[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Study Confirms Estrogen in Water from the Pill Devastating to Fish Populations

[PFLI PharmAid Center]

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 25 Feb 2008 AD
*

*Study Confirms Estrogen in Water from the Pill Devastating to Fish 
Populations*

By Hilary White

ST. JOHN, New Brunswick, February 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study 
by Dr. Karen Kidd, of the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian 
Rivers Institute, found that estrogen from birth control pills flooding 
into the water system through sewage adversely affects fish populations.

The researchers added estrogen to an experimental lake at a level 
commonly found in the treated wastewater from cities with about 200,000 
people. The researchers discovered that one consequence is that exposed 
male fish become feminized, producing a protein normally found in 
females. Chronic exposure to estrogen led to the near extinction of the 
lake's fathead minnow population, as well as significant declines in 
larger fish, such as pearl dace and lake trout.

"We've known for some time that estrogen can adversely affect the 
reproductive health of fish, but ours was the first study to show the 
long-term impact on the sustainability of wild fish populations," 
explains Kidd.

"What we demonstrated is that estrogen can wipe out entire populations 
of small fish - a key food source for larger fish whose survival could 
in turn be threatened over the longer term."

Kidd also noted that once the estrogen levels in the water were lowered, 
fish populations rebounded after three years. "Once you take the 
stressor out the system, we now have ample evidence that suggests 
affected fish populations will recover," she said.

Kidd is preparing a report for the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science (AAAS) titled, "From Kitchen Sinks to Ocean 
Basins: Emerging Chemical Contaminants and Human Health".

In the 1980's and 90's, municipalities in Canada and elsewhere began 
stencilling pictures of fish next to storm drains to remind citizens 
that toxic chemicals - such as paint and motor oil - poured into the 
sewers would harm the environment and wildlife. In 1998, a trendy 
industrial designer in San Francisco won an award for creating storm 
drain grates shaped like fish.

Health authorities estimate that 100 million women worldwide take some 
form of hormonal contraceptives; but there is still little media 
attention given to the growing concerns of scientists about its 
environmental impact. However, studies are leaking out into the 
mainstream press more frequently as public interest in the environment 
grows.

The Pill, along with numerous other commonly used chemicals, end up in 
the water system as estrogen. At a conference on breast cancer in 
Toronto in 1998, author and cancer surgeon Dr. Susan Love said, 
"Pollutants are metabolized in our bodies as estrogen. And it is 
lifetime exposure to estrogen that has increased world cancer rates by 
26% since 1980....We live in a toxic soup of chemicals".

Studies are also showing significant evidence for a link between 
environmental estrogens and estrogen-like chemical pollutants and the 
earlier onset of puberty in girls.

The phenomenon of early-onset puberty in American girls is so pervasive, 
that the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society urged changing the 
definition of abnormal development. Ten years ago, breast development at 
age 8 was considered abnormally early, but a study in 1997 said that 
among 17,000 girls in North Carolina, almost half of blacks and 15 
percent of whites had begun breast development by age 8. Studies from 
the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand have shown similar results.

The new definition for abnormally early breast development ought to be, 
the society says, 7 for white girls and 6 for black girls. Marcia 
Herman-Giddens, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the 
University of North Carolina, said, "My fear is that medical groups 
could take the data and say 'This is normal. We don't have to worry 
about it.' My feeling is that it is not normal. It's a response to an 
abnormal environment."

Conclusive studies are difficult to conduct, however, because of the 
all-pervasive nature of the environmental contamination. With all the 
estrogen-like elements in the environment, Herman-Giddens said, "it's 
virtually impossible to study. There's no place to find an unexposed 
population."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Hormonal Contraceptives Pollute Drinking Water - Environmentalists Turn 
a Blind Eye
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07071105.html



------------------------------------------------------------------------

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