to the space shuttle. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. If interested, you can see the whole list of chemicals here.
It is all part of a "Contaminant Candidate List"- a "multi-step CCL process". Nothing has been decided yet; they are just looking.
Once again, I have been to one of my favourite sites “Guardian.co.uk” (www.guardian.co.uk) and have decided to share three of the stories that are making headlines in Europe. Our world is indeed a global village and what happens in one corner of the planet will soon find its way to the other corners eventually. No one is safe from what their global neighbours are doing – good or bad. And that brings me to the first story.
Europe’s Pine May Be Wiped Out, say Experts.
Europe’s pine forests are at risk from the nematode bug. This bugs literally swarms through a pine tree’s pulpy interior interfering with and; eventually, cutting off the tree's sap supply. Two species of pine are known to be susceptible: the Maritime pine (which makes up almost a quarter of Portugal’s forests) and Scots pine (the most widespread pine species in Europe often used as Christmas trees). Frighteningly, here in North American, it has been reported on Austrian and White pines also.
Tens of thousands of trees have already died in Portugal and experts fear that this disease could spread further. “Pine Wilt Disease” has become out of control in the south-west portion of Europe. Pine Wilt was first detected in the Setúbal region, south of Lisbon, in 1999, when 340,000 trees died in two years. In the 1970’s, Japan’s enormous pine forests were totally destroyed by the pine nematode bug.
The symptoms of Pine Wilt are: trees wilt and die rapidly usually within a short period of time although trees may occasionally survive for more than a year; needles turn yellow/brown and remain attached to the tree; needles initially show a light grayish-green discolouration before turning yellow/brown; foliage decreases and resin production is reduced. The disease may or may not progress uniformly through a tree.
Pine Wilt disease has been described as “out of control” in Europe. Strict restrictions on the export of Portuguese pine have been laid down. Roddie Burgess, head of the Plant Health Service for the British government’s Forestry Commission says: “Given the scale of the problem…it’s going to be very difficult to get on top of this”.
A UN Report States That Millions World Wide Are Eating Food Grown With Contaminated Water.
A major study was done in 53 world cities looking into the quality of water used in the agricultural fields of the world. Urban farms in 80% of cities survey were found to be using untreated waste water. That’s at least 200 million people globally who daily risk their health by eating food grown using untreated waste water, some of which may be contaminated with heavy metals and raw sewage.
However the report goes on to state that by using waste water, farmers provided vital food for quickly-growing cities at a time of unprecedented water shortages and the worst food crisis in 30 years. The UN study which was backed by the IMWI (International Water Management Institute) said that surprisingly the use of waste water to grow foods was not confined to the poorest countries. It is prevalent in many mid-income countries as well.
A report launched at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden found the practice “widespread and practically inevitable”.
"As long as developing countries lack suitable transport to deliver large quantities of perishable produce to urban areas, urban agriculture will remain important. In the face of water scarcity generally and a lack of access to clean water, urban farmers will have no alternative except to use … polluted water", write the authors. Few third-world countries have official guidelines regarding agriculture and the use of waste water. For those that do have some guidelines, monitoring and enforcement may not be realistic and; therefore, very rarely enforced. Officials in these countries tend to turn a “blind eye” making it “unofficially tolerated.”
Earlier this year (2008) WHO (the World Health Organization) stated that both a global environmental and health crisis were waiting to happen with more than 200 million tonnes of human waste a year being dumped untreated into water systems. This will expose hundreds of millions of people to disease.
Nepalese Guides May Lose Jobs Due To Commercial Development I have always thought of Tibet and Nepal as two pristine cultures that would never change. How wrong I was!! It seems that the powerful sound of a dollar to be made can be heard even in the Himalayas.
There is very real risk that one of the world’s classic mountain-trekking routes is at risk of obliteration from plans to bring golf and skiing package tourism to the mountain range.
The Annapurna circuit, which was only opened to backpackers in 1977, will be competing with a new road running through the heart of the Himalayas. This road will allow free movement of buses, taxis, motorbikes and tractors into areas they were previously unable to reach.
This desecration of the landscape is to connect the mountain resort of Manang to Nepal’s national transport network. Manang is currently reachable by foot or air only. Wildlife and plants will be destroyed. The air will become more polluted as will the water and other natural resources. There will also be a human price to pay – many of the native guides and porters will lose their jobs and be unable to support their families.
However, tourism chiefs in Nepal are eager to replace their traditional “trekker with no money” with a new generation of tourist. They will be actively wooing the wealthier clientele seeking adventure holidays that include such things as heli-skiing and paragliding.
Aditya Baral, Nepal's senior foreign affairs adviser, has been quoted as saying: "After the construction of the road ... the number of trekkers will be reduced. We have a trade-off here between economic development and infrastructure and the effect on tourism and the environment. We need to create alternative attractions to just trekking."
Baral, who is also a former public relations director at the Nepal tourism board, went on to say "We are trying to create man-made tourism attractions, like theme parks, adrenaline sports like bungee jumping and rafting."
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project group has legitimate fears. They state that benefits from such activities as heli-skiing and golf "will mainly go to a few specialized tour operators and some more expensive hotels.” It further stated “Although there will be some trick-down (of profits), for the majority of the local people these activities will have little effect on alleviating poverty”.
I'm fortunate to have several passions in my life. I am absolutely an eco-nut. I am always trying to find new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. We, as a species, have done more harm to this planet in the short time we have been here, than any other catastrophe or happening ever has. It's up to us to fix it.
I care about the environment whether it is as small as a single cell or as large as the universe.
I adore creativity and think we can all do more with much less. This earth has enough resources for us all to live comfortably if we all learn to share. Wasn't that a lesson we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?
I also love the bizarre, unusual, the weird and the strange. Be prepared for the odd "different" blog.
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