Posted on 10/24/2005 8:56:50 AM PDT by GreenFreeper
It was a first for veteran anglers at one of the Allegheny River's hottest spots. They were being asked to donate their fish to science.
On a recent Saturday, a cadre of fishermen at the Highland Park Dam filled buckets with white bass and channel catfish so that Dan Volz, a public health expert, can tell them someday soon whether what they catch is loaded with heavy metals and estrogen-like compounds, or chemicals that mimic the effect of estrogen, a hormone produced by the body and needed for the development and growth of female sex organs.
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While there are consumption advisories relating to mercury, PCBs and chlordane on all Pennsylvania fisheries, fish may contain other heavy metals from the region's industrial past. They may also contain hundreds of chemicals from farmlands and new construction that few people are aware of...
Pitt researcher Dan Volz holds a white bass that will be used to explore river pollution.
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Volz has his suspicions. "One substance we'll be looking for is pthalates, which are found in soaps, paints and glues used in the construction industry," he said. "They're like estrogen in their effect on living systems. An excess amount is like taking birth control pills, and could potentially cause an increase in breast cancer. They are also indicated in neuro-developmental problems."
In rivers, they could be spawning a generation of "girlie fish," Volz said. "Studies on the Potomac show a lot of fish are developing female characteristics, like undeveloped eggs in the testes."
Other chemicals with estrogen-like activity include PCBs, a carcinogen once used in electrical systems, pesticides such as DDT and anti-microbial agents, many containing arsenic, used on farms to control bacteria.
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(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
FReepmail me to be added or removed to the ECO-PING list!
I still fish in the Mississippi here in St. Paul, but I don't eat any fish out of the river. If I want eating fish, I head for a local lake, some distance from industrial areas.
I caught a 20 lb. channel catfish right in downtown St. Paul the other day. Nice fish. It's back swimming in the river. Maybe I'll catch it again later, once it gets big. [grin]
No, from what I can see, Volz has his instructions, and a grant that he probably justified in advance.
"One substance we'll be looking for is pthalates, which are found in soaps, paints and glues used in the construction industry," he said.
One substance, otherwise known as the principal plasticizer in PVC, a substance the left has been trying to ban since the days of DOP, despite the fact that it is safe enough to be qualified for use in surgical tubing.
"They're like estrogen in their effect on living systems. An excess amount is like taking birth control pills, and could potentially cause an increase in breast cancer.
Better update that pitch! As if the environmentalist left ever cared about fertility, while breast cancer has been virtually cured. Further, all the pthalate he'll ever find has already been released and has virtually nothing to do with current manufacturing technologies. Thus, essentially NOTHING can be done about it unless somebody breeds some bacterium that only eats phthalate (so why bother unless he's looking to pump up bogus lawsuits against chemical companies that will (if they pull that strategy) go bankrupt and dump the liability onto the taxpayer).
Look, I've got my environmental complaints about the use of vinyl (particularly disposal, whether combustion or landfilling), but feeding lawyers and propping up the use of newly patented elastomeric polyalkanes this way isn't going to cut it.
That would be excellent. I don't think the channel cats this far North get that big, though. I'll settle for beating the state record of 38 lb. A nice even 40 lb. would be just fine, I think.
But that's a heckuva beautiful fish!
--the "estrogen in the drinking water" B.S. was the hot rumour in Leadville, Colorado thirty-some years ago---
Well its the estrogen mimics that are worrisome- especially considering the feminization of America in the last few decades.
I agree but I still think its important to know what other harmful compounds those fish are storing (besides the PCBs and mercury). Most FCAs ignore the heavy metals and hormone mimics. While the lawyer feeding freenzy is certainly a risk, i still think its important that the public is aware of the comtamination.
So do I, but not at the expense of an agenda-driven study.
Most FCAs ignore the heavy metals and hormone mimics.
Levels are low enough now that they are too easily confounded with other environmental factors to be really that useful.
While the lawyer feeding freenzy is certainly a risk, i still think its important that the public is aware of the comtamination.
Compared to what? Given that they eat 5,000 to 10,000 times more naturally occurring carcinogens than they do industrial products, why aren't we telling them about that?
Of course this guy will find all kinds of harmful stuff. That's how he makes a living.
What would be an example of a non-agenda driven study? What makes you so sure this is an agenda driven study? I'm all for unbiased research and all but any study that reveals pertinent information is bound to have winners and losers (and thus will be supporting someones agenda). Better not do research on Bananas becuase that may hurt or help the banana growers. Compared to what? Given that they eat 5,000 to 10,000 times more naturally occurring carcinogens than they do industrial products, why aren't we telling them about that?
Well to some degree those natural occuring are unavoidable. Heck, everything these days is considered a carcinogen? That big firery mass in the sky is a carcinogen.
I wonder if he'll find the residuals of the ketchup making process since Heinz Endowments is contributing.
Hey Cosmo Kramer! There's hope for your invention - the Bro - yet!
The quip about pthalates from the "scientist" with all the necessary PC hot buttons.
Then there's AGreatPer's post above:
"Dan Volz, a Pitt Graduate School of Public Health professor and lead investigator of the project, which will be paid for by DSF Charitable Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Highmark Foundation."
That's a red flag. You can read a list of Heinz grantees, here.
Well to some degree those natural occuring are unavoidable.
Not true at all. They are manufactured in food while in transit and as a result of handling. Awareness of those facts would place a premium on freshness and local production. Of course, that flies in the face of the globalist ag agenda.
We will cook and can them this week...
This is the price of living in cities. We could do far better if we were spread out on the land, and there many pre-filtration systems that can be applied to septic systems to assure that the cleaning products, and industrial chemicals do no harm to the bacteria in the tank.
I was at a Chinese seafood restaurant in Minneapolis the other day, and when the gentlemen at the table asked the waiter where they got the walleye they had just had from, he replied "Lake Minnetonka" and then quickly said "Just kidding. It's imported from Canada".
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