Something weird is happening in our environment.
Reports are increasing of one-legged frogs with no eyes, genetically male fish with female reproductive organs, birds with grotesquely twisted beaks.
What’s going on?
To get some answers, three University of Calgary scientists have started what they believe is the first company in Canada, and perhaps in North America, focused on the problem.
The trio are Hamid Habibi, Siu Chan and Lasiteau Gedamu, all members of the university’s science faculty.
They’ve formed Endocrine Disruptors Analytical Laboratories Inc., a commercial venture working with the local university and the health surveillance branch of Alberta Health and Wellness.
The Calgary laboratory’s focus is to test for endocrine disruptors, chemical compounds that many scientists believe are causing or contributing to the disturbing effects seen in wildlife.
“There is a need for a facility that can reliably detect environmental endocrine disruptors in Canada,” says Habibi, professor of biological sciences at U of C whose research centres on reproduction and growth.
Scientists estimate there are about 87,000 chemicals in the environment that have the potential to interfere with the hormones that control development and reproduction, Habibi says.
In humans and wildlife alike, the extremely sensitive balance of androgen or estrogen during key times of development determines whether a fetus is male or female. “If there is an imbalance, it causes a sex reversal, hermaphrodism or abnormality in reproduction,” he explains.
Researchers in the United Kingdom first raised the alarm about endocrine disruptors 12 years ago. They discovered genetically male fish that had developed ovaries and whose bodies contained a protein that produces eggs in female fish. Since then, “there’s increasing evidence that humans and wildlife species have suffered adversely from exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors,” Habibi says.
Public health and environmental protection agencies in the U.S. and Europe are targeting research efforts on about 15,000 suspected endocrine disruptors. They include chemicals in plastics, detergents, pesticides, dioxins and PCBs.
One group of chemicals, called phthalates, is widely used in consumer products.
Diisononyl phthlate (DINP), a plasticizer, is added to plastics to make them soft and pliable. DINP and other phthalates are used in products that include children’s soothers and soft squeeze toys, shower curtains, medical devices such as tubing and intravenous bags, upholstery, raincoats and balls.
Studies in laboratory animals show another phthalate, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), can cause testicular atrophy, absent testes and reduced sperm count.
An initial investigation by the Environmental Working Group in the U.S. suggests that DBP is found in about one-third of the nail polishes on the market and a variety of other cosmetic products. The full report and a list of products are available at available at www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/beautysecrets/pr.html
According to a separate report, there are nearly 11 billion kilograms (24 billion pounds) of developmental and neurological toxins released into the U.S. environment each year.
The report, by the National Environmental Trust, the Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Learning Disabilities Association of America, estimates that one in every 200 American children — more than 360,000 — live with developmental or neurological disabilities caused by exposure to toxic substances. The full report is available at www.safekidsinfo.org.
Habibi, working with colleagues at the provincial health department’s Centre for Toxicology in Calgary, is developing biological and chemical methods to detect endocrine disruptors in human and animal tissue and cells, as well as water and soil samples. They use genetically engineered cells that, when exposed to the chemicals, produce a certain colour change or fluorescence.
The Calgary team is developing tests that can identify not only estrogen-like chemicals (the kind first seen in fish in the U.K.), but also other endocrine disruptors such as androgen and retinoic acid.
Such testing is expensive. But as government regulators move to limit people’s exposure to the chemicals, corporations that make products containing suspected endocrine disruptors have a lot at stake.
“If there’s a big company that really wants to identify them, this facility will be able to help them do that,” Habibi says. “Moreover, it can help them try to find a substitute (chemical) and monitor it in the future.”
Alberta Health and Wellness supports the initiative, says Dr. Stephan Gabos, the department’s director of health surveillance responsible for the province’s public laboratories. “Establishing the capacity (for surveillance) in the province, particularly in a leading-edge area such as the issue of endocrine disruptors, is very important.”
The Calgary initiative is also getting international attention. On the weekend, Habibi was scheduled to meet with U.S. agriculture department officials to discuss the local scientists’ participation in testing for endocrine disruptors in animal and water samples from Minnesota. Researchers are finding high numbers of deformities in amphibians in areas of the state.
The U of C trio has so far put its own money into developing the testing company. But as concern mounts over endocrine disruptors, “I believe our services will actually be quite desirable in a few years,” Habibi predicts.
