Environmental ▼ News Tracking national toxic exposure and illness
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than $325 billion a year in health care and lost productivity and accounts for 70% of deaths. The commission recommended an integrated national tracking system to rapidly detect and respond to U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
new national Environmental Health Tracking System, designed to link human hazards, exposure, and chronic disease data, is taking shape within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Next month, CDC plans to announce funding for 15 states that will share $17.5 million to build up monitoring capacity and develop pilot projects linking all three data types. Links between environmental exposure and disease have been made for certain substances, for example, lead’s link to impaired cognitive development for children, says Richard Jackson, director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. But for others, the link is less certain. The connection between environmental exposures and chronic diseases such as childhood cancers, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease are suspected but not proven. The hope is that the tracking system will help identify these links by providing resources so that state public health officials can monitor disease trends and exposure data and identify disease clusters or contamination hot spots. The system would require standardized tracking methods and improved collaboration among public health and environmental agencies and groups. Then, if possible, environmental policy makers could remove the hazards from the environment, says Jackson. Once in place, “the system will show the health of the nation,” adds Judy Qualters, acting chief for CDC’s newly created environmental health tracking branch, which oversees the system’s development. Last January, the Pew Environmental Health Commission released its report showing that chronic disease costs the U.S. economy more
CDC’s Richard Jackson hopes that information from the tracking system will nudge officials to remove from the environment, if possible, hazards leading to chronic diseases.
hazardous conditions, such as pesticide poisoning and acute disease outbreaks. Soon after, CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry developed a plan for the system. Proponents, including more than 80 health and environmental organizations, state health officers, government agencies, and both Republican and Democrats in Congress, also see the network as a key component in the nation’s war against terrorism. This fiscal year, Congress granted almost $1 billion for state programs to improve infectious disease reporting, increase hospital and laboratory capacity, and improve communication systems in case of an unexpected terrorist event. The environmental tracking system can build on most of these steps and add to increased preparedness for the nation, propo-
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nents say. “What we do to prepare for terrorist threats also should help us prevent the chronic diseases that are already killing millions of Americans every year,” says Shelley Hearne, executive director of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health. Through these first grants, CDC will fund state programs on two levels. The states that lack registries, or systems tracking diseases, releases, or exposure, will build them, says Qualters. Other states will improve existing systems and develop pilot projects to link data and demonstrate how these pilot systems can be used to help plan public health actions. The system will also identify research needs and measure the effectiveness of regulatory strategies, Jackson says. To track hazards, specialists will measure the concentration and geographic and temporal distribution of toxic chemicals, biomechanical stressors, and other factors in the environment. Human exposure to contaminants will be assessed, including exposure to subgroups such as the elderly. The strategy involves monitoring disease and trends in health risk behaviors within populations using vital statistics, health surveys, and disease registries. In addition, supporters urge CDC officials to build on programs already in place run by local, state, and federal officials, including registries that track asthma cases, birth defects, developmental disorders such as mental retardation, and neurological diseases. These registries can be improved, they add. For example, several states track cancer cases but don’t include where the individual lived and when the disease was diagnosed. “We need to make sure that, across the board, from California to New © 2002 American Chemical Society
York, we are looking at comparable, consistent, data,” says Amy Goffe, spokesperson for Trust for America’s Health. However, integrating health outcome data with exposure and hazard data “is a tremendous undertaking,” says Ed Thompson, health officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health. State health departments, long underfunded, lack lab capacity and experienced chronic disease and environmental epidemiologists. As a result, states will need funding, he says. The Pew Commission estimates that a fully operational system would need $275 million annually, equal to less than $1 for each citizen. Proponents are requesting $100 million for CDC in the next fiscal year. Bipartisan bills in the House
Government Watch
and the Senate would authorize long-term funding. The system does have its critics. The chemical industry trade group American Chemistry Council (ACC) broadly supports a tracking network, but officials there say they want assurance that the definition of environmental factors will go beyond chemical exposures. “You can’t just lay TRI [EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory] data, for example, across an area that has more than its share of a disease and make the link that the chemical releases caused the problem,” an ACC spokesperson says. The group hopes the CDC will consider factors such as biology, behavior, and demographics before linking environmental exposure and hazards to a disease. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
Russian decision critical to climate treaty
Fish rapidly eliminate endocrine-disrupting alkylphenols ronmental contaminants formed during sewage treatment by the degradation of alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants. They are also used in pesticide formulations and as plasticizers and antioxidants. Because alkylphenols tend to degrade rapidly in aquatic environments, fish are exposed to varying concentrations of the contaminants. Previous studies have shown that mammals can readily metabolize alkylphenols, but this is the first time anyone has investigated whether the compounds persist in fish. Nonylphenols are found more often and at higher levels in the environment than other alkylphenols, but with more than 20 isomers, the
Although the cyprinid fish, or rudd, accumulates alkylphenols in its tissues, researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom have found that the contaminants rapidly disappear when the fish is placed in clean water.
RAGNOR PEDERSEN, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSSEX
As it meanders down the river past a wastewater discharge pipe, a fish is exposed to a host of chemical contaminants, some of which collect in its tissues. If the fish then swims to clean water, some of those contaminants, notably endocrinedisrupting alkylphenols, may rapidly disappear, suggest new findings published in this issue of ES&T (pp. 3275–3283). The study, conducted by Elizabeth Hill and Ragnor Pedersen at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, is the most comprehensive examination yet of the uptake and metabolism of alkylphenols in fish. These estrogenic compounds are ubiquitous envi-
Following ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the European Union (EU) member countries and Japan, world attention is now focused on whether the Russian government will ratify the international climate change treaty. If Russia ratifies the treaty, U.S. participation is not required for it to enter into force. Participants hope the Kyoto Protocol will be fully ratified by the World Summit on Sustainable Development scheduled for August. Prevailing opinion is that the Russian government will ratify the treaty by the end of the year, according to Jacqueline Karas of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. However, much will depend on diplomatic pressure and whether other countries ratify it. “The momentum is there, but Russia knows that its decision is critical. It’s using this as a bargaining tool, seeking offers to pay off its debts or reduce loan payments,” Karas says. Without the United States on board with the Kyoto Protocol, financial incentives for Russia are greatly reduced, Karas adds. Russian officials had hoped to sell the country’s “spare” emission credits—its emissions are less than its allocation under the Kyoto Protocol—to the United States, but now the demand will be far less, she says. The EU and its 15 member states ratified the protocol in late May and the Japanese Cabinet did the same in early June. Approval by these two countries means that ratifying countries account for 36% of global greenhouse gas emissions. For the protocol to take effect, industrialized countries responsible for 55% of 1990 emissions must ratify it. Last year, President Bush announced that the United States was opting out of the protocol.
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Although the findings appear to be good news, some researchers have their doubts. “Just because a chemical has a short half-life does not mean that it is of little or no concern,” says John Sumpter, an ecotoxicologist at Brunel University in the United Kingdom. “Estradiol has a half-life in fish of about 15 minutes, yet it is an extremely active chemical and certainly causes plenty of effects,” he adds. In addition, the chances of a fish finding clean water are pretty slim, he says. “Effluents containing alkylphenols are constantly entering rivers, and therefore fish are constantly being exposed.”
Nonetheless, if technologies were installed to remove alkylphenols from sewage treatment effluents, levels of these contaminants in fish like the rudd would be undetectable in a matter of days. According to the Alkylphenols & Ethoxylates Research Council, a North American industry group, such technologies have already been installed in most wastewater treatment facilities. The group claims that finding alkylphenols in aquatic environments is an indication of overloaded and/or poorly functioning sewage treatment plants. —BRITT E. ERICKSON
China’s pollution progress slows Despite improvements in controlling emissions from burning coal, the “overall environmental situation in China is still grave,” states the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration’s (SEPA’s) annual national environment report for 2001. The report states that water pollution in the country’s seven major
ume drops that exacerbated pollution. The quality of 46% of the country’s offshore waters was rated as poor or worse, with the most problems in the East China and Bohai Seas. Urban air quality changed very little with air failing to meet the national standard in 67% of 341 monitored cities. However, total THE ENERGY FOUNDATION
metabolism of nonylphenols is quite complicated. As a result, the researchers used 4-tert-octylphenol (tOP) as the model compound. “In the environment, octylphenol is usually present as only one isomer,” Hill says. Cyprinid fish have been shown to be severely affected by estrogenic pollution in several European rivers. The researchers exposed rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), a common cyprinid fish, to low microgram-per-liter levels of radioactively labeled tOP for 10 days. They found tOP residues in muscle, ovary, and testis tissues, with the highest levels in testis. In blood, gill, kidney, liver, and bile, however, they found extensively metabolized tOP residues. In bile, they identified 10 major metabolites of tOP, which suggests that the amount of alkylphenols in this particular fish would be underestimated if liver and bile alone were monitored for contamination, unless metabolites were measured along with the alkylphenol residues. “Bile is often used as a fluid to monitor for PAH [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon] contamination. It would be difficult [to monitor bile] for alkylphenols because of this extensive metabolism,” Hill says. In general, other fish, such as rainbow trout and salmon, appear to have a much simpler type of metabolism. “There are enormous species differences in how these compounds are processed in fish,” she adds. To investigate the persistence of tOP in the cyprinid tissues, the researchers placed the exposed fish in clean water for up to 10 days. They saw rapid loss of tOP, with half-lives between 0.7 and 1 day for muscle, testis, ovary, gill, blood, and kidney; 1.7 days for liver; and 5.9 days for bile. The findings suggest that “once the fish moves to clean water or away from the source of the effluent, these things should disappear pretty fast,” Hill says. If alkylphenols are found in muscle, which is commonly used as a marker tissue for alkylphenol contamination, the fish probably has been very recently exposed, she says.
The air quality in 67% of China's largest cities failed to meet national standards in 2001. This picture shows Beijing on a particularly bad day in April 2002.
river systems worsened since 2000. Problems were most severe in the Yellow, Liao, and Huai River basins, all of which run through the northern part of the country, where the country’s worst drought in more than a decade resulted in water vol-
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suspended particulate pollution became more widespread. The relatively stable air quality numbers posted for 2001 are notable because China posted “fairly impressive declines” in sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions, at least in
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Bureau announced in June that the city is planning to combat pollution by implementing tighter automobile standards in January 2003, a year ahead of the national schedule. Beijing will host the Olympic Games in 2008. The diplomat stressed that China does not yet regularly monitor and report some important classes of pollutants, including volatile organic compounds and air toxics. When the report was issued, Zhu Jianqiu, a SEPA vice-minister, called attention to the country’s increasing desertification problem. Zhu said that China’s deserts and desertified areas cover 2.42 million square kilometers (km2), with an annual expansion of more than 3000 km2. More than 90% of usable natural grasslands in China, a total area of 135 million hectares, suffered varying degrees of degradation last year, he explained. A report by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Inner Mongolia, which is an area hard hit by desertification, says that overgrazing and unsustainable cultivation are partly to blame. Details about the report are available at SEPA’s Web site: www. zhb.gov.cn/english. —KELLYN S. BETTS
Following toxics
U.S. rule could increase e-waste exports Most CRTs contain several pounds of lead to protect users from the X-rays generated by the STENA-TECHNOWORLD AB
A U.S. EPA rule aimed at increasing recycling and reuse of the rapidly growing glut of old computers and television sets could open the door to more exports of hazardous electronic waste (e-waste) to developing countries, environmentalists say. Meanwhile, European Union countries, party to the Basel Convention governing transboundary shipments of toxic waste, have banned the export of hazardous waste—including cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and circuit boards—to developing countries, says Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, an environmental organization. The United States has yet to ratify this U.N. treaty (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2000, 34, 300A–305A).
EU countries are recycling, rather than exporting, e-waste.
tube. EPA estimates that more than 250 million computers will be retired over the next five years in the United States alone.
The U.S. EPA’s annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) includes for the first time data on releases of certain persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, including dioxins, mercury, and PCBs. The report notes that releases of toxic chemicals—other than these new PBTs—into the environment decreased by about 9%, from 7.8 billion pounds in 1999 to 7.1 billion pounds in 2000. The decline continues a downward trend of overall releases in the United States, illustrated by a 48% drop in releases since TRI’s first report of 1988 data. EPA’s TRI reports that PBT chemicals accounted for 12.1 million pounds of total U.S. releases in 2000, both on-site and off-site. Of that, 18% went into the air, and 44% was released onto the land in landfills, surface impoundments, or other land treatment. Approximately 220 pounds of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds were reported as releases, and over half, or 54%, of that was sent off site. A five-year analysis of pollution releases and management by the international Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), formed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, however, reports that the decline may mask a corresponding increase in chemicals transferred off site for disposal, either to waste management companies or into landfills. The North American manufacturing sector’s 25% reduction in releases to air was largely offset by the same increase in releases to land on site, and a 35% increase in off-site releases, mostly to landfills, according to the CEC report Taking Stock. EPA’s TRI report can be found at www.epa.gov/tri, and CEC’s analysis at www.cec.org/takingstock.
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major cities, during the previous four to five years, notes a Beijingbased Western diplomat. The latest report “may indicate that further improvements are getting harder to come by, or that polluters have relaxed a bit following the high-profile campaign at the end of 2000 to meet the environmental targets of the Ninth Five-Year Plan,” he explains. It also hints that there was “backsliding” in some areas, he adds. It’s hard to pinpoint the source of these negative trends, says the diplomat, explaining that the weather may be partially responsible, notably a sharp increase in dust storms hitting cities in North China in 2000. Poor land management practices may have exacerbated the dust problem, according to WorldWatch, an environmental group. China has managed to bring some sources of pollution, particularly coal smoke from power plants and industrial boilers, fairly well under control in areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, the diplomat adds. Because motor vehicle use is rising rapidly, however, new forms of pollution are taking their place, he adds. Although the Chinese government has not acknowledged the link between continued urban pollution and automobiles, Beijing’s City Environmental Protection
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Environmental ▼ News The rule, proposed in mid-June, reclassifies the CRTs in computer monitors and television screens from “hazardous waste” to “products”, if they are to be reused or recycled. Those destined for landfill disposal would continue to be regulated under EPA’s strict hazardous waste management regulations. Currently, CRTs are considered hazardous waste, regardless of whether they are recycled or landfilled. However, the new rule would not ban waste exports to developing countries, and the higher recovery rates that the rule would likely generate means that more waste will be processed in countries like China, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, where environmental stan-
dards are much lower than in the United States, Puckett says. “Diverting e-waste from landfills to rice paddies isn’t a solution at all.” EPA acknowledges in the proposed rule that increased exports are a concern and is seeking comment on how to address this issue in the final regulation. The agency is limited, however, in what it can do legally to hinder such exports, says EPA’s Marilyn Goode. “We don’t have the authority to treat exports differently from things that are recycled domestically,” she notes. Moreover, “the recycling market depends on exports, and we want to encourage that even though we know some of the countries involved need
to have better controls in place.” Possible remedies include working with countries to develop better recycling controls on an advisory basis, as well as making sure that parts are not being disposed of illegally. Europe is taking a more proactive stance. Legislation currently under debate in the European Parliament and European Commission would impose further restrictions on using hazardous substances, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and halogenated flame retardants in the manufacturing of electronic equipment, and require producers to take back their equipment free of charge once it reaches the end of its useful life. —KRIS CHRISTEN
Mercury contamination may promote bacterial resistance to antibiotics and heavy metals, according to research presented at the American Society of Microbiology meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, in May. Because microorganisms easily transfer genetic material, linked traits such as antibiotic and mercury resistance could pass from bacteria in plants and animals to human Resistant Gram-positive (red) and Gram-negative pathogens. (green) bacteria were isolated from the intestines Mercury contamination is a of lake trout. worldwide problem, according to a recent United Nations Environmental Programme report, which gy professors, respectively, at Colby cites evidence of long-range transCollege in Waterville, Maine, their port from nonpoint sources and undergraduate students, and Ruscontamination in soil and animals. sell Danner, a fish pathologist at The new study isolated the resistant the Maine Department of Inland bacteria from soil and fish collected Fisheries and Wildlife, isolated in Maine. According to the Mercury the bacteria from 6-year-old hatchDeposition Network, a nationwide ery lake trout and four soil sites program that tracks mercury in prethroughout the state of Maine. In cipitation, Maine rainwater contains laboratory tests, a spectrum of bacapproximately 7 parts per trillion of teria with Gram-negative and mercury, and studies at the UniverGram-positive strains was resistant sity of Maine–Orono have found to mercury at concentrations up local soil concentrations ranging to 20 parts per million, and some from 26 to 300 parts per billion. showed resistance to 14 of the Eastern parts of North America, 22 tested antibiotics, including like Maine, suffer disproportionclasses of penicillins, cephaloately from power plant emissions. sporins, macrolides, quinolones, Frank Fekete and Keith Johnson, and aminoglycosides. All 11 fish microbiology and molecular bioloisolates, taken from the gut, also 310 A
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Mercury pollution may contribute to antibiotic resistance showed additional resistance to parts-per-million levels of lead(II) and arsenic(III). Bacteria continually adapt to changing toxins in the environment, says Fekete. Although bacteria may use more than one strategy to detoxify mercury, Fekete explains that one mechanism involves a reductase enzyme that converts mercury(II) into volatile elemental mercury, which freely passes out of the cell membrane and “thereby, the microorganism eludes the toxic effects of mercury.” MerA, the gene that encodes for reductase, is also genetically linked with certain genes for antibiotic resistance, says Johnson. Therefore, as the surviving bacteria transfer genetic material for mercury resistance to other bacteria, antibiotic resistance is passed as part of the package. Fekete says “if anything comes out of this [work], we would hope the [mercury] emissions controls and regulations are addressed.” Gary King, a microbiologist at the University of Maine, whose work includes how microbes affect humans worldwide, believes that the resistance link is “the kind of observation that is significant when you put a few perspectives together.” If other metal resistances are
tion [as the dental studies] or at least the same proportion of mercury-resistant bacteria.” The researchers speculate that the newly found soil and fish bacteria have acquired their resistance rather than have it in their original genetic material, but confirmation studies are under way. Microbiologists know that it is possible for particular bacterial groups to inherently resist a specific antibiotic, but some strains develop or acquire resistance from exposure. Researchers from other academic institutions plan collaborations to study the bacterial effects of point source mercury accumulations in lake system sediments. —RACHEL PETKEWICH
2002 green chemistry awards The seventh annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge awards presented in Washington, D.C., on June 24 target some high-profile products and environmental problems. One of the awards honors a less-polluting approach for producing the antidepression drug Zoloft, and one acclaims a method for making fabric and packaging materials. Two award recipients replace toxic solvents with benign CO2, and the last award recognizes a replacement for chromated copper arsenate (CCA) wood preservatives. Perhaps just as important, green chemistry itself earned exceptional praise at the event. “Leaders in industry, academia, and government must work in partnership to use the principles of green chemistry to achieve clean water, land, and clear skies,” said a letter by President George W. Bush read at the ceremony by John Marburger, director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Green chemistry provides an unparalleled opportunity to change the way we operate within the chemical enterprise,” added Eli Pearce, president of the American Chemical Society, a sponsor of the award. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.’s alternative method for producing Zoloft will have a huge impact because it is the most prescribed anti-
depressant, with more than 115 million prescriptions written in the United States alone as of February 2000. The new approach eliminates the use of 140 metric tons of titanium tetrachloride, 150 metric tons of hydrochloric acid, and 100 metric tons of sodium hydroxide each year, as well as eradicating the production of 440 metric tons of solid titanium dioxide waste and reducing energy and water use. The new method for creating fabric fibers and packaging materials devised by Cargill–Dow LLC relies solely on renewable resources. The Nature Works polylactic acid family of polymers produces fibers touted as bridging “the gap in performance between conventional synthetic fibers and natural fibers such as silk, wool, and cotton.” One of the technologies that uses CO2 as a replacement solvent targets a specific process in the semiconductor industry, whereas the second is much more general. The Supercritical CO2 Resist Remover (SCORR) developed by SC Fluids, Inc., a small business, decreases the use of hazardous solvents by 95−99% in the photolithography process used to produce semiconducting computer chips. Eric Beckman of the University of Pittsburgh earned an academic award for his design of “poly ether carbonates”, which can be
Government Watch Taiwan scales back waste burning policy The passage in June of a new law to promote domestic recycling continues a trend that conflicts with Taiwan’s burn-oriented waste management policy. In March, that policy was reversed for the first time, when Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials announced that four incinerator projects would be abandoned for good. Because of the unexpected success of its recycling programs, there isn’t enough garbage to burn in the country’s incinerators (Environ. Sci. Technol., 2002, 36, 126A). On the basis of EPA’s original estimates, Taiwan’s 36 incinerators would have been capable of burning 30,400 tons of municipal solid waste per day by the end of 2003. The revised policy decreases the total capacity for treating waste by 3250 tons/ day. These statistics convinced EPA officials that it was unnecessary to build the four incinerators, says Lungbin Hau, EPA administrator. The change in policy, however, didn’t satisfy anti-incinerator activists. “The capacity of all incinerators in Taiwan is still far beyond what we need,” said Hsinju Chang, an activist of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance’s waste policy committee. “Don’t forget that last year Taiwan generated only 20,000 tons of household waste per day.” The activists attacked EPA’s plans to burn nonhazardous industrial waste in incinerators designed for household waste, saying the practice has been frequently abused. No regulatory rules were established for the burning of a mixture of industrial and household waste. The Taiwan EPA is seeking 155 million New Taiwan dollars (U.S. $4.5 million) to carry out projects pertaining to incinerators in 2003.
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also genetically linked and pass between bacteria, he fears that dealing with antibiotic resistance may be a bigger problem than initially anticipated. Correlations between mercury and bacteria emerged three years ago at Colby when a student was investigating mercury-resistant bacteria in human mouths due to exposure to amalgam dental fillings. The research took a twist toward the environment after Fekete read a local newspaper account of nonpoint source mercury pollution in Maine. Fekete and his colleagues “didn’t think that the concentrations in the environment would be sufficient [to] see the same correla-
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Environmental ▼ News used to generate materials such as surfactants and are notable for not containing fluorine. Beckman’s discovery “can greatly increase the use of CO2 as a solvent,” according to the award committee.
The alternative method for preserving wood was developed by Chemical Specialties, Inc., a division of Rockwood Specialties. Rather than the toxic chromium (VI) and arsenic used in
conventional CCA wood treatments, the company’s ACQ Preserve uses copper derived from recycled scrap metal and an ammonium compound. KELLYN S. BETTS
Baltics blame Russia for high risk of toxic blooms The Baltic Sea could be plagued by record blooms of toxic blue green algae, or cyanobacteria, this summer, predict scientists at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland’s national environmental research and development center. If this summer’s forecasts for high temperatures hold true, “there seems to be an inevitable massive cyanobacteria bloom coming,” says Juha Sarkkula, a senior research scientist at SYKE. SYKE’s models show that vast swaths of the Baltic, particularly in the sensitive Gulf of Finland and in the southern parts of the sea near Germany and Poland, are at high risk for cyanobacteria, says Mikko Kiirikki, the SYKE scientist who calculated this year’s risk. The toxic algae could be as pervasive—or even more so—as they were in 1997, the worst year on record. 1999 also saw massive cyanobacteria blooms, Kiirikki notes. The blooms could leave much of the sea turbid and oxygen-deprived, Sarkkula says. The toxic algae cause skin rashes and vomiting and have been known to kill dogs and cows. “The aesthetic impact at the shores is rather awful,” he adds. Russia is a major culprit behind the high nutrient loads that lead to the Baltic Sea’s cyanobacteria blooms, Sarkkula says. “Russia generates 70–80% of the pollution, especially phosphorus and nitrogen, in the Gulf of Finland,” he says, noting that onethird of St. Petersburg’s wastewater is dumped into the Baltic without any treatment. Denmark, Finland, and Sweden have agreed to loan Russia the funds to build a wastewater treatment plant that would help ameliorate the problem, but they are waiting for the Russian Ministry of
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Finance to sign the papers, says Martti Poutanen of Finland’s Ministry of Environment. “Russia has an impact on the whole Baltic Sea, especially when looking at cyanobacteria blooms, which have become more frequent and more toxic,” Sarkkula says. He fears that the situation may become worse in the next few years because Russia is beginning to rebound from its economic collapse and has vowed to reopen old, polluting factories. The prevalence of cyanobacteria is tied to the phosphorus-to-nitrogen ratio, explains Andris Andrusaitis, director of Latvia’s Institute of Aquatic Ecology. The Baltic’s open sea areas are typically nitrogen limited and that gives the advantage to the cyanobacteria, which can take up unlimited amounts of airborne nitrogen when the temperature rises above 16 °C, Sarkkula adds. This ability effectively makes phosphorus the limiting nutrient for the bacteria, Kiirikki says. One of the reasons the risk for cyanobacteria blooms is so high this year is that large areas of the Baltic have excess phosphate, in part due to an anoxic episode from last summer, Sarkkula says. Ironically, Sarkkula says that once St. Petersburg’s drinking water supply improves, its untreated wastewater is likely to become even more polluted. At present, he explains, the city’s citizens run their taps for an average of 15 minutes before the water clears enough to be usable for food preparation. The end result of this high water consumption—which he says sometimes reaches 500 liters/ day per capita—is a more dilute wastewater stream, he says. —KELLYN S. BETTS
