Sludge Watch ==> LA Times - Wastewater chemicals & drugs impacting fish and turtles

[Maureen Reilly]

Study finds human medicines altering marine biology

Southern California toxicology researchers find chemicals from wastewater 
are ending up in coastal oceans -- and affecting the hormone levels of fish.

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 17, 2008

BOSTON -- Sewage-treatment plants in Southern California are failing to 
remove hormones and hormone-altering chemicals from water that gets flushed 
into coastal ocean waters, according to the results of a study released 
Saturday.

The preliminary findings were part of the most ambitious study to date on 
the effect of emerging chemical contaminants in coastal oceans. It confirms 
the findings of smaller pilot studies from 2005 that discovered male fish in 
the ocean were developing female characteristics, and broadened the scope of 
the earlier studies by looking at an array of man-made contaminants in 
widespread tests of seawater, seafloor sediment and hundreds of fish caught 
off Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

The results, outlined by a Southern California toxicologist at a conference 
in Boston, reveal that a veritable drugstore of pharmaceuticals and beauty 
products, flame retardants and plastic additives are ending up in the ocean 
and appear to be working their way up the marine food chain.

Flame retardants used in upholstery and plastic additives are showing up in 
fish tissues at levels as high or higher than lingering residue of the 
banned pesticide DDT and another stubborn industrial pollutant, 
polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The study also showed that male flatfish contain unusually high levels of 
the female hormone estrogen, possibly in reaction to one or more of these 
hormone-altering chemicals.

As many as 90% of these male fish were found to have produced egg yolk 
proteins, and one had actually produced eggs, indicating that the feminizing 
of fish seen in freshwater streams and lakes can happen in the open ocean as 
well. This evidence, scientists said, suggests that diluting pollution with 
a vast amount of seawater may not be an effective way to dispose of these 
new and little-understood contaminants.

"Dilution is not the solution for some of these newer compounds," said 
Steven Bay, a toxicologist with the Southern California Coastal Water 
Research Project in Costa Mesa. He expects the study to raise policy debates 
over upgrading sewage-treatment plants.

Although some of these contaminants may be in urban runoff, the main source 
appears to be the 1 billion gallons of partially treated sewage that flows 
into the ocean every day from the region's four major sewage outfalls.

Women taking birth control pills excrete estrogen in their urine, which is 
flushed down the toilet and ends up in the ocean. The same is true of 
antidepressants, tranquilizers, anti-inflammatory medicine and other drugs, 
as well as musk fragrances, sunscreens, soaps and additives to plastics -- 
compounds known to mimic or disrupt hormones.

"Sewage-treatment plants only remove 50% to 70% of these chemicals," Bay 
said.

Bay sketched out the preliminary results in a special session at the annual 
meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science.

Much of Saturday's discussion focused on sex-changing chemicals in municipal 
wastewater. "It doesn't take much of the pill to stop fish from 
reproducing," said Karen Kidd, a biology professor at the University of New 
Brunswick in Canada.

Kidd said sewage plants could remove virtually all estrogen with more 
advanced forms of treatment.

Primary treatment, the type used in San Diego, doesn't take out as much 
estrogen as secondary treatment, used by Los Angeles' Hyperion plant in El 
Segundo. Those plants, if upgraded to tertiary treatment, could remove 
nearly all of the estrogen, Kidd said.

Another study looked at how compounds used as fabric stain repellents, 
nonstick pan coatings and coatings in microwave popcorn bags have 
accumulated in the blood and tissue of loggerhead sea turtles. They are 
suppressing the immune systems of these turtles, which are officially 
designated as threatened with extinction.

The sea turtles pick up these compounds through what they eat, said Jennifer 
M. Keller, a researcher with the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology. "They eat crabs and clams and other shellfish -- a diet they 
share with humans."

The study in Southern California waters looked at contaminants in 
wastewater, surrounding ocean waters, sediments and in the flesh of 600 
flatfish called hornyhead turbot.

These bottom-dwelling fish were selected because they reside near sewage 
outfalls.

The results showed that the chemicals and responses from the fish were 
widespread and not confined to areas near sewage outfalls, showing how 
easily the chemicals get dispersed.

Besides elevated estrogen levels in male fish, test results showed altered 
thyroid hormone levels in the turbot. They also had depressed cortisol 
levels, an indication that the fish were worn out and are vulnerable to 
disease.

So far, Bay said, no evidence has emerged that the chemicals are threatening 
their survival or ability to reproduce.

ken.weiss at latimes.com