Re: UK sewage effect querry

["Susan K. Snow" <sksnow@1stnet.com>]

Tony Tweedale wrote:
>
>anyone have info on the following 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]
===================================
Tony and other curious persons,
Check out: Introduction to Hormone Toxicity written by Dr. Michael A. 
Warhurst, formerly a professor of environmenal chemistry at the University of 
Edinburgh at:
 http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~mwarhurst/oestrogenic.html
also: Alkylphenolic compounds
  http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~mwarhurst/ape.html

Dr. Warhurst says:
**...Alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants (usually nonylphenol ethoxylate or
octylphenol ethoxylate were first introduced into the UK in 1944, for a wide
range of detergent and surfactant uses. In 1976 they were phased out of
domestic detergents in the UK, but they are still used by industry, and are
also used in other domestic products:

     Industrial detergents, such as those used for wool washing and metal
finishing;
     Domestic detergents such as clothes washing liquids (not in the UK and
most of Europe);
     Some shampoos, shaving foams and other cosmetics;
     Some detergent - containing petrols (and therefore in road run-off);
     The spermicidal lubricant nonoxynol-9;
     Various laboratory detergents, including Triton X-100;
     In pesticide [herbicide inerts] formulations;
     In the fuel Orimulsion.

Alkylphenols (usually nonylphenol or octylphenol)
[Also, see: http://www.endocrine.org/soto.html]
     As antioxidants in some clear plastics, to prevent yellowing, in the
form of tris-nonylphenol phosphite.**

**Alkylphenol ethoxylates generally end up at sewage treatment plants, where
unfortunately they are only partially degraded, mainly to other alkylphenolic
compounds, which then enter rivers and the sea in the treated sewage. A
recent modelling study concluded that 83 % of UK nonylphenol ethoxylate
production enters the environment, with 37 % entering the aquatic environment
(CES, 1993).**

**When alkylphenol ethoxylates break down in sewage treatment or a river they
produce three main groups of alkylphenolic compounds: alkylphenol ethoxylates
with fewer ethoxylate groups, alkylphenoxy carboxylic acids and
alkylphenols...Extensive research in Switzerland has shown that these
compounds persist in rivers and their sediments, and even in groundwater
(e.g. Ahel et al., 1994a, b, 1996). Any measurement of pollution in a river
must measure all these groups, otherwise only part of the pollution is being
measured. Unfortunately all measurement of levels in UK rivers has so far
ignored the alkylphenoxycarboxylic acids.**

**Alkylphenolic compounds are concentrated by organisms such as fish and 
birds, leading to contamination in their internal organs between ten and 
several thousand times greater than in the surrounding environment.**

Regarding where some Alkylphenols (usually nonylphenol or octylphenol) 
surfacants are used in pesticide formulations, check out: 
http://falk.ucdavis.edu/weeds/absorb2.htm
  and:     http://falk.ucdavis.edu/weeds/absorb.htm]
For example, Monsanto's Roundup --glyphosphate, is where Triton X-100 was 
added.

For a summary on alkyphenols, see 
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~mwarhurst/summary.html

Dr. Warhurst writes a Special Message for the USA and Other Countries Outside 
Europe http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~mwarhurst/usa.html

What does the British government have to say about these mysterious ostrogens
in sewage effluent...  http://www.ends.co.uk/261020.html

Thoroughly check out Dr. Warhurst's site and recommendations.  Also, check 
out the Web Surfer's Guide to Hormone Disruption which begins at 
http://www.wwfcanada.org/hormone-disruptors/
The known and suspected list of hormone disruptors is at:
http://www.wwfcanada.org/hormone-disruptors/list.htm
Recommended Policy and Action is located at:
http://www.wwfcanada.org/hormone-disruptors/recoms.htm
Individual actions we can all take is located at:
http://www.wwfcanada.org/hormone-disruptors/ind-act.htm
 
Susan Snow