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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.
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!
"Estrogens ain't estrogens (Sol)"
http://www.arhp.org/publicatio...
@butchersong
And why is this not "the best source" - peer reviewed... did I miss some bad science?
I thought an experiment based on a false belief that estrogen from the Pill is the same estrogen that is found in waterways was bad science - like the flawed UK research it was "based on".
The researcher refers to "estrogen-like" in the science press, but the term "birth control pills" is quoted in the non-science press. Need for publicity, bad reporting, or both?
cough*Dairy farmers*cough(??)