H-KQGE
Dagobah Resident
I remember a thread (probably in the diet & health section) that spoke about certain chemicals found in soaps & detergents etc. It's hardly surprising to hear that they're creating problems in rivers & streams.
http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/antibacterial-products-fuel-resistant-bacteria-streams-and-rivers
So, you get the point, it's bad stuff. Then there's this from almost a year ago: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=30926
As always there's more info dotted around & in this case, it seems as though every year going back a fair bit from today, has been some other discoveries of a similar sort.
http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/antibacterial-products-fuel-resistant-bacteria-streams-and-rivers
Studies in Chicago metro-area unveil concerning trends, urban sites most impacted
(Millbrook, N.Y.) Triclosan – a synthetic antibacterial widely used in personal care products – is fueling the development of resistant bacteria in streams and rivers. So reports a new paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, which is the first to document triclosan resistance in a natural environment.
Invented for surgeons in the 1960s, triclosan slows or stops the growth of bacteria, fungi, and mildew. Currently, around half of liquid soaps contain the chemical, as well as toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, liquid cleansers, and detergents.Triclosan enters streams and rivers through domestic wastewater, leaky sewer infrastructure, and sewer overflows, with residues now common throughout the United States.
Emma Rosi-Marshall, one of the paper's authors and an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York explains: "The bacterial resistance caused by triclosan has real environmental consequences. Not only does it disrupt aquatic life by changing native bacterial communities, but it's linked to the rise of resistant bacteria that could diminish the usefulness of important antibiotics."
With colleagues from Loyola University and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, Rosi-Marshall explored how bacteria living in stream and river sediments responded to triclosan in both natural and controlled settings. Field studies were conducted at three sites in the Chicago metropolitan region: urban North Shore Channel, suburban West Branch Dupage River, and rural Nippersink Creek.
A combined sewer overflow on Chicago's North Shore Channel. Photo: John Kelly.
Urbanization was correlated with a rise in both triclosan concentrations in sediments and the proportion of bottom-dwelling bacteria resistant to triclosan. A woodland creek had the lowest levels of triclosan-resistant bacteria, while a site on the North Shore Channel downstream of 25 combined sewer overflows had the highest levels.
Combined sewers deliver domestic sewage, industrial wastewater, and storm water to a regional treatment plant using a single pipe. Overflows occur when a pipe's capacity is exceeded, typically due to excessive runoff from high rainfall or snowmelt events. The result: untreated sewage flows directly into rivers and streams.
The research team found that combined sewer overflows that release untreated sewage are a major source of triclosan pollution in Chicago's North Shore Channel. In addition, their findings support past work that indicates sewage treatment plants can effectively remove triclosan from wastewater.
John Kelly of Loyola University Chicago, the paper's senior author, comments, "We detected much lower levels of triclosan at a site downstream of a sewage treatment facility as compared to a site downstream of combined sewer overflows. And we demonstrated a strong link between the presence of triclosan in the environment and the development of triclosan resistant bacteria."
Nearly 800 cities in the United States rely on combined sewer overflows, with the Environmental Protection Agency citing them as a major water pollution concern.
Artificial stream experiments, conducted at Loyola University, confirmed field findings that triclosan exposure triggers an increase in triclosan-resistant bacteria. In addition to the creation of these resistant bacteria, researchers also found a decrease in the diversity of benthic bacteria and a shift in the composition of bacterial communities. Most notable were a 6-fold increase in cyanobacteria and a dramatic die-off of algae.
Rosi-Marshall explains how these shifts could affect aquatic life, "Cyanobacteria are less nutritious than algae and can produce toxins. In triclosan-polluted streams and rivers, changes in microbial communities could negatively affect ecological function and animal communities."
The study is the latest in an ongoing effort to better understand the environmental and human health consequences of synthetic antimicrobials. Funding was provided by a grant from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
Triclosan Exposure Increases Triclosan Resistance and Influences Taxonomic Composition of Benthic Bacterial Communities, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (15), pp 8923–8930
Authors:
Bradley Drury, Loyola University Chicago
John Scott, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Emma Rosi-Marshall, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
John J. Kelly, Loyola University Chicago
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is a private, not-for-profit environmental research and education organization in Millbrook, N.Y. For thirty years, Cary Institute scientists have been investigating the complex interactions that govern the natural world. Their objective findings lead to more effective policy decisions and increased environmental literacy. Focal areas include air and water pollution, climate change, invasive species, and the ecological dimensions of infectious disease.
So, you get the point, it's bad stuff. Then there's this from almost a year ago: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=30926
Press release, 26 October 2012
Triclosan needs to be monitored
Leipzig. Researchers from Germany and Slovakia have pointed out that the chemical triclosan is one of those particularly harmful substances for the ecological status of rivers that are still not sufficiently monitored. With extensive monitoring conducted in the Elbe river basin that was more comprehensive than standard monitoring procedures, concentrations of the chemical at numerous test sites exceeded the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) for algal communities up to a factor of twelve. From the 500 river basin-specific pollutants investigated, triclosan (normally used as an anti-bacterial agent) ranked sixth as one of the most particularly harmful substances in Europe. It is therefore imperative to include this substance in routine monitoring programmes at the European scale, according to what researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Environmental Institute in Slovakia have written in the journal „Environmental Science Pollution Research“.
[…]
This chemical has been on the market since 1972 and it was not until 1998 that the first serious effects were discovered. Until now triclosan has been used as an antibacterial and antifungal agent in personal care products (e.g. toothpaste) and sportswear. Scientists were also very concerned about the fact that nowadays triclosan cannot only be detected in organisms living in wastewater but also in human plasma and in breast milk. Therefore, harmful effects extending beyond water organisms cannot be excluded.
Approximately 350 tons of triclosan were used in the European Union in 2005. However, it is still not monitored in many parts of Europe. " Substances that are not on the list of priority substances do not have to be monitored and substances that are not monitored are usually not included on the list, because too little is known about their environmental relevance", Dr. Peter von der Ohe from the UFZ portrays this dilemma. Within the EU-research project MODELKEY scientists have therefore been closely examining several hundred pollutants in different European river catchment areas and have come up with suggestions on how the monitoring of rivers for chemicals could be improved.
Tilo Arnhold
As always there's more info dotted around & in this case, it seems as though every year going back a fair bit from today, has been some other discoveries of a similar sort.