Tuesday, July 13, 2004
By Reuters
LONDON — British fish are changing sex due to sewage in rivers
that contains large amounts of female hormones, the U.K.'s
Environment Agency said recently.
In a report on the latest stage of 20 years of research,
it said that in a survey of 1,500 fish at 50 locations, one-third
of the males showed female characteristics.
The agency which monitors environmental pollution said the
sex changes were a result of the fish being exposed to treated
sewage which still contained hormones produced naturally by
women or as a result of them taking the contraceptive pill.
"There is sufficient evidence of harm to fish caused
by sewage effluent that action needs to be taken now to find
out how to control this," Andrew Skinner, director of
environmental protection at the agency, said in a statement.
"We need to find out what is the best and most cost-effective
way to remove these chemicals from sewage," he added.
It named the offending natural hormones as oestradiol and
oestrone, and the synthetic culprit as ethinyloestradiol.
It said the findings had serious implication for future fish
populations because anything more than a moderate change in
a fish's sexual organs made it more difficult to reproduce.
The Environment Agency noted that while the phenomenon was
being seen worldwide, Britain had the most comprehensive data
on it.
Source: Reuters
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