When you're sick, you might take medications to help you fight off infection, lower a fever or clear a stuffy nose. But once those drugs leave your body, chances are they will find their way into nearby lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Drugs end up in a body of water because you excrete them in urine. When you flush a toilet, the wastewater travels to a treatment plant. There, bacteria and other material are filtered out and the cleaned water is returned to natural bodies of water. The trouble is, wastewater treatment plants don't filter out drugs. Some people even flush unused drugs down the toilet, only adding to the problem. http://ljsheehan.livejournal.com
While medications are meant to help a person feel better, they're not good for wildlife. Over the past several years, scientists have begun to test how common drugs are in freshwater ecosystems. Researchers also are starting to learn more about how medications meant for humans affect the animals that accidentally ingest the drugs. http://ljsheehan.livejournal.com
Recently, several scientists tested how a group of drugs called antidepressants affects freshwater fish. For many people with an illness called depression, antidepressants can be lifesavers. People with depression may feel sad or anxious for extremely long periods of time, lose interest in activities they once enjoyed and have difficulty sleeping or concentrating. Antidepressants help improve these symptoms for some people.
Several years ago, researchers discovered that some species of fish living near wastewater treatment plants had antidepressants in their brains. "Pretty much any water sample in the vicinity of a wastewater treatment plant will test positive for some group of antidepressants," says chemist Melissa Schultz, of the College of Wooster in Ohio. This finding inspired a number of scientists to learn how these drugs affect fish and other wildlife.
access
Enlargemagnify
GOING VERTICALSome hybrid striped bass exposed to the antidepressant Prozac eventually began hanging vertically in the water — a highly unlikely pose — and stopped eating.Clemson University’s Institute of Environmental Toxicology
In their experiments, researchers exposed species of fish in a laboratory to different brands of antidepressants. Then, the scientists tested the fishes’ responses to a number of things, such as the cues predators make or the appearance of prey animals.
The researchers found that antidepressants affect fish species in numerous ways, from diminishing their response to predators to slowing down their prey-hunting techniques. One unexpected result even showed that a type of antidepressant called fluoxetine acts like estrogen, a primarily female hormone, when in the bodies of adult male fathead minnows.
Fluoxetine, sold under the brand name Prozac, caused these male minnows to produce an egg protein normally made only by females. In addition, males exposed to fluoxetine did not make the bright colors and facial bumps usually used to attract mates. More testing needs to be done to determine whether these changes affect minnows' ability to mate.
It's important to keep in mind that in any lake or stream, fish and other organisms aren't just exposed to antidepressants, Schultz says. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and even caffeine all make their way through water treatment plants and back into the environment. What happens to fish and other animals when they're exposed to all of these drugs in combination? For now, nobody knows, Schultz says – leaving the door open to many future research questions.
Power words:
Antibiotic: a type of drug that kills off bacteria or other microorganisms.
Antidepressants: a group of drugs that help improve the symptoms of an illness called depression.
Anti-inflammatory: a type of drug that lowers fevers and inflammation, or swelling.
Depression: an illness characterized by long-term feelings of sadness and anxiety, lack of interest in activities, and difficulty sleeping and concentrating.
This still video shows a hybrid striped bass quickly gobbling up four minnows. Fed only once every three days, the bass tended to become very aggressive about downing their prey. But after being exposed to high levels of the antidepressant Prozac, some bass took as long as two minutes to capture their first minnow. Some of the bass didn't finish all four minnows they were given within 25 minutes. Over the nearly month-long experiment, scientists report that a few bass lost their appetites altogether. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
invest 4.inv.0001002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com What the authorities say happened to members of El Camino Church, a gray brick building wedged into a corner of Washington Heights, will not make financial history. No charities will have to close, no endowments will be eviscerated. Millions were not lost, let alone billions.
But when the cost is totaled, court papers and interviews suggest, many of the worshipers at the tiny Christian Evangelical church will have lost all or part of their savings in a Ponzi scheme that operated far beneath the orbit of the wealthy or well-connected.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged that Bryant Rodriguez, 44, insinuated himself into the congregation last year — he showed up first for baptism classes — and enticed fellow churchgoers to trust their money with him. Now, about $600,000 is gone in a scheme prosecutors call a classic mold of financial grifting — neither sophisticated nor, in hindsight, difficult to see through.
“Obviously these weren’t billionaires,” Allan Weissmann, a postal inspector and spokesman for the United States Postal Inspection Service, said of the parishioners. But he added: “It’s all relative. It means a lot to them. It’s their life savings in many cases, and they, too, are devastated.”
The authorities said that Mr. Rodriguez asked parishioners to invest in an electronics firm he represented, which he said wanted “a blessing for a blessing” by providing Jews and Christians with the opportunity to invest in his company, a criminal complaint charges.
A lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, who is in jail pending a bail hearing, said he did nothing wrong. “There’s no question that he’ll plead not guilty,” the lawyer, Paul J. McAllister, said.
The church, at Audubon Avenue and 172nd Street, occupies a century-old building. It is just a few blocks from Yeshiva University, which says it lost $110 million by investing with Bernard L. Madoff, who stands accused of one of the largest financial frauds in history, a Ponzi scheme involving up to $50 billion.
One night this week a few dozen worshipers gathered for a regular service in the basement of El Camino. As a conga player, a keyboard player and a guitarist played in the background, the group sang a Spanish version of “Silent Night,” their hands outstretched, their palms up.
At the end of the service, the pastor, the Rev. Miguel Amadis, addressed the congregation.
“We’re going through a very hard time,” he said. “We have to stay united.”
At least three dozen people invested with Mr. Rodriguez, according to the complaint; the pastor said he and his family alone lost $300,000. All told, according to the complaint, members of the church gave Mr. Rodriguez about $1.1 million, but received back only about $450,000.
Mr. Rodriguez has been charged with one count of mail fraud. “Each of these investors has lost all or part of their investment,” Postal Inspector Eleanor Berry wrote in the complaint, referring to a group of 30 parishioners and their friends.
The complaint said Mr. Rodriguez began taking baptismal classes at the church in 2007, and was later baptized there. He told people that he worked with a company called C & E, and sold electronics to the church and some of its members.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
According to the complaint, he said his business sold wholesale electronics to large retailers like Best Buy and P. C. Richard & Son. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com He promised returns of 30 percent every two weeks, and kept his promise to initial investors, at least for a while. Those investors then brought in other family members until a number of them were hooked.
In one case described in the complaint, a church member gave Mr. Rodriguez about $3,000 in cash in June 2007. Two weeks later, Mr. Rodriguez paid the man about $900, followed by another $900 payment soon thereafter.
The victim told relatives and friends about the opportunity, the complaint says, and they gave Mr. Rodriguez a total of about $57,000. After the investor pressed Mr. Rodriguez last August about his investment, he was given “a loan” of $5,000.
Neither the investor nor his family and friends received any more money from Mr. Rodriguez, the complaint said.
One church member, Alexander Perez, said his family and friends had lost about $80,000.
“He came here telling us he did business with all these big electronics stores,” said Mr. Perez, 30, a construction worker from Washington Heights who has been a member of El Camino for seven years. “We didn’t think there was anything wrong, so we invested with him.”
“It hurts, trust me, it hurts,” Mr. Perez said.
Ana Vasquez, 44, an interior decorator, said she and a friend invested $10,000.
“He paid us at first to get more people interested,” she said. “He told us to find family and friends to invest. He told us that everyone who invested $5,000 would get a bonus of $10,000. To get enough money, a lot of us looked for more people to chip in.”
According to the complaint, retailers have told the authorities that they had no contract with Mr. Rodriguez or any firm he ran.
Mr. Rodriguez has a previous felony conviction for impersonating a United States immigration officer, the complaint says.
In court on Tuesday, Mr. Rodriguez’s lawyer, Mr. McAllister, blamed the church’s pastor, Mr. Amadis, for any money that was lost. Mr. Amadis, referring to Mr. Rodriguez, said, “He’s trying to say that I had something to do with it, but that’s just not true.” No charges have been filed against the pastor.
“He came to us like anyone else comes to the church,” Mr. Amadis said. “When I met this guy, he convinced me he was a true original Christian. Man, this guy could talk. He could convince anybody.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
But when the cost is totaled, court papers and interviews suggest, many of the worshipers at the tiny Christian Evangelical church will have lost all or part of their savings in a Ponzi scheme that operated far beneath the orbit of the wealthy or well-connected.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged that Bryant Rodriguez, 44, insinuated himself into the congregation last year — he showed up first for baptism classes — and enticed fellow churchgoers to trust their money with him. Now, about $600,000 is gone in a scheme prosecutors call a classic mold of financial grifting — neither sophisticated nor, in hindsight, difficult to see through.
“Obviously these weren’t billionaires,” Allan Weissmann, a postal inspector and spokesman for the United States Postal Inspection Service, said of the parishioners. But he added: “It’s all relative. It means a lot to them. It’s their life savings in many cases, and they, too, are devastated.”
The authorities said that Mr. Rodriguez asked parishioners to invest in an electronics firm he represented, which he said wanted “a blessing for a blessing” by providing Jews and Christians with the opportunity to invest in his company, a criminal complaint charges.
A lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, who is in jail pending a bail hearing, said he did nothing wrong. “There’s no question that he’ll plead not guilty,” the lawyer, Paul J. McAllister, said.
The church, at Audubon Avenue and 172nd Street, occupies a century-old building. It is just a few blocks from Yeshiva University, which says it lost $110 million by investing with Bernard L. Madoff, who stands accused of one of the largest financial frauds in history, a Ponzi scheme involving up to $50 billion.
One night this week a few dozen worshipers gathered for a regular service in the basement of El Camino. As a conga player, a keyboard player and a guitarist played in the background, the group sang a Spanish version of “Silent Night,” their hands outstretched, their palms up.
At the end of the service, the pastor, the Rev. Miguel Amadis, addressed the congregation.
“We’re going through a very hard time,” he said. “We have to stay united.”
At least three dozen people invested with Mr. Rodriguez, according to the complaint; the pastor said he and his family alone lost $300,000. All told, according to the complaint, members of the church gave Mr. Rodriguez about $1.1 million, but received back only about $450,000.
Mr. Rodriguez has been charged with one count of mail fraud. “Each of these investors has lost all or part of their investment,” Postal Inspector Eleanor Berry wrote in the complaint, referring to a group of 30 parishioners and their friends.
The complaint said Mr. Rodriguez began taking baptismal classes at the church in 2007, and was later baptized there. He told people that he worked with a company called C & E, and sold electronics to the church and some of its members.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
According to the complaint, he said his business sold wholesale electronics to large retailers like Best Buy and P. C. Richard & Son. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com He promised returns of 30 percent every two weeks, and kept his promise to initial investors, at least for a while. Those investors then brought in other family members until a number of them were hooked.
In one case described in the complaint, a church member gave Mr. Rodriguez about $3,000 in cash in June 2007. Two weeks later, Mr. Rodriguez paid the man about $900, followed by another $900 payment soon thereafter.
The victim told relatives and friends about the opportunity, the complaint says, and they gave Mr. Rodriguez a total of about $57,000. After the investor pressed Mr. Rodriguez last August about his investment, he was given “a loan” of $5,000.
Neither the investor nor his family and friends received any more money from Mr. Rodriguez, the complaint said.
One church member, Alexander Perez, said his family and friends had lost about $80,000.
“He came here telling us he did business with all these big electronics stores,” said Mr. Perez, 30, a construction worker from Washington Heights who has been a member of El Camino for seven years. “We didn’t think there was anything wrong, so we invested with him.”
“It hurts, trust me, it hurts,” Mr. Perez said.
Ana Vasquez, 44, an interior decorator, said she and a friend invested $10,000.
“He paid us at first to get more people interested,” she said. “He told us to find family and friends to invest. He told us that everyone who invested $5,000 would get a bonus of $10,000. To get enough money, a lot of us looked for more people to chip in.”
According to the complaint, retailers have told the authorities that they had no contract with Mr. Rodriguez or any firm he ran.
Mr. Rodriguez has a previous felony conviction for impersonating a United States immigration officer, the complaint says.
In court on Tuesday, Mr. Rodriguez’s lawyer, Mr. McAllister, blamed the church’s pastor, Mr. Amadis, for any money that was lost. Mr. Amadis, referring to Mr. Rodriguez, said, “He’s trying to say that I had something to do with it, but that’s just not true.” No charges have been filed against the pastor.
“He came to us like anyone else comes to the church,” Mr. Amadis said. “When I met this guy, he convinced me he was a true original Christian. Man, this guy could talk. He could convince anybody.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
scalping 5.sca.0 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
About 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus described, in gory detail, how Scythian warriors of central Asia scalped vanquished foes. Archaeologists now have identified the first hard evidence of that practice. According to their study, four previously unearthed adult male skulls, now housed in two Russian museums, come from Scythians whose scalps were removed after they were killed in battle.http://louis6j6sheehan6esquire.wordpress.com
An intermittent trail of incisions runs, ear-to-ear, horizontally across the back of each of the skulls, says Eileen M. Murphy of Queen�s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Metal tools made the marks during a process in which skin was peeled off the back and top of the head, she holds. Three of the skulls came from a Scythian cemetery. The fourth skull came from a mummified body discovered in a tomb of Scythian royals. Both sites are in southern Siberia.http://louis6j6sheehan6esquire.wordpress.com
Analysis of the skeletons belonging to the skulls indicates that these individuals died of sword and battle-ax wounds, Murphy and her colleagues report in the January American Journal of Archaeology.
Additional examinations of skeletons at Russian sites will probably support Herodotus� description of scalping as a widespread Scythian practice, the researchers add. But the historian may have been wrong in calling Scythians cannibals, Murphy contends. Prior skeletal evidence suggests only that Scythians sometimes removed the flesh from the dead bodies of comrades as part of burial rituals, a fairly common practice in the ancient world. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . http://louis6j6sheehan6esquire.wordpress.com
An intermittent trail of incisions runs, ear-to-ear, horizontally across the back of each of the skulls, says Eileen M. Murphy of Queen�s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Metal tools made the marks during a process in which skin was peeled off the back and top of the head, she holds. Three of the skulls came from a Scythian cemetery. The fourth skull came from a mummified body discovered in a tomb of Scythian royals. Both sites are in southern Siberia.http://louis6j6sheehan6esquire.wordpress.com
Analysis of the skeletons belonging to the skulls indicates that these individuals died of sword and battle-ax wounds, Murphy and her colleagues report in the January American Journal of Archaeology.
Additional examinations of skeletons at Russian sites will probably support Herodotus� description of scalping as a widespread Scythian practice, the researchers add. But the historian may have been wrong in calling Scythians cannibals, Murphy contends. Prior skeletal evidence suggests only that Scythians sometimes removed the flesh from the dead bodies of comrades as part of burial rituals, a fairly common practice in the ancient world. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . http://louis6j6sheehan6esquire.wordpress.com
Thursday, December 18, 2008
anthrax 4.ant.100 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . After a seven-year investigation of the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, the FBI was preparing in July to charge a single scientist, Bruce Ivins of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, with the crimes. To trace the source of the anthrax, the FBI used “microbial forensics,” a new approach that combines established microbiology techniques with DNA sequencing. By 2002, sequencing had narrowed possible sources to about 20 laboratories worldwide. Ivins’s strange protocols allowed inspectors to narrow the search further.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.wordpress.com
Anthrax is a stable bacterium: Growing it once seldom produces detectable mutations. Contrary to common practice, however, Ivins dumped material from 35 different anthrax cultures into a single flask, thus mixing a number of mutant strains. Examining agar plates cultured from anthrax in the letters, investigators spotted mutant colonies and then sequenced them. This yielded a characteristic genetic signature of four mutations that was traceable to Ivins’s flask. Before the FBI formally indicted him, Ivins killed himself.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.wordpress.com
While microbial forensics holds promise for unraveling disease outbreaks, the FBI’s discovery also has political implications: The attacks originated in a U.S. Army lab, a fact that raises questions about security in light of the massive biodefense expansion under the Bush administration. Since 2001 the government has pledged $57 billion toward bioweapons research and has funded nearly 15,000 scientists to work with bioweapons agents. How to vet these scientists and prevent further germ releases—accidental or intentional—remains unclear. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Anthrax is a stable bacterium: Growing it once seldom produces detectable mutations. Contrary to common practice, however, Ivins dumped material from 35 different anthrax cultures into a single flask, thus mixing a number of mutant strains. Examining agar plates cultured from anthrax in the letters, investigators spotted mutant colonies and then sequenced them. This yielded a characteristic genetic signature of four mutations that was traceable to Ivins’s flask. Before the FBI formally indicted him, Ivins killed himself.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.wordpress.com
While microbial forensics holds promise for unraveling disease outbreaks, the FBI’s discovery also has political implications: The attacks originated in a U.S. Army lab, a fact that raises questions about security in light of the massive biodefense expansion under the Bush administration. Since 2001 the government has pledged $57 billion toward bioweapons research and has funded nearly 15,000 scientists to work with bioweapons agents. How to vet these scientists and prevent further germ releases—accidental or intentional—remains unclear. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Monday, December 15, 2008
rat 7.rat.001001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . A 4-million-year-old rat skull found at a coastal site in Uruguay set a new world record in the giant rodent category. The 21-inch-long skull is likely to have belonged to a creature as large as a bull and as heavy as a small car, according to researchers’ estimates. The previous record holder was a 1,500-pound, 8-million-year-old guinea pig discovered in Venezuela a few years ago.http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com
Ernesto Blanco, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, says that the new champion rat, Josephoartigasia monesi, lived in forests near river deltas or estuaries and roamed around South America among saber-toothed marsupial tigers and huge, flightless, carnivorous birds. http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com Blanco surmises that because of its small teeth and weak jaw, the rat probably survived on vegetables and fruit. Its fate was sealed about 3 million years ago when the continent of South America hooked up to North America via the Panama land bridge. That connection probably allowed predatory cats and bears from North America to extend their range and wipe out the gentle giant.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Ernesto Blanco, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, says that the new champion rat, Josephoartigasia monesi, lived in forests near river deltas or estuaries and roamed around South America among saber-toothed marsupial tigers and huge, flightless, carnivorous birds. http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com Blanco surmises that because of its small teeth and weak jaw, the rat probably survived on vegetables and fruit. Its fate was sealed about 3 million years ago when the continent of South America hooked up to North America via the Panama land bridge. That connection probably allowed predatory cats and bears from North America to extend their range and wipe out the gentle giant.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
churches 44.chu.0023 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . Incense and candles release substantial quantities of pollutants that may harm health, a detailed new study of air quality in a Roman Catholic church suggests.
Even brief exposure to contaminated air during a religious service could be harmful to some people, says atmospheric scientist Stephan Weber of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany. A previous study in the Netherlands indicated that the pollutants in smoke from incense and candles may be more toxic than fine-particle pollution from sources such as vehicle engines. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
Numerous studies have examined the health effects of combustion by-products from major outdoor sources, such as automobiles and power plants. Researchers have also examined some sources of indoor pollution, including stoves. But there have been few investigations of the health consequences of candles and incense, even though they are usually lit indoors, sometimes in crowded spaces with limited ventilation. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
Weber conducted the new study in St. Engelbert Church in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. The church staff burns candles during each mass and incense on some holidays.
Weber installed two devices that continuously sampled air during a 13-day period that began on Christmas Eve of 2004. The equipment measured concentrations of particles up to 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) and also those 1 µm or smaller (PM1), which endanger people's hearts, lungs, and arteries (SN: 8/2/03, p. 72: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030802/bob8.asp).
During the study, incense burners and candles were lit for services at midnight on Christmas Day, on the morning of the following day, and on New Year's Eve. During services on other days, only candles burned.
Concentrations of both types of particles almost doubled during services that used only candles. Simultaneous use of incense and candles raised the concentration of PM10 to about seven times that recorded between services, and PM1 reached about nine times its background abundance.
Particulate-matter concentrations quickly dropped after the candles were extinguished, but remained elevated for 24 hours after simultaneous use of candles and incense, Weber reports in an upcoming Environmental Science & Technology.
Even the relatively modest increase linked to candles concerns Theo de Kok of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. In past experiments, he and his collaborators found that PM10 from candles might be especially harmful because, in the body, unidentified constituents of the smoke readily generate free radicals that damage cells.
After candles had burned in a Dutch chapel for 9 hours, particles in the air there formed 10 times as many free radicals as airborne particulates collected along busy roadways do, de Kok's group reported 2 years ago.
"Even after relatively short exposure, you can expect acute health effects" in susceptible groups, such as shortness of breath in people with asthma, de Kok says. He adds that he knows of no study examining whether groups such as priests and frequent churchgoers have elevated rates of cancer or other pollution-associated health problems.
Incense isn't used exclusively for religious purposes. Some people who live in cramped quarters burn incense to mask household odors, de Kok notes. In fact, an incense-using student originally proposed the study that de Kok's group conducted. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Even brief exposure to contaminated air during a religious service could be harmful to some people, says atmospheric scientist Stephan Weber of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany. A previous study in the Netherlands indicated that the pollutants in smoke from incense and candles may be more toxic than fine-particle pollution from sources such as vehicle engines. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
Numerous studies have examined the health effects of combustion by-products from major outdoor sources, such as automobiles and power plants. Researchers have also examined some sources of indoor pollution, including stoves. But there have been few investigations of the health consequences of candles and incense, even though they are usually lit indoors, sometimes in crowded spaces with limited ventilation. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
Weber conducted the new study in St. Engelbert Church in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. The church staff burns candles during each mass and incense on some holidays.
Weber installed two devices that continuously sampled air during a 13-day period that began on Christmas Eve of 2004. The equipment measured concentrations of particles up to 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) and also those 1 µm or smaller (PM1), which endanger people's hearts, lungs, and arteries (SN: 8/2/03, p. 72: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030802/bob8.asp).
During the study, incense burners and candles were lit for services at midnight on Christmas Day, on the morning of the following day, and on New Year's Eve. During services on other days, only candles burned.
Concentrations of both types of particles almost doubled during services that used only candles. Simultaneous use of incense and candles raised the concentration of PM10 to about seven times that recorded between services, and PM1 reached about nine times its background abundance.
Particulate-matter concentrations quickly dropped after the candles were extinguished, but remained elevated for 24 hours after simultaneous use of candles and incense, Weber reports in an upcoming Environmental Science & Technology.
Even the relatively modest increase linked to candles concerns Theo de Kok of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. In past experiments, he and his collaborators found that PM10 from candles might be especially harmful because, in the body, unidentified constituents of the smoke readily generate free radicals that damage cells.
After candles had burned in a Dutch chapel for 9 hours, particles in the air there formed 10 times as many free radicals as airborne particulates collected along busy roadways do, de Kok's group reported 2 years ago.
"Even after relatively short exposure, you can expect acute health effects" in susceptible groups, such as shortness of breath in people with asthma, de Kok says. He adds that he knows of no study examining whether groups such as priests and frequent churchgoers have elevated rates of cancer or other pollution-associated health problems.
Incense isn't used exclusively for religious purposes. Some people who live in cramped quarters burn incense to mask household odors, de Kok notes. In fact, an incense-using student originally proposed the study that de Kok's group conducted. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Sunday, November 23, 2008
foul 33.fou.222 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Pharmaceuticals ranging from painkillers to synthetic estrogens can harm aquatic life when they enter waterways through human excreta, hospital and household waste, and agricultural runoff. Now, researchers have shown that there's another way for such drugs to get into the environment: A treatment plant in India that processes wastewater from pharmaceutical manufacturers discharges highly drug-contaminated water into a stream that feeds a major river.
The treated water contained astronomical amounts of antibiotics, along with high concentrations of analgesics, hypertension drugs, and antidepressants.
Production facilities "have not been considered an important source of drugs in [the] environment," says lead author Joakim Larsson of Göteborg University in Sweden. "This is not the case in India. We found levels of drugs many orders of magnitude higher than anywhere [recorded] on Earth before."
Larsson and his colleagues collected water samples from the effluent of a treatment plant that cleans the wastewater of 90 bulk-drug manufacturers in Hyderabad in southern India. The region produces most of India's pharmaceuticals, 60 percent of which are exported. The treated effluent pours into a stream that eventually joins the Godavari, India's second-largest river.
Of the 59 compounds for which researchers screened, 21 were present in concentrations greater than those typical of drugs in effluent from U.S. sewage-treatment plants, about 1 part per billion (ppb). Eleven of the drugs, including six antibiotics, had concentrations higher than 100 ppb. One of them, the common broad-spectrum antibiotic ciprofloxacin, registered at about 30,000 ppb. An antidepressant that belongs to a class of drugs known to disrupt hormone effects in fish (SN: 6/17/00, p. 388) was at a concentration of 800 ppb.
The results appear online and in an upcoming Journal of Hazardous Materials.
Beyond studies of gender effects in fish, little research exists on the possible health effects on people and other animals of pharmaceuticals in the water supply. However, Larsson points out that the amount of antibiotics that his team found was well above that known to affect a variety of organisms, including plants, bacteria, and blue-green algae (SN: 6/29/02, p. 406). "There is no doubt" that concentrations found in the study are toxic, he says.
Following common practice, the treatment plant in India mixes raw human sewage with contaminated waste to enlist the decomposing capacity of bacteria in the water cleanup. The enormous quantities of antibiotics in the wastewater might not only reduce the effectiveness of that process but also encourage the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Larsson says. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
"We do find pharmaceuticals routinely in wastewater effluents," says Dana Kolpin, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Iowa City, Iowa. The concentrations recorded in the study are "certainly significant," he says. Sampling incoming waste and the sludge remaining after treatment, he says, would clarify what quantities of drugs are getting into the environment. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
Daniel Schlenk, an ecotoxicologist at the University of California, Riverside, notes that many of the drugs measured in the new study are water soluble and are more likely to be diluted and washed away than to accumulate in aquatic organisms. Even so, the extremely high concentrations recorded "could still be a problem," he says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
The treated water contained astronomical amounts of antibiotics, along with high concentrations of analgesics, hypertension drugs, and antidepressants.
Production facilities "have not been considered an important source of drugs in [the] environment," says lead author Joakim Larsson of Göteborg University in Sweden. "This is not the case in India. We found levels of drugs many orders of magnitude higher than anywhere [recorded] on Earth before."
Larsson and his colleagues collected water samples from the effluent of a treatment plant that cleans the wastewater of 90 bulk-drug manufacturers in Hyderabad in southern India. The region produces most of India's pharmaceuticals, 60 percent of which are exported. The treated effluent pours into a stream that eventually joins the Godavari, India's second-largest river.
Of the 59 compounds for which researchers screened, 21 were present in concentrations greater than those typical of drugs in effluent from U.S. sewage-treatment plants, about 1 part per billion (ppb). Eleven of the drugs, including six antibiotics, had concentrations higher than 100 ppb. One of them, the common broad-spectrum antibiotic ciprofloxacin, registered at about 30,000 ppb. An antidepressant that belongs to a class of drugs known to disrupt hormone effects in fish (SN: 6/17/00, p. 388) was at a concentration of 800 ppb.
The results appear online and in an upcoming Journal of Hazardous Materials.
Beyond studies of gender effects in fish, little research exists on the possible health effects on people and other animals of pharmaceuticals in the water supply. However, Larsson points out that the amount of antibiotics that his team found was well above that known to affect a variety of organisms, including plants, bacteria, and blue-green algae (SN: 6/29/02, p. 406). "There is no doubt" that concentrations found in the study are toxic, he says.
Following common practice, the treatment plant in India mixes raw human sewage with contaminated waste to enlist the decomposing capacity of bacteria in the water cleanup. The enormous quantities of antibiotics in the wastewater might not only reduce the effectiveness of that process but also encourage the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Larsson says. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
"We do find pharmaceuticals routinely in wastewater effluents," says Dana Kolpin, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Iowa City, Iowa. The concentrations recorded in the study are "certainly significant," he says. Sampling incoming waste and the sludge remaining after treatment, he says, would clarify what quantities of drugs are getting into the environment. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
Daniel Schlenk, an ecotoxicologist at the University of California, Riverside, notes that many of the drugs measured in the new study are water soluble and are more likely to be diluted and washed away than to accumulate in aquatic organisms. Even so, the extremely high concentrations recorded "could still be a problem," he says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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