The Impact of Endocrine Disrution: A Consensus Statement on the State of the Science
Environmental Health Perspectives, 2013
Development of Diagnostic Tools for Trace Organic Compounds and Multiple Stressors
This WERF sponsored research presents a preliminary screening process and ecological diagnostic a... more This WERF sponsored research presents a preliminary screening process and ecological diagnostic approaches that could be used to help prioritize and evaluate treated wastewater-influenced sites that may be most at risk from trace organic chemical (TOrC) exposure. This work builds on the TOrC prioritization research completed earlier in this research and demonstrates how current diagnostic approaches used in the U.S. (CADDIS) and Canada (Environmental Effects Monitoring) could be extended to evaluate potential risks due to TOrCs. The screening process uses indicators in four categories: (1) wastewater influent and population served, (2) wastewater treatment characteristics, (3) ecological characteristics of the site, and (4) exposure or effects information from the site if available. The indicators included in the screening process are hypotheses, to be tested further using case studies in this research, and should not be taken as validated measures to be used to infer TOrC issues at a site. The diagnostic approach described in this research could be applied prospectively (could ecological effects due to TOrCs occur at my site?) and retrospectively (I have observed ecological effects at my site; are TOrCs a contributing cause?). However, given our current lack of knowledge concerning modes of action for many TOrCs, as well as the factors that determine whether TOrC effects on individuals are translated to community-level ecological effects, the diagnostic approach in this research focuses on retrospective applications at this time. The screening process has been used with some modification for sites in the Ohio Erie Drift Plain ecoregion and some of these, as well as other sites, will be evaluated using diagnostic approaches in Task 3 (case studies) of this research. A web-based database application ( ) has been developed for this project to help end users eventually search and evaluate TOrC data collected by many organizations in the U.S. and to assist in screening and diagnosing risks due to TOrCs. Comments are welcome on the various search features and metadata available for TOrCs within the current database. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series . ISBN: 9781843395348 (eBook)
State of the science of endocrine disrupting chemicals 2012 : summary for decision-makers
A sediment bioassay to assess the effects of aquaculture waste on growth, reproduction, and survival of Sphaerium simile (Say) (Bivalvia: Sphaeriidae)
Aquaculture, Jun 1, 2007
Increasing concerns regarding the environmental sustainability of freshwater cage aquaculture hav... more Increasing concerns regarding the environmental sustainability of freshwater cage aquaculture have encouraged new research on the potential impacts of this industry. A trout aquaculture facility was operated in Lake 375 at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwestern Ontario, Canada, in 2003 and 2004. As part of this experiment, the spatial extent and magnitude of the potential impacts of aquaculture
Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Apr 10, 2000
Kudzu, Pueraria montana (Lour.) Merr. variety lobata (Willd.) Maesen & Almeida, a close relative ... more Kudzu, Pueraria montana (Lour.) Merr. variety lobata (Willd.) Maesen & Almeida, a close relative of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., is an adventive and widely distributed weed in the southeastern United States. Conventional wisdom says that native arthropods do not feed heavily on kudzu, but recent evidence has indicated this is not the case. To better understand the interaction of kudzu and native insects, the biology of the soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens (Walker), was compared on kudzu and soybean. Insects fed on kudzu had higher mortality, longer development times with supernumerary molts, and lower pupal weights than those fed on soybean. Rearing for up to three generations on either plant host had an effect on length of development time but did not affect other measured parameters. Foliage consumption did not differ between treatments, and nutritional quality of soybean and kudzu did not differ. The instar at which insects were transferred from artiÞcial diet to either kudzu or soybean signiÞcantly inßuenced development time, number of instars, foliage consumption, and pupal weights, with instar 4 being the optimum stage for transfer. In an oviposition test, females readily oviposited on kudzu in a no choice test, but when both kudzu and soybean were provided, more eggs were deposited on soybean than on kudzu. Our studies show that although kudzu is an acceptable host, soybean is a preferred and better quality host.
Resilience of wetland food webs to the effects of agricultural contaminants
ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Amphibian populations are in decline worldwide in wetlands a... more ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Amphibian populations are in decline worldwide in wetlands and agricultural contaminants may be part of the cause. Based on their widespread use, glyphosate-based herbicides and fertilizers are logical contaminants of interest. However, these are not known to be directly toxic to larval amphibians at environmentally relevant concentrations. Amphibians exist in a complex ecosystem, where changes in the abundance of other organisms in the food web can cause indirect effects that reverberate throughout the entire food web. Herbicides and nutrients may have such indirect effects on the wetland ecosystem by affecting emergent plants and aquatic algae. We can investigate indirect food web effects by examining stable isotope ratios; contaminants can indirectly affect the stable isotope signatures of an organism through effects on their food source. In 2009 at the Long-term Experimental Wetlands Area, New Brunswick, Canada, we determined if mixtures of glyphosate-based herbicides (2 treatments, low-0.21mg/L a.e. and high-2.89mg/L a.e.) with inorganic nutrients at environmentally relevant concentrations would affect the food web in natural wetland ecosystems. Six wetlands were split with impermeable plastic barriers to allow for direct comparison between treated and untreated halves. Amphibians, aquatic invertebrates, and basal food sources were collected from treated and control sides of each wetland. Results/Conclusions Phytoplankton communities of the high-glyphosate/nutrient treatment recovered from an initial depletion in δ13C (-1.8‰±1.1) possibly due to a shift in the community composition from the effects of the glyphosate, compared to their control counterparts. Phytoplankton and benthic periphyton of the low-glyphosate/nutrients treatments demonstrated immediate differences in δ15N (0.5‰±0.4 and -0.5‰±0.3, respectively) and a later enrichment in δ13C (2.9‰±1.1 and 1.6‰±1.4), possibly due to the change in nutrient source, and an eventual response of the algal community. Zooplankton stable isotope ratios in both treatments closely mimicked trends in the phytoplankton signatures; green frog tadpoles closely mimicked changes in benthic periphyton signatures. Specialized secondary consumers, such as damselfly larvae reflected the changes in zooplankton stable isotopes ratios, whereas generalized predators only showed increased variability in their stable isotope ratios. These findings will be correlated with data collected on the gut contents, development and abundance of these wetland organisms to identify possible links between the changes in stable isotope ratios and the effects of glyphosate-herbicides and nutrients on the food web.
EFFECTS OF 17a-ETHYNYLESTRADIOL ON ENDOCRINE STATUS, REPRODUCTION, EARLY-LIFE DEVELOPMENT AND SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION IN MUMMICHOG (FUNDULUS HETEROCLITUS)
Diagnostic Tools to Evaluate Impacts of Trace Organic Compounds Final Report
Water Intelligence Online, 2011
... COMPOUNDS PRIORITIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR TRACE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS by: Jerry Diamond, Ph.D. Henry... more ... COMPOUNDS PRIORITIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR TRACE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS by: Jerry Diamond, Ph.D. Henry Latimer, M.Sc. Tetra Tech, Inc. Kelly Munkittrick, Ph.D. Karen Kidd, Ph.D. University of New Brunswick Kent Thornton, Ph.D. FTN Associates, Inc. ...
Testing Diagnostic Tools for Trace Organic Compounds and Multiple Stressors Case Studies
Water Intelligence Online, 2010
The screening Trace Organic Chemical (TOrC) ecological risk approach, developed previously, was e... more The screening Trace Organic Chemical (TOrC) ecological risk approach, developed previously, was evaluated using seven case studies, located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, California, and Ontario, Canada. Sites represented a range of complexity, types of biological impacts, and wastewater effluent dilution at low flow. Several different techniques for diagnosing potential effects of TOrCs were incorporated in these case studies including U.S. EPA's causal analysis framework, CADDIS; Canada's Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) approach; the consumer products ROUT model and the pharmaceutical model PhATE to predict concentrations of certain TOrCs at a wastewater-influenced site; and ecological modeling (Comprehensive Aquatic Systems Model, CASM). Both prospective and retrospective assessments are represented in these case studies illustrating how various tools can be used to determine whether TOrCs are or could be a cause of biological impairment. At most sites, high priority TOrC data (using any of the TOrC prioritization approaches previously developed in this project) were unavailable. At five of the seven sites, the screening approach indicated a potential for risk due to TOrCs based on the type of wastewater treatment available (secondary treatment with little or no nutrient removal, potential input sources of TOrCs present in addition to domestic sources) and the relatively high effluent concentration under low flow conditions. Except for two sites, data were unavailable for at least one level of biological organization making it difficult to evaluate TOrCs as a cause of impairment. The lack of diagnostic TOrC exposure data (i.e., suborganismal or organismal measures indicative of exposure to a certain class of TOrCs), or organism effects data (e.g., intersex, lesions) at most sites restricted the researchers' ability to diagnose whether certain TOrCs could have contributed to observed biological impairment at these sites. Their analyses confirm that the comprehensiveness and sensitivity of the population/community assessment is a critical factor affecting the success of diagnostic analyses. Indices of biological integrity (IBI) and most metrics that constitute such indices, offered little definitive diagnostic information regarding risks due to TOrCs, but were useful in supporting or eliminating other types of stressors such as excess nutrients and habitat quality. None of the case studies examined had sufficient TOrC data with which to demonstrate linkages between concentrations of specific TOrCs or groups of TOrCs and organism effects. However, results from two sites suggested that TOrC concentrations exceeding conservative screening threshold values may not result in observed effects at either the organism or population level based on the endpoints measured. While some of the case studies demonstrated apparent linkages between exposure to estrogenic chemicals and organism effects, none had sufficient information to definitively link organism and population/community level effects. Defining the conditions under which organism TOrC effects are likely to manifest as a population-level effect at a site should be a critical component of Phase 2. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series . ISBN: 9781843395393 (eBook)
We present a detailed response to the critique of "State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting C... more We present a detailed response to the critique of "State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals 2012" (UNEP/WHO, 2013) by financial stakeholders, authored by . Lamb et al.'s claim that UNEP/WHO (2013) does not provide a balanced perspective on endocrine disruption is based on incomplete and misleading quoting of the report through omission of qualifying statements and inaccurate description of study objectives, results and conclusions. Lamb et al. define extremely narrow standards for synthesizing evidence which are then used to dismiss the UNEP/WHO 2013 report as flawed. We show that Lamb et al. misuse conceptual frameworks for assessing causality, especially the BradfordeHill criteria, by ignoring the fundamental problems that exist with inferring causality from empirical observations. We conclude that Lamb et al.'s attempt of deconstructing the UNEP/WHO (2013) report is not particularly erudite and that their critique is not intended to be convincing to the scientific community, but to confuse the scientific data. Consequently, it promotes misinterpretation of the UNEP/ WHO (2013) report by non-specialists, bureaucrats, politicians and other decision makers not intimately familiar with the topic of endocrine disruption and therefore susceptible to false generalizations of bias and subjectivity.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2015
Mercury (Hg) contamination is a global issue due to its anthropogenic release, long-range transpo... more Mercury (Hg) contamination is a global issue due to its anthropogenic release, long-range transport, and deposition in remote areas. In Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, Canada, high concentrations of total mercury (THg) were found in tissues of yellow perch (Perca flavescens). The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible relationship between THg concentrations and the morphology of perch liver as a main site of metal storage and toxicity. Yellow perch were sampled from five lakes known to contain fish representing a wide range in Hg concentrations in fall 2013. The ultrastructure of hepatocytes and the distribution of Hg within the liver parenchyma were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS). The relative area of macrophage aggregates (MAs) in the liver was determined using image analysis software and fluorescence microscopy. No relation between general health indicators (Fulton's condition index) and THg was observed. In line with this, TEM examination of the liver ultrastructure revealed no prominent pathologies related to THg accumulation. However, a morphological parameter that appeared to increase with muscle THg was the relative area of MAs in the liver. The hepatic lysosomes appeared to be enlarged in samples with the highest THg concentrations. Interestingly, EELS analysis revealed that the MAs and hepatic lysosomes contained Hg.
Laboratory and mesocosm experiments have demonstrated that some glyphosate-based herbicides can h... more Laboratory and mesocosm experiments have demonstrated that some glyphosate-based herbicides can have negative effects on benthic invertebrate species. Although these herbicides are among the most widely used in agriculture, there have been few multiplestressor, natural system-based investigations of the impacts of glyphosate-based herbicides in combination with fertilizers on the emergence patterns of chironomids from wetlands. Using a replicated, split-wetland experiment, the authors examined the effects of 2 nominal concentrations (2.88 mg acid equivalents/L and 0.21 mg acid equivalents/L) of the glyphosate herbicide Roundup WeatherMax, alone or in combination with nutrient additions, on the emergence of Chironomidae (Diptera) before and after herbicide-induced damage to macrophytes. There were no direct effects of treatment on the structure of the Chironomidae community or on the overall emergence rates. However, after macrophyte cover declined as a result of herbicide application, there were statistically significant increases in emergence in all but the highest herbicide treatment, which had also received no nutrients. There was a negative relationship between chironomid abundance and macrophyte cover on the treated sides of wetlands. Fertilizer application did not appear to compound the effects of the herbicide treatments. Although direct toxicity of Roundup WeatherMax was not apparent, the authors observed longer-term impacts, suggesting that the indirect effects of this herbicide deserve more consideration when assessing the ecological risk of using herbicides in proximity to wetlands.
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 22, 2015
Several recent publications reflect debate on the issue of "endocrine disrupting chemicals&q... more Several recent publications reflect debate on the issue of "endocrine disrupting chemicals" (EDCs), indicating that two seemingly mutually exclusive perspectives are being articulated separately and independently. Considering this, a group of scientists with expertise in basic science, medicine and risk assessment reviewed the various aspects of the debate to identify the most significant areas of dispute and to propose a path forward. We identified four areas of debate. The first is about the definitions for terms such as "endocrine disrupting chemical", "adverse effects", and "endocrine system". The second is focused on elements of hormone action including "potency", "endpoints",…
Potential effects of exposure to contaminants with estrogenic activity are cur- rently being exam... more Potential effects of exposure to contaminants with estrogenic activity are cur- rently being examined in fish from a lake experimentally treated with the syn- thetic estrogen, ethynylestradiol (EE2). EE2 was added to Lake 260, a small Precambrian shield lake in the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) of northwestern Ontario, from late May to October 2001. Concentrations of EE2 in epilimnetic waters
Adenosine deaminase binding protein (AdAbp), a glycoprotein found in the epithelial cells of the ... more Adenosine deaminase binding protein (AdAbp), a glycoprotein found in the epithelial cells of the brush border of the proximal tubule, is shed into urine following kidney damage. A sandwich enzyme immunoassay is described that uses two monoclonal antibodies, URO-4 (S27) and URO-4a (S23), which react with different epitopes on AdAbp (2, 24). Release of AdAbp into the urine appears to reflect the severity of the insult to the nephron and its measurement may assist in distinguishing between tubular disease and glomerular disease and may be useful in indicating renal toxicity.
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