Fishy Business Something’s Spawning Gender-Bent Fish
A French study examining wild gudgeon fish that live di- rectly downstream from a pharmaceutical drug manufactur- ing plant found that up to 80 percent of them exhibited both male and female traits in their sex organs. Such sex abnor- malities indicate endocrine disruption that can foreshadow larger effects on fish populations because of reductions in breeding abilities. Upstream of the plant, only 5 percent of such intersex fish were detected.
Going Out Green New Mortuary Practices Reduce Mercury
Pollution
Resomation, Ltd., in Glasgow, Scotland, has invented a new alkaline hydrolysis unit as a green alternative to cremation. Founder Sandy Sullivan plans to install the first one in America at the Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mercury from dental fillings vaporized in crema- toria has been blamed for up to 16 percent of British airborne mercury emissions, and many facilities there are fitting costly mercury filtration systems to meet reduced emission targets.
The device dissolves the body in heated, pressur- ized, alkaline water. Makers claim the process pro- duces one-third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses one-seventh of the energy and allows for com- plete separation of mercury-laden dental amalgam for safe disposal.
Sullivan, a biochemist, says tests have proven the effluent is sterile, contains no DNA and poses no environmental risk. He believes it can rival cremation for cost. The technology has been legalized in seven states to date.
Another green alternative, Promession, is under development by Swedish Biologist Susanne Wiigh- Masak. It involves a fully automated machine that removes the body from the coffin and freezes it with liquid nitrogen. Vibrating breaks the corpse into frag- ments, which are then dried, refined and filtered to re- move dental amalgam and other metals. The remains are then automatically poured into a biodegradable container for shallow burial.
Wiigh-Masak likens the process to compost- ing, in which organic materials convert to soil within weeks. She says that 60 countries around the world have expressed interest in the technology.
Source: BBC News natural awakenings January 2012 27
Excreted pharmaceuticals can enter the environment from sewage treatment plants or the flushing of unwanted or old drugs down the toilet. They also can directly enter wa- terways via discharge into rivers and streams by drug manu- facturing plants. The study is the first to link discharge from a drug plant, rather than a sewage plant, with physical and chemical changes in fish.
The inquiry was initiated after fishermen along the Dore River, in France, noticed swollen bellies and abnor- mal innards in the wild gudgeon fish. Study results were published in the journal Environmental International. More research is needed to identify the types and levels of specific drugs in the water at each site.
Source: Environmental
HealthNews.com
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