Drinking out of the Toilet Can Make You a Girly Man
University of Colorado has conducted an experiment based on findings in 2004 where fish were changing their gender from male to female.
The 2004 study showed that certain chemicals from pharmaceuticals and personal-care products made it through the Boulder Wastewater Treatment Plant and into Boulder Creek. Ninety percent of the white suckers swimming downstream of the plant were female. Upstream, there was an even split
Scientists have replicated that finding and it should be a concern to all of us. This is supposedly treated water being returned to the creek.
The chemicals are believed to come from excreted birth-control hormones, natural female hormones and detergents flushed down toilets and drains. In the ecosystem, they are known as endocrine disrupters, settling into cell receptors intended for hormones and garbling the body’s chemical communications.
To bolster his evidence, in 2005 Norris and colleague Alan Vajda, a CU research associate, set up the Fish Exposure Mobile in a trailer borrowed from the Colorado Division of Wildlife
The Fish Exposure Mobile, parked next to the creek on sewage treatment plant property, pulls water directly from the plant’s outflow pipe and can dilute it using precise volumes of upstream Boulder Creek water.
Fathead minnows swim in two identical tanks inside, each 200 gallons. One fills with upstream creek water; the other with varying degrees of wastewater plant effluent. Such control lets researchers see how fish react to varying effluent concentrations.
They aimed to create a controlled experiment and confirm if estrogen and other compounds from the treatment plant were responsible for the fish sex change.
“The males were feminized in seven days,” Norris said. “You don’t need a Ph.D. to sex them.”
The males have bumps on the forehead and often attack each other. The fish exposed to the effluent water lost their bumps and acted like girls. It confirmed effluent to be the culprit.
Not normally an alarmist the impact on the environment could be great and one wonders the impact on other creatures that live in and around the creek. It sounds like it’s still early to see if changes will come to waste water discharge to further reduce the levels.
That could explain the behavior of the general American male population…
Comment by Sauceman — December 15, 2006 @ 12:48 pm
I have tried to avoid making that statement out of fear of treading on politically incorrect thin ice, but any intelligent person would have to ask. If the tiny parts-per-million is turning male fish to female in 7 days, what does years of ingestion doing to all of us?
Excuse me while I go adjust my bra strap.
Comment by Tom Remington — December 15, 2006 @ 5:26 pm