One side of my brain is reading through the application for new nuclear reactors by FPL to the State of Florida. The other side of my brain is reading Nicolas Kristof in the NY Times, "Some of the first eerie signs of a potential health catastrophe came as
bizarre deformities in water animals, often in their sexual organs." One side of my brain is reading, "Reclaimed water from the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (MDWASD) will be the primary supply of makeup water for the circulating water cooling system for Turkey Point Units 6 & 7." The other side of my brain: "... scientists are connecting the dots... large increases in numbers of genital deformities among newborn boys. ... Apprehension is growing ... that the cause of all this may be a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. They are very widely used in agriculture, industry and consumer products.
Some also enter the water supply when estrogens in human urine -- compounded when a woman is on the pill -- pass through sewage systems and then through water treatment plants."
Both sides of my brain know that there are no standards for endocrine disrupters in the wastewater stream and that technical criteria and environmental criteria for FPL's cooling water fail to mention water quality and, specifically, what chemicals could survive the treatment processes and be evaporated straight over-head in staggering quantities of evaporated water. That is because your government does not require standards. Why should it? They are already, in the immortal words of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, "girly men".
Leave it to the editorial writers and not agency staff or elected officials to ask about pharmaceutical waste and endocrine disrupters when more than 55 million gallons per day of municipal wastewater are evaporated into the air above Miami-Dade County and Biscayne National Park (interestingly, there is NO mention whatsoever of the waters of the national park in the FPL application. Pathetic.)
Shouldn't your government be in favor of testing and protecting the public to be certain what rains down on us, on food crops, and wilderness including national parks to make sure that we all don't become girly men?
July 01, 2009
More than deformed gators lurking in Lake Apopka?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times columnist
Some of the first eerie signs of a potential health catastrophe came as
bizarre deformities in water animals, often in their sexual organs.
Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians began to sprout extra legs. In
heavily polluted Lake Apopka, one of the largest lakes in Florida, male
alligators developed stunted genitals.
In the Potomac watershed near Washington, male smallmouth bass have rapidly
transformed into "intersex fish" that display female characteristics. This
was discovered only in 2003, but the latest survey found that more than 80
percent of the male smallmouth bass in the Potomac are producing eggs.
Now scientists are connecting the dots with evidence of increasing
abnormalities among humans, particularly large increases in numbers of
genital deformities among newborn boys. For example, up to 7 percent of boys
are now born with undescended testicles, although this often self-corrects
over time. And up to 1 percent of boys in the United States are now born
with hypospadias, in which the urethra exits the penis improperly, such as
at the base rather than the tip.
Apprehension is growing among many scientists that the cause of all this may
be a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. They are very widely
used in agriculture, industry and consumer products. Some also enter the
water supply when estrogens in human urine -- compounded when a woman is on
the pill -- pass through sewage systems and then through water treatment
plants.
These endocrine disruptors have complex effects on the human body,
particularly during fetal development of males.
"A lot of these compounds act as weak estrogen, so that's why developing
males -- whether smallmouth bass or humans -- tend to be more sensitive,"
said Robert Lawrence, a professor of environmental health sciences at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "It's scary, very scary."
The scientific case is still far from proven, as chemical companies
emphasize, and the uncertainties for humans are vast. But there is
accumulating evidence that male sperm count is dropping and that genital
abnormalities in newborn boys are increasing. Some studies show correlations
between these abnormalities and mothers who have greater exposure to these
chemicals during pregnancy, through everything from hair spray to the water
they drink.
Endocrine disruptors also affect females. It is now well established that
DES, a synthetic estrogen given to many pregnant women from the 1930s to the
1970s to prevent miscarriages, caused abnormalities in the children. They
seemed fine at birth, but girls born to those women have been more likely to
develop misshaped sexual organs and cancer.
There is also some evidence from both humans and monkeys that endometriosis,
a gynecological disorder, is linked to exposure to endocrine disruptors.
Researchers also suspect that the disruptors can cause early puberty in
girls.
A rush of new research has also tied endocrine disruptors to obesity,
insulin resistance and diabetes, in both animals and humans. For example,
mice exposed in utero even to low doses of endocrine disruptors appear
normal at first but develop excess abdominal body fat as adults.
Among some scientists, there is real apprehension at the new findings --
nothing is more terrifying than reading The Journal of Pediatric Urology --
but there hasn't been much public notice or government action.
This month, the Endocrine Society, an organization of scientists
specializing in this field, issued a landmark 50-page statement. It should
be a wake-up call.
"We present the evidence that endocrine disruptors have effects on male and
female reproduction, breast development and cancer, prostate cancer,
neuroendocrinology, thyroid, metabolism and obesity, and cardiovascular
endocrinology," the society declared.
"The rise in the incidence in obesity," it added, "matches the rise in the
use and distribution of industrial chemicals that may be playing a role in
generation of obesity."
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving toward screening endocrine
disrupting chemicals, but at a glacial pace. For now, these chemicals
continue to be widely used in agricultural pesticides and industrial
compounds. Everybody is exposed.
"We should be concerned," said Dr. Ted Schettler of the Science and
Environmental Health Network. "This can influence brain development, sperm
counts or susceptibility to cancer, even where the animal at birth seems
perfectly normal."
The most notorious example of water pollution occurred in 1969, when the
Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire and helped shock America into adopting
the Clean Water Act. Since then, complacency has taken hold.
Those deformed frogs and intersex fish -- not to mention the growing number
of deformities in newborn boys -- should jolt us once again.
