The Birds and The PCBs talks about....Birds and PCBs

When I started this blog, I didn't think I was going to literally be blogging about birds and PCBs. But apparently I wrong.

I now present you with a heartbreaking story of songbirds, toxic chemicals, and tainted love. Sigh.

Researchers have found that chickadees that are exposed to very small, allowable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can’t keep a tune as well as other birds. Like many bird species, in chickadees, the females go for males with the best songs. So, PCB-exposed birds might lose out on mates, says Sara DeLeon, an ecologist at Cornell University.

The Cornell scientists examined chickadees living along New York’s Hudson River, not far from a General Electric power plant that used PCB insulators from 1907 until the 1970s, dumping some 500,000 kilograms of the toxic chemical into the river. The US government ordered GE to clean the PCB-contaminated waters, one of the country’s largest waste cleanups. Even though current levels are below EPA's regulatory limits and thus deemed "safe," traces remain in many sites on the river, and are impacting wildlife in subtle ways

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of yucky chemicals that were banned in the 1970s for being persistent organic pollutants (POPs). They are found to bioaccumulate in people and animals. They also have subtle effects in human, such as influencing sex ratios.

While the lackluster love songs of the PCB-contaminated birds could be a warning to the female chickadees that their mates aren't healthy, this could pose some serious problems for bird populations. "[E]ven female choice against chemically tainted birds, as is the case with the Hudson River chickadees, can threaten local birds if males don’t seem a good mating prospect and females move elsewhere in search of untainted love, DeLeon says. 'Populations could end up declining and birds might not end up living there.'"

And there you have it. Heartbreak, heartache, and chickadees.

Source: New Scientist

Brief Love-Hate Relationship with EPA Reverts Back to Hate-Hate

Oh, EPA. On the same day that I praised you for doing something good, like banning a toxic pesticide, you have to go and screw it all up. The Washington Post reported yesterday that EPA instructed its staff members not to talk to reporters, congressional investigators, and even EPA's own enforcement officers. This is only the latest in a long history of EPA trying to suppress its staff members from speaking out against the agency.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a great government watchdog group, made the discovery through an EPA email they got a hold of. Senator Boxer (D-CA), head of the Senate environment committee and part-time superhero, said on Monday that EPA administrator Stephen Johnson had turned "the EPA into a secretive, dangerous ally of polluters, instead of a leader in the effort to protect the health and safety of the American people." Oh, Snap! Take that, EPA.