Sludge Watch ==> Human hormones in sewage effluent - hurting the lobsters

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Sewage sludge and effluent impacts humans, too.
Our drinking water supplies are delivering a payload of hormones, 
prescription and non prescription drugs, and endocrine disruptors.

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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



PETER PEREIRA/The Standard TimesUMass Dartmouth professor Dr. Yuegang Zuo 
collected samples of water from New Bedford harbor showing high levels of 
hormonal pollutants.
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W hen 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