WP,pg1: Male Fish Across D.C. Region Found to Be Bearing Eggs

[DeepModem Mom]

Male Bass Across Region Found to Be Bearing Eggs
Pollution Concerns Arise In Drinking-Water Source
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; Page A01

Abnormally developed fish, possessing both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River in the District and in tributaries across the region, federal scientists say -- raising alarms that the river is tainted by pollution that drives hormone systems haywire.

The fish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, are naturally males but for some reason are developing immature eggs inside their sex organs. Their discovery at such widely spread sites, including one just upstream from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, seems to show that the Potomac's problem with "intersex" fish extends far beyond the West Virginia stream where they were first found in 2003.

The cause of the abnormalities is unknown, but scientists suspect a class of waterborne contaminants that can confuse animals' growth and reproductive systems. These pollutants are poorly understood, however, leaving many observers with questions about what the problems in fish mean for the Potomac and the millions of people who take their tap water from it....

***

(Thomas Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct) like others at area utilities, said there was no evidence that tap water taken from the Potomac was unsafe to drink. They said humans should be far less susceptible to the river's pollution than fish, because people are not exposed constantly to the water, our hormone systems work differently, and our larger bodies should require higher doses of any pollutant to cause problems. As research on the fish continues, other scientists across the region are trying to determine whether Potomac water or mud can affect human cells. This research, including tests at West Virginia University that examine whether cells react as if estrogen or estrogen mimics are present, has not reached any solid conclusions....

***

Pollutants that mimic hormones have emerged as a worldwide concern in the past decade, blamed for problems in animals as diverse as alligators, minnows and polar bears. Although scientists say the research is in its infancy, they have identified a large array of pollutants that might affect animals, including human estrogen from processed sewage, animal estrogen from farm manure, some pesticides and additives to soap....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501384.html

[Drum]

1. That headline alone might explain a lot in D.C....n/t

[pfitz59]

2. Here we go......

[TomInTib]

3. As a nurse friend of mine once phoned me in a cocaine-induced

fog and screamed, "Don't drink any tap water, the queers are jerking off into the sinks!".

Must be Mehlman, Rove and Gannon to blame.

[arewenotdemo]

5. bwa ha ha

[Kutjara]

12. Then it's vital that all red-blooded heterosexuals...

...jerk off into their sinks, to redress the balance. Come on, guys! Give it a tug for America!

[mccoyn]

27. After reading the OP I was thinking of building a water distiller.

Your proposed plan makes it a must.

[Irreverend IX]

4. These perverted, godless fish...

Are trying to undermine America's Christian tradition of marraige between one man and one woman. If our nation's icthyoids have decided that men and women are essentially interchangeable, how long can we expect them to wait before they start recruiting our children into their disgusting lifestyle? The only way to remove this unholy blight from our nation is to irradiate all waterways in the DC area, then flood them with dioxin for good measure. Glory to God!

[Drum]

6. LMAO!

[Coexist]

21. they are truly sick and I pray that Pat Robertson puts and end to this sin

:evilgrin:

God would not intelligently design this.

[EFerrari]

7. Link TV ran a program on Atrazine this weekend:

It was incredibly creepy. This researcher found frogs with multiple sets of both male and female reproductive organs. :scared:

"The world’s most heavily used pesticide is turning frogs into hermaphrodites. In this program, biologist Dr. Tyrone Hayes presents his research and discusses the complicated process through which the EPA decides whether to ban a potentially dangerous compound."

http://www.worldlinktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=atra

[me b zola]

8. Damn!

I always thought that females would be able to reproduce without males long before males ever evolved. Damn.

[EFerrari]

9. Me, too, but I never wanted to do it as a frog.

:rofl:

[me b zola]

11. Well we've had to kiss enough of 'em!

:rofl:

[sofa king]

10. Noooo! My beloved smallies!

I've been wading the Potomac River for smallmouth bass for twenty years, now. They're my favorite fish. When I had the time and the wheels to do it, I fished the same spots for years, getting to know them so well I could often spot particular individuals and watch them grow from year to year. No, I don't eat them--you wouldn't eat your cats, would you? I throw them back. The point is to prove my intellectual dominance over a creature with a brain the size of a pinky-nail, and I succeed brilliantly.

That article offers clues, but seems to fail to put the pieces together. Maybe the Washington Post is being responsible, but I don't have to be.

The culprit is likely to be chicken shit.

The entire Shennandoah Valley is fertilized with chicken shit, and last spring, torrential rains happened to fall the very week that most farmers laid down fertilizer. The resulting fish-kill managed to wipe out 80% of the smallmouth in the river, including virtually all of the large adults. The Virginia DEQ airily and euphemistically refers to "nutrient overload" as a possible factor, but everyone in the Valley knows that it's chicken shit.

If that chicken shit also happens to contain chicken estrogen, then I think we have a primary suspect for our hermaphrodite smallies.

It might not be all bad, though. Now that the smallies are into transgenderism, maybe they'll come back to Georgetown.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. Thanks for your post! nt

[Eurobabe]

13. Earth won't have to worry about mankind in a few generations

We are killing ourselves and everything on the planet. Xenohormones are rampant.

Love that quote how reassuring: "our hormone systems work differently, and our bodies should require higher doses of any pollutant to cause problems."

So why the upswing in recent years in infertility, PCOS, thyroid problems, etc.? Read about it in Our Stolen Future.

[xchrom]

14. the endless possibilities for humour aside --

this is pretty extraordinary news.

most especially this little bit:''Although scientists say the research is in its infancy, they have identified a large array of pollutants that might affect animals, including human estrogen from processed sewage, animal estrogen from farm manure, some pesticides and additives to soap....''

now it might take a lot of something to affect me -- a grown person -- but what about over time?
or what about a 50lb child?

[Nihil]

15. Don't you just love it ...

... that "The Powers That Be" view stories like this and the
Gulf Deep Oil fiasco as trivia to be exiled to E/E so it doesn't
clutter up the vital LBN forum (where I first read these stories
this morning) ... saving room for the birth announcements of a
Japanese princelet and the obituary of an exit pollster?

And people wonder why we're f*cked ...

:eyes:

[bananas]

16. wow, you're right

It was originally posted to LBN, I wonder why it was moved?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2496096

[depakid]

17. Endocrine disruptors

They're not so good for develping humans either....

Whether male or female.

What's more- the dose doesn't always equal the poison. The dose/response curve doesn't always follow a nice diagonal line toward adverse effects and an LD-50.

Instead, it looks like an upside down "U"

Just the right amount (which is often quite small)- does the trick, whereas too much causes the body's feedback mechanisms to "ignore" the poison- until the dose gets really high.

[MountainLaurel]

18. I wonder if there's been an increase

In the number of HUMAN babies born as hermaphrodites in the region as well. Being a DC resident, I also have to wonder how 12 years of drinking from this watershed might have *$#&ed up my chance of carrying and bearing a healthy child.

[Boomer]

23. Evidently those numbers aren't tracked

We've discussed this issue before on the E/E forum and I remember someone in the medical field mentioning that hospitals don't track the incidence of hermaphroditsm. And even if they did, it's not collected anywhere, such as by the CDC.

Compounding the issue, most families are deeply embarassed by gender ambibuity issues and thus don't freely discuss them with friends, even family. So you probably wouldn't even get anecdotal information, as you might about other medical conditions in your circle of acquaintances.

So who knows whether or not humans are being affected.

[hatrack]

24. Google "hypospadia" sometime - interesting

Especially in light of how it's beginning to show up in offspring of women who (A) live near the Great Lakes and (B) eat a fair amount of Great Lakes fish.

[MountainLaurel]

26. I looked it up on PubMed

And found that endocrine disruptors can cause problems transgenerationally, like Agent Orange does. So, if you're exposed to them, they could cause genetic problems in your grandchildren.

:scared:

[LunaSea]

20. I'll have the beef....

Spongiform brain moss from my burger if infinitly preferable to some transcoultergiestification from some seafood.

From my observations, carrying eggs around hurts....
And I don't think I could handle all that shopping.

Pass me those GM corn chips, maybe there's still a chance to mutate into something more interesting.

[LiberalEsto]

22. Picture Cheney, Rove, *, and the rest of 'em

growing breasts! It boggles the mind.

Then get out of the way when they start getting PMS mood swings.

[kestrel91316]

25. We will come to rue the day we invented plastics, with their phthalates

and other nasty little components...........