[CPEO-MEF] Perchlorate and fish

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Macho Moms: Perchlorate pollutant masculinizes fish

Janet Raloff
Science News Online
Week of August 12, 2006

Known largely as a component of rocket fuel, perchlorate is a pollutant 
that often turns up in soil and water. In dozens of studies, it has 
perturbed thyroid-hormone concentrations, which can affect growth and 
neurological development. Data from fish now indicate that perchlorate 
can also disrupt sexual development.

Some of the changes were so dramatic that scientists initially mistook 
female fish for males. Several females displayed male-courtship behavior 
and produced sperm.

Richard R. Bernhardt of the University of Alaska in Anchorage and his 
colleagues focused on threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), 
a tiny marine species. For 3 weeks, the researchers incubated 
wild-captured adults in clean water or in water treated with 30, 60, or 
100 parts per million (ppm) perchlorate. The adults spawned during that 
period.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060812/fob2.asp

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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