Re: uk sewage effect querry

[Pete.Roche@uk.greenpeace.org (Pete Roche)]

     The UK Environment Agency released a report last week entitled "The 
     Identification and Assessment of Oestrogenic Substances in Sewage 
     Treatment Works Effluents".
     
     The story about hermaphrodite fish in UK rivers has been around for a 
     while. THis only occurred in one or two sites, but the oestrogenic 
     effects can be seen in male trout by putting them in the river in 
     cages and testing them for the egg protein vitellogenin. This method 
     helped identify which sewage works were a source of oestrogenic 
     chemicals. THis new report is the result of three years works and has 
     identified the agents responsible.
     
     THey are oestrone and 17-beta-oestradiol, both natural hormones 
     presumed to be excreted by women, and ethinyl oestradiol, a component 
     of the contraceptive pill. THe natural hormones are the main agents; 
     the ethinyl oestradiol was only detected at some of the sewage 
     treatment works and not on every occasion at those where it was 
     present.
     
     The situation was worst at a sewage treatment works where only primary 
     treatment was taking place.
     
     But the chemical industries have not been let off the hook. Alkyl 
     phenols have been causing problems in some rivers as have phthalates. 
     The Environment Agency conclude that "the results do not rule out 
     other weakly-oestrogenic compounds as contributing to the overall 
     effect ...the hormone component should be considered in toto"
     
     There is still a mystery surounding the fact that "these hormones were 
     present in a biologically-active Unbound (free) form, and not in the 
     inactive, bound form in which the hormones would have been excreted, 
     suggesting that they had been re-activated within the sewerage system 
     and/or the sewage treatment works"


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: uk sewage effect querry
Author:  ttweed@wildrockies.org at Internet
Date:    17/11/96 18:01


anyone have info on the follwing teaser:
     
  3   Financial Times  November  12, 1996 Gender-bending fish
prompt sewage probe  The water industry is to research oestrogenic 
substances in sewage effluent after a study by the Environment
Agency published yesterday showed they can make male fish generate [snipped 
due to copyright protections]