Health Risks
Health Risks
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Chemical Combo and Intersex Fish Found at Smallmouth Bass Nesting Sites
Chemical contaminants including herbicides, veterinary pharmaceuticals, and biogenic hormones have been detected at fish nesting sites in the Potomac River watershed where endocrine disruption in smallmouth bass ( Micropterus dolomieu ) was also observed. Although these contaminants are known to originate from a variety of human and animal-waste sources, results of a recent U.S. Geological Survey...
Complex Mixture of Contaminants Persists in Streams Miles from the Source
Natural processes in stream ecosystems such as dilution and microbial degradation are known to attenuate some contaminants to below levels that can cause harm to ecosystems. However, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists has shown that many chemicals discharged from municipal wastewater treatment facilities persist for miles downstream at levels known, or suspected, to cause adverse...
Hormones in Land-Applied Biosolids Could Affect Aquatic Organisms
Hormones from biosolids applied to fields may be present in rainfall runoff at concentrations that are high enough to impact the health of aquatic organisms if the runoff reaches streams, report scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado State University in Environmental Science and Technology . Artificial rainfall runoff from agricultural test plots where biosolids were...
Improvements in Wastewater Treatment Reduces Endocrine Disruption in Fish
A team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Colorado, and the City of Boulder, Colorado, demonstrated that improvements to the treatment process at a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) reduced the level of endocrine disruption in fish exposed to wastewater effluent discharged from the facility. It is difficult to anticipate the effects that upgrading WWTF...
USGS Publishes its First Environmental Health Science Strategy
The new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Environmental Health Science Strategy is one of seven recently released science strategies that span the portfolio of USGS science. Climate and Land Use Change Core Science Systems Ecosystems Energy and Mineral Resources Environmental Health Natural Hazards Water
Evidence of Endocrine Disruption Unexpectedly Found in Minnesota Lakes
Endocrine disrupting chemicals and indicators of endocrine disruption were found in several Minnesota lakes with surrounding urban, residential, agricultural, and forested land uses. The lakes do not directly receive discharges from industries or wastewater-treatment plants; however, they are used for recreation, and they receive water from widely scattered sources. The presence of both male and...
Mixtures of Pesticides Detected in Crab Embryos
Crab embryos from two Northern California salt marshes accumulate mixtures of currently used as well as discontinued pesticides, according to a study published by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and University of California scientists in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry .
Algal Blooms Consistently Produce Complex Mixtures of Cyanotoxins and Co-Occur with Taste-and-Odor Causing Compounds in 23 Midwestern Lakes
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists studying the effects of harmful algal blooms on lake water quality found that blooms of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) in Midwestern lakes produced mixtures of cyanotoxins and taste-and-odor causing compounds, which co-occurred in lake water samples. Cyanotoxins can cause allergic and/or respiratory issues, attack the liver and kidneys, or affect the...
Some Ecosystems will Respond to Reductions in Mercury Emissions
An international team of scientists investigating mercury cycling in an experimental watershed in Ontario, Canada, conclusively demonstrated at the ecosystem scale that changes in mercury loadings are expected to result in proportional or near proportional changes in mercury bioaccumulation in fish. Policies to reduce atmospheric emissions of mercury are intended to reduce mercury bioaccumulation...
Manufacturing Facilities Release Pharmaceuticals to the Environment
In a 2004-2009 study, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists found that pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities can be a significant source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Effluents from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that receive discharge from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (PMFs) had 10 to 1000 times higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals than effluents from 24...
Measuring Antidepressants, Fungicides, and Insecticides in the Environment
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are developing new laboratory analytical methods to measure contaminants in samples of environmental water, sediment, and soil. The work is part of a continuing effort to provide information on new and understudied contaminants to water-resource managers, environmental regulators, and the public. The new methods are used by USGS scientists and others to...
Emerging Contaminants Targeted in a Reconnaissance of Ground Water and Untreated Drinking-Water Sources
Two national-scale reconnaissance studies recently conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) were the first to collect baseline information on the environmental occurrence of pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, detergents, flame retardants, naturally occurring sterols, and other organic contaminants in ground water and untreated sources of drinking water in the United States. These...