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Birth Control Pills Threaten Fish Stocks
BarbaraHudson writes Experimental research has shown that small amounts of estrogen in waste water can lead to rapid large-scale changes in fish populations. From the article: "The lead researcher of a new study is calling for improvements to some of Canada's waste water treatment facilities after finding that introducing the birth control pill in waterways created a chain reaction in a lake ecosystem that nearly wiped out a freshwater fish. 'Right away, the male fish started to respond to the estrogen exposure by producing egg yolk proteins and shortly after that they started to develop eggs,' she said in an interview from Saint John, N.B. 'They were being feminized.' Kidd said shortly after introducing the estrogen, the number of fathead minnow crashed, reducing numbers to just one per cent of the population. 'It was really unexpected that they would react so quickly and so dramatically,' she said. 'The crash in the population was very evident and very dramatic and very rapid and related directly to the estrogen addition.'" Estrogen pollution in waterways has been an issue for over a decade now.
We know that a whole host of chemicals do this, estrogen from birth control pills being just one chemical out of literally hundreds.
Modern wastewater treatment is certainly one of western civilization's major achievements. It cuts down on communicable diseases, enhances human and animal lifetimes and makes the place smell better. However, the technology is perhaps 100 years old at it's core and was never imagined to get rid of the multitude of chemicals that we are currently dumping in the water.
As an AC in a post below this one states "We know that a whole host of chemicals do this, estrogen from birth control pills being just one chemical out of literally hundreds." Some are likely to have noticeable biological effects, others perhaps not. And we certainly have the technology to rid the water of these chemicals, but likely not the political and financial will.
The EPA is constantly changing their requirements for wastewater, typically tightening up on some chemical or another. They are usually hounded left and right when they do that for reasons of economics and politics. Hopefully they can continue doing so, but I'm doubtful of their ability to push for major changes in the current climate (pun intended).
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The primary point of the story was that tap water processing plants do absolutely nothing to filter it out. This is why I don't drink tap water.
Do you only drink well water? Cuz guess what: bottled water is tap water.
From TFA "It's a problem that we can certainly resolve with better waste water treatment,"
It is unwise to ascribe motive
Seems that the slow switch to low dose birth control pills will have a side effect of helping this sort of pollution as well. It won't prevent it of course, but there is a big different between 1970s pills and those prescribed today, now just to get those who have been on the pills for 20+ years to switch to something different. Has the side effect of lowering cancer rates as well.