Hormone effects in men and fish subject of new UK study The United Kingdom has embarked on a $5 million research effort into the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on human males and fish. UK environment minister Michael Meacher, in announcing the project in April, said he was "very worried" by reports attributing declining sperm counts and quality, increases in testicular cancer in men, birth defects in baby boys, and adverse effects on fish to endocrine disruptors. "We need to find out whether the trends are real, and whether chemicals are to blame," he said. The research project is being launched amid growing international concern about the potential hormonal effects of commonly used chemicals. Last summer German environment minister Angela Merkel announced a research program to investigate causal relationships between chemical exposure and reproductive effects in animals. In May the European Chemical
Industry Council announced a $7 million research effort into the possible endocrine-disrupting effects of chemicals. A panel of experts from academic institutions and industry with observers from the European Commission and the World Health Organization will participate in setting research priorities. The new UK research plan has two components. One study, administered by the UK Department of Health, will look into the effects of occupation, environmental factors, and chemical exposure in the womb on male reproductive health. The other project, involving five different UK laboratories, will investigate effects on marine fish and crustaceans. This study expands on an agriculture ministry survey that found hormone effects in flounder—a species found around the British coast—aiming to isolate the substances causing endocrine disruption as well as their main sources. In a related development, the
UK's Chemical Industries Association in May rejected a recent proposal by regulators for precautionary action on chemicals suspected of disrupting human and animal hormonal systems {ES&T, March 1, 1998, p. 128A). In January, the Environment Agency of England and Wales issued a strongly worded warning that industry should consider whether the use of hormone-disrupting chemicals was necessary. According to the association, "the majority of recent scientific reports have failed to show any direct link between synthetic chemicals and endocrine disruption." It says the agency's call to discontinue use of suspect chemicals would "result in the withdrawal of chemical products on the basis of 'concern' rather than a firm causal link." —Reprinted with permission from ENDS Environment Daily, Environmental Data Services, Ltd., London (http://www.ends.co.uk, e-mail
[email protected])
Several states pass laws to regulate animal waste Responding to concerns about water pollution and odor, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, and Oklahoma passed laws this spring to control pollution from animal waste. These states are still searching, however, for new control technologies and have not resolved who will pay for them. The new state laws vary in stringency and include such features as licenses and permits for manure handlers, limits on where and when manure can be spread, farm inspections, groundwater monitoring, and a legal mechanism for neighbors to sue nuisance facilities. State legislation to control animal waste has picked up momentum, according to Larry Gearhardt, legislative council to the Ohio Farm Bureau, "because we want to avoid the environmental crises that have happened in other states." Maryland abandoned voluntary controls and passed the most comprehensive limit on farm fer-
tilizers in the nation in an effort to protect the Chesapeake Bay. The legislation mandates monitoring of farms, use of the enzyme phytase in chicken feed to increase phosphorus retention, and nutrient management plans that require farmers to limit amounts and timing of manure applications based on nitrogen and phosphorus content. Farmers who fail to develop or implement plans may be fined. Oklahoma passed the state's first comprehensive legislation on chicken feeding operations in May and is expected to expand regulations on hog operations passed last year, said Keith Smith of the Oklahoma Sierra Club. The poultry waste legislation sets a standard for nutrient concentrations in the soil and forbids manure application for soils at or above the standard. Smith said that one of the contentious issues for Oklahoma has
been deciding who will pay for new regulations and overhauling old lagoon systems. He said that environmentalists and independent farmers' unions would like to see fees assessed on the companies that own the animals rather than on the farmers who raise the animals. One thing that industry representatives and environmentalists agree on is that standards for manure management should be performance-based. The problem, said Dan Whittle, senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, is that "there is no consensus on how to get there and what the technology should be." He said that North Carolina's moratorium on industry expansion has spurred research on alternatives such as aerobic wastewater treatment and closed loop systems that use waste to grow duck weed which is fed to chickens as a substitute for soy meal. —JANET PELLEY
JULY 1, 1998 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 3 0 5 A
