A Drug Used For Cattle is Said to be Killing Vultures

[leftchick]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/science/29VULT.html?ex=1075957200&en=3aa76c41184aca99&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

<snip>There has been growing concern among scientists and environmentalists about the "vast amount of drugs that end up in the environment one way or another," he said, but no effect of this magnitude.

A study in 2002 by the United States Geological Survey found traces of many different pharmaceuticals and "personal care products" — including steroids, insect repellents and many others — in the American water supply. The effect of these traces is unknown, but the concern is about the unexpected. One laboratory study suggested, for example, that antidepressants like Prozac could trigger spawning in some shellfish.

The vulture finding in South Asia comes as a surprise: while environmental toxins had been suspected in the deaths, a pharmaceutical drug had not. Scientists in India and England suggested that disease was the cause of vulture deaths in India, but they found no infectious agent. The scientists who did the research in Pakistan said the situation in India was likely to be the same as that in Pakistan. But they said they did not have conclusive evidence.

Dr. Oaks said the investigation, which began in 2000, was prompted by reports of a 95 percent drop in the number of Asian white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis), Indian vultures (Gyps indicus) and slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostris). All three are listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union, the international environmental agency based in Switzerland.

[JasonDeter]

1. Corporations are killing us the animals and the envoirnment!

Proof heavy regulation is needed! Until scum republicans are out of office we're doomed!!

[Karenina]

3. But JD....

The *corporatists make so much $$$$$ that they get to write the laws governing their own behaviour. Isn't it rich? ;-)

REVOKE CORPORATE "PERSONHOOD" TODAY.

[JasonDeter]

9. I agree wholeheartedly Karenia!

But can the reasons be articulated in our 15 sec soundbyte world?

[Xithras]

10. And what exactly are we supposed to regulate?

The most common man-made pharma's found in the environment in the U.S. are birth control hormones, antibiotics, and blood pressure medications. Are you seriously suggesting that we limit access to the pill? Should we forgoe antibiotics and return to the days when a minor scratch could kill you? Are you going to tell the millions of seniors in this country, one of the pillar groups of the Democratic Party, that we have to let them die of heart attacks because their blood pressure pills may have an effect on fish spawning?

Is it a problem? Absolutely, but I seriously doubt that you'll find any kind of acceptable resolution to it. Regulation isn't the answer...beter sewage treatment is.

[leftchick]

2. Apparently it is not just the birds suffering kidney problems....

I found this very disturbing article when I googled the medication Diclofenac, blamed for the vulture deaths......

http://www.healthyskepticism.org/reports/2001/gifts%20010816.htm

<That can be dangerous. Hospitals say they get a steady flow of patients who suffer gastric bleeding and kidney complications shortly after taking prescription pain medications without a doctor's supervision. One such patient is 34-year-old Vipul Shah, a Bombay businessman.

He says when he had leg pain, three different pharmacies in Bombay sold him Dicloran pills even though he had no prescription. He also says he was given no instructions on how the drug should be taken. Dicloran is an Indian brand name for diclofenac sodium, a prescription arthritis drug. It is marketed to druggists by Bombay-based J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. under a buy-nine-get-one-free scheme.

After taking two tablets a day for a month, Mr. Shah started feeling lower-back pain and saw a doctor, Bharat Shah, at Bombay's Hinduja Hospital. Dr. Shah (no relation to the patient) found permanent kidney damage and believes the drug aggravated an existing condition. Patients with serious kidney problems normally are advised to use diclofenac with great caution. J.B. Chemicals didn't respond to repeated requests for comment>

[pink_poodle]

4. Well, this has been going on for some years now in streams...............

and the UK and Europe have been reporting frogs with two sexes and all sorts of anomalies so I think this will speed up into bird populations and other wildlife. We are going to see lots more and stranger things to come, I'm afraid. God only knows what exactly is in our meat and milk, etc. anymore....

[KansDem]

5. "A Drug Used For Cattle is Said to be Killing Vultures"

This should scare a lot of Republicans into becoming vegetarians!

[The Stranger]

6. The wholesale destruction of the planet really hits home

when animals start falling dead from the trees. When will it end? When will it end? When will it end?

[Gin]

7. The Vultures are killing the vulchers....what irony.

gin

[donsu]

8. every winter a huge flock of vultures come to Key West - not any more

they still come but the flock is no longer large.

I was just noticing this the other day and now I read this article.

if it's hurting birds, it's hurting humans.